Chenrezig's Ring of Fire w/ Lama Rod Owens

Chenrezig is the Bodhisattva of love and compassion and has been considered the principal deity in Tibetan Buddhism to awaken deep love for self and others. Chenrezig’s Ring of Fire is profound new system of practice which centers a connection between the path of awakening love to disrupting systems of personal and collective violence. The practice embraces traditional expressions of pranayama, chanting, visualization, movement, mudra, fire prayer, and feast offering while reframing them in a more contemporary and inclusive system. The practice emerges out of the New Saint tradition which is itself a re-articulation of the profound path of the Bodhisattva, reframing the essential labor of self and collective liberation as being both a social and ultimate project informed by indigenous tantric practices connected to the land we are living and practicing on.
 

Friday

The opening talk, which will be publicly broadcast online via Zoom, will take place from 7-9 pm. Here is the eventbrite link for that: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/love-in-the-apocalypse-w-lama-rod-owens-tickets-384963735897

Saturday

Setup for the weekend event will begin at 9 am at Cityspace. The address is:

43 Main St., Easthampton, MA, 01027

If you're up for helping out with set up, please feel free to join us then! Otherwise, the event will begin at 10 am.

If you're a coffee drinker, I recommend stopping by Shelburne Falls Coffee Roasters, around the corner and down the street about a block on Union St., or Tandem Bagel Company, a little farther down the road, which also has very good bagels. Silver Spoon is also a good breakfast spot if you want to do a sit-down meal beforehand.

We will take a spacious lunch break from 1-3 pm on Saturday. There are a handful of good restaurants within a couple of blocks, and more if you're up for a longer walk or short drive. There's also a grocery store across the street, and you'll be welcome to eat in the space or in the park across the street during the break.

Practice in the Easthampton space will wrap up around 5 pm. Those who would like to are invited to join us for an evening fire puja ceremony at the home of one of the participants. Their house is in Shutesbury, which is about a 40-minute drive from the event space in Easthampton. We will figure out carpooling at that time, to ensure that everyone who would like to go has a ride there and to wherever they will be sleeping that night.

Sunday

We'll open the space for set-up at 9:30, with an intention to begin again at 10 am. 

We will take a shorter lunch break from 12-1 pm, then close with a ganachakra feast celebration (save room for dessert!) from 1-2 pm or so. After that, folks are welcome to get going right away or to hang out in the space for as long as you'd like. We'll also need to clean up at that point and return the space to the way we found it on Saturday morning, so any help with that will be most welcome.

We are taking all of the steps that we can to minimize the risk of COVID transmission at the event. We request that everyone take a rapid antigen test before they arrive in the space and verbally confirm that you've received a negative result when you arrive on Saturday. We have an air purifier that will be running in the space as well as an expectation that folks will be wearing well-fitting masks throughout the weekend. The space is large, with a standing capacity of 175, and we will only be about 20 people, so there will be plenty of room to keep our distance inside, as well.

There will be folding chairs, a few folding tables, sound equipment, wifi access, and lots of space on the venue's large hardwood floor. Because this is a rather bare-bones retreat container, we invite you to bring anything that will support you in your practice for the weekend, especially as it pertains to your posture. Your favorite meditation cushion, blankets to lie down on, etc. will become good friends this weekend!

Also, please bring a water bottle so that it's easy to drink plenty of fluids throughout the weekend.