Meditation Retreat Three | Inner Fire (Tummo) & Mixing Practices of Tibetan Bön Dzogchen

The Tibetan Bön model of Dzogchen presented in this retreat provides a comprehensive introduction into (a) the Inner Fire (Tummo) practice of the inner channels and the chakras and (b) taking stainless primordial wisdom as the path (Mixing practice) as outlined in the Tibetan Bön Dzogchen tradition. In this retreat, students will be presented with a detailed set of Dzogchen instructions designed to clear energetic obscurations of the body in order to increase the clarity and luminosity of awakened mind and develop skills to regulate energy flow. Instructions designed to introduce practice ‘beyond the cushion’ will also be presented.

These practices build on the foundations developed in Retreat Two: Core Practices of Tibetan Bön Dzogchen designed to refine and stabilise concentration without external or internal support.

The intention of Inner Fire (Tummo) practice is to clear physiological blockages that interfere with clarity of Mind, the goal of Bön practice.  By intending the mind on the energy channels, chakras and winds, a clearer alignment between mind and body is established.  This is an advanced energy practice and requires students to be suitably prepared to receive the full benefit. Students should have familiarity and an established practice in the Core Practices of Dzogchen (Trekchö) as well as in the Preliminary and Concentration Practices presented in Retreat One and Retreat Two.  

Progressively advanced, the objective of mixing practice is to engage all activities of the three gates (body, speech and mind) while maintaining continuous, uninterrupted awakened awareness. Beginning with minor movements of the physical body, session (seated) or formal meditation is carefully ‘mixed’ with movements of progressively increasing difficulty. This serves as a support to strengthen and expand capacity to maintain lucidity whilst engaging in daily tasks. Speech is subsequently integrated followed by integration of all states of mind into awareness. When done correctly, such practice serves to bring all activities of the body, speech and mind as cause and conditions for realisation resulting in a continuous “automatic state of skilled practice.”

It should be noted that Core Practices of Dzogchen (Trekchö) serve as the foundation designed to cut through mental obscurations and set up the conditions for realisation of the nature of the mind as being pointed out. It is this capacity to rest the mind, concentrated in non-dual awareness, that serves as an important foundation for Inner Fire (Tummo) and mixing to avoid approaching these practices from a conceptual view which invites a subject-object differentiation. It is intended for these practices to be the experience of a singular living system.

This retreat shares a complete set of teachings from the A Khrid (Atri) Lineage of Tibetan Bön Dzogchen; a one-thousand-year-old compendium of the middle path to liberation in Bön. This text is the gateway to a series of expanded texts that refine the skills that ultimately lead to full awareness of mind.

Chapters 8 & 10 is covered from the text: ‘The Pith Instructions for the Stages of the Practice Sessions of the A-Tri (A Khrid) System of Bön Dzogchen Meditation’.

Book 8 is covered from the text: ‘Self-Arising Three-fold Embodiment of Enlightenment of Bön Dzogchen Meditation’. This text is a very extensive commentary on the A Khrid Bön Great Completion practice of the Bru rGyal ba tradition.

These texts are available for purchase here and will be available for pick up at the commencement of the next retreat.