TSK Intensive Retreat
A New Vision of Reality – a TSK Intensive Retreat
August 13 – 17th
We all face tensions, anxieties, and disappointments. We have learned to think of such conditions as a private matter, perhaps brought on by childhood traumas or triggered by the stress of our daily lives.
The TSK vision invites us to see things differently. It suggests that the pressures and frustrations we face are rooted in how we understand our existence in space and time, and in the limits on our ways of knowing that this understanding produces.
At present, we live in a world where our options have been set out in advance. We rely on fixed identities, solid objects, and pre-established patterns. Moving from the inaccessible past into a future shaped by our own needs and longings, we have to cope with a world frozen into fixed structures. Filled with the sense that something fundamental is missing but not knowing what else to do, we fall victim to confusion and disappointment.
The TSK vision lays the foundation for a fundamental shift. We don’t have to settle for the role of a consumer choosing from a limited range of options. We can draw on time’s dynamic and the freedom that space allows to enter a different world, a world we can inhabit with joy and an ongoing sense of adventure. That is the framework within which this program will unfold.
If you want to get a taste for what a life lived in this way might be like, here is a simple, informal practice to try out from time to time over the next weeks and months:
The Unnameable
As you go about your day, ask yourself what is happening in your immediate experience that you can’t give a name to. Don’t focus on the things you see and hear, or the memories and plans your mind drifts off to, or even the emotions and reactions that shape how you feel. Look for something more fundamental. You might call it the ‘quality’ of your experience, like the quality of a work of art that makes you love it.
This practice will probably make more sense as you remember to do it now and then over time. Gradually something will begin to shift. Don’t expect anything special, but do be open for experience to expand. If you like, share what you discover on the CCI website in the TSK discussion area [give link here].
The upcoming intensive is especially designed for participants in the online TSK program, but anyone interested in fundamental change—change that does not depend on the self—can benefit from attending. We hope you can join us at Ratna Ling in August!
Price: $550 (includes meals and lodging)
