Ep205: My 49 Day Dark Retreat - Justin Von Bujdoss 2
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- čas přidán 5. 06. 2024
- In this episode I am once joined by Justin Von Bujdoss, American Buddhist teacher, chaplain, and author of ‘Modern Tantric Buddhism’.
Justin describes his powerfully transformative dark retreat practice in which he embarked on multiple 7-day and 49-day meditation retreats in complete darkness under the guidance of Dr Nida Chenagtsang.
Justin recalls his life-changing encounter with the rarefied religious experience of rigpa, and details his visions of spiritual beings, animals, elements, and Bardo deities.
Justin recounts his first meeting with Dr Nida, how he became his student, and explains the significance of Dr Nida’s endorsement of Justin as both a Dzogchen teacher and dark retreat guide.
Justin also reveals the daily routine and practice instructions for dark retreat, and reflects on current trends within Buddhism and nonduality in America today.
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www.guruviking.com/podcast/ep...
Also available on CZcams, iTunes, & Spotify - search ‘Guru Viking Podcast’.
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Topics Include:
00:00 - Intro
01:07 - Justin’s personal practice revolution
02:27 - Meeting Dr Nida Chenagtsang and showing him a secret text
06:10 - Dr Nida’s qualities as a teacher
08:00 - Justin’s 25 years of Mahamudra practice
08:18 - Preparing to enter dark retreat
08:56 - The impact of multiple 7 and 49-day retreats
13:35 - 7-day preparatory dark retreat
15:03 - Intense visionary experiences and risk of psychosis
18:38 - Dr Nida’s dark retreat terma
20:48 - Justin’s previous experience with dream yoga and visions
22:57 - Dark retreat instructions and opening visionary capacity
27:48 - Undermining the visual system binary
24:37 - Justin’s visions of the Bardo deities
27:46 - Contradictions in Mahamudra and forcing it
31:38 - Daily routine and practice schedule in dark retreat
36:38 - No contact with Dr Nida during the retreat
38:45 - Visions of the purified elements
42:00 - Visions of animals and dead people
42:59 - Visions of beings who offered gifts to Justin
43:30 - Did Justin relive his traumas?
45:22 - Quitting prison chaplaincy
47:50 - How chaplaincy falls short of resting in rigpa
50:56 - Profound healing opportunity of dark retreat
54:50 - Rigpa supersedes Justin’s ordination
56:18 - The totality of everything occurs right here
59:54 - Endorsed by Dr Nida to teach Dzogchen
01:04:10 - Justin’s special karmic connection with Dr Nida and other tulkus
01:07:00 - Justin’s loss of social functionality post-awakening
01:09:25 - How Justin’s teacher punctured his ego
01:12:54 - Struggles with students who are fixated on tantra
01:16:42 - Student retention and abusive teaching methods
01:18:18 - Where is Buddhism going in America?
01:19:13 - Is Tibetan Buddhism trendy?
01:23:08 - Dark retreat as liberating psychotherapy
01:25:45 - Dark retreat as the ultimate experience product for psychonauts
01:27:30 - Assessing those who wish to embark upon dark retreat
01:31:22 - Where to find out more
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Previous episode with Justin Von Bujdoss:
- www.guruviking.com/podcast/ep...
Previous episodes with Dr Nida Chenagtsang:
- www.guruviking.com/search?q=nida
To find our more about Justin Von Bujdoss, visit:
- justinvonbujdoss.com/
- www.yangtiyoga.com/
For more interviews, videos, and more visit:
- www.guruviking.com
Music ‘Deva Dasi’ by Steve James - Zábava
Nice discussion with Lama Justin on dark retreat. Having done a 17 night dark retreat I appreciated understanding illusory nature. The whole point in this sensory deprivation experience is to totally relax, a radical relaxation of one's body, energy, and mind.
I performed a 7 day, 6 night dark retreat March 9 - March 16, 2024 -- not long ago. I certainly saw a lot of things, and learned a great deal. What I wasn't prepared for, was the level of fear that I would feel: Starting Tuesday, and really grappling with it on that day and the next, and then having a pretty high (but managable) level of fear the remainder of my time -- that, I wasn't prepared for. "Even your emotions have an echo, in so much space."
looking forward to dr. Nyida and Justin conversation here on guru viking podcast-great!
I believed and if you really practice, it's come true, Padmasambhāva.
Terrific interview. This Lama is an admirable teacher, human being and American New Yorker!
I'm enjoying this inmensely because i grew up in an environment where i was expressing myself differently from the rest and was thrown from the classroom even from fam expections because of this. And i have been always in search of these type of retreats.
Somehow Justin comes across as one of most the sweetest, compassionate practitioners on this channel. Good luck on your practice.
exciting! I'm glad I read Ian Baker's book on Tibetan Yoga or I wouldn't have understood parts of the interview. In the lineage I belong to there is no dark retreat, but even if there was I wouldn't dare do it - a few months ago I quit my job at a veterans club with PTSD after feeling like I was 'infected' with the syndrome. I feel that I need to anchor my spiritual work and ground it and not provoke my current emotional state.
so wonderful thank you so much both of you may you live long in good health and bliss for the benefit of all
Thanks for another great interview Steve!
Thank you for daily practice inspiration.
Thank you very much Justin for a wonderfully honest account of your experiences, and may I add, very insightful and inspiring. Best wishes, Andy.
Wonderful discussion. Would love to see more with Justin.
my favorite interview, also his explanation about dharmapalas and visionary experiences are pretty spot on
Nondual sweets! 🍬🍬🍬
Have a convo comparing dark retreat with fire kasina retreat....you know who
Oh heck in the womb we are in a parallel for Dark Retreat
your present awareness is nirvana.
Nice interview, but I don’t understand the cover photos.
Isn't a sleeping mind further from an "awakened mind" than an awake mind, much less a stilled & awake mind?
When you fall a sleep your gross mind naturally dissolves in to its nature. If you dont recognize it you fall into unconsciousness. If you do you recognize the clear light mind.
Same happens at death
how would you find food and the toilet in complete darkness, I don't think it was completely dark.
Its completely dark. You rely on your other senses to find stuff.
Here in the buddhist center where i live we have a cabin
@@DTTaTa Who feeds them? How many meals a day?
@@bvim75dont know. I guess depends on situation. Here someone brings meals but i dont know how many times a day. I know a guy who did like a month of dark retreat eating meat cans🤣
Some live in the dark all their lives. To bad.
In 1957 an article appeared in Scientific American which documented the experiments conducted at McGill University on sensory deprivation. Breaking down a "dark retreat" it is nothing more than sensory deprivation contextualized in a protective layer of ritual. That ritual is double edged. On the one hand it provides a framework to deal with the hallucinations but on the other it conditions and reinforces the person's existing belief structure.
no, in an authentic dark retreat one already has shamata ie. perfect single-pointed concentration on mental awareness with sensory data unable to impinge or interrupt ones attention. sensory deprivation is meaningless to apply to this context. furthermore concepts, beliefs, biases, thoughts, etcetc, have fully subsided and what arises instead is only close observation of reality. learn real meditation 101 kthx
@@5piles Hi 5piles... There is an internal contradiction in your argument. If a person was perfectly "single-pointed" that would exclude the arising of the various reported visions.
@@marcuszerbini5555 so-called visions are objects of the mental awareness which is perfectly concentrated.
for example if you try to use a moving object such as a mantra to gain concentration you cannot because there is movement which destroys stability. this is different than gaining perfect concentration and then placing it on moving objects. in actuality the space of the mind has much much more terrain to cover and explore than the surface of the planet and everything in it.
@@5piles I have to disagree with you in several instances. You correctly point out in your initial comment that a "shamata" practice will suppress intrusive mental activity. However, the dark retreat practice clearly seeks to do exactly the opposite. Eliminating external stimulus means that any visual imagery must be generated by the mind's own activity. This technique is seeking to bring to the conscious awareness that activity of the mind which is subliminal in normal circumstances.
It is in expectation that visions and hallucination will result that a preliminary training is deemed necessary. In the interview Justin referenced examples in which people have committed suicide subsequent to attending Vipassana retreats and he recognised a similar potential exists with this technique. Sensory deprivation is well understood to be disorienting and can be disruptive.
I acknowledge that the preliminary training (which I describe as a ritual) provides a framework to navigate the hazards but then this introduces the complexity of conditioning the person's mind prior to the event. A dark retreat will produce a set of results but what is important is how those results are comprehended. The preliminary training is a confounding factor which will prejudice not only the interpretation of the experiences but also will influence the nature of the experiences.
@@5piles i don't think the prerequisites need to be that specific.
so could a blind person do a dark retreat?
The skin also detects light and humans don't truly "see" with the eyes, actually, we "see" what we perceive to "be" via the brain. Look at the schools that teach how to see without using the eyes and you can comprehend what I am explaining. Also, the documentary "Super Human" goes into the idea of "seeing" in more detail.
@kelloggkirsten you can't see without using eyes,obviously you need eyes to see
@@kingdaleclarkeyou don’t need eyes to see. Study the CIA documents on “remote viewing”
What about blind people?..
Natural Liberation us Natural Child birth. Without hoping for anything healing happens in the Southern School of Buddhism
One thing’s for sure if you do a 49 day dark retreat- you don’t have a job! 😁
We experienced a female who worked in an office setting, and while pregnant said, oh yeah, i will give birth on the weekend, and be back at work on Monday! Well...she had her pelvic cracked when giving birth--needless to say she was disconnected from the new birth she incubated and her life tower abruptly crumbled; from what her conscious daily awareness took as her life reality! Mr. Von Bujdoss is diligent to arrive at his Soul signature > nature of being in this incarnation! 🥰🐾🏹🪴🐚🎉🎊❤🍄🌹🪺🌈🔔💝