Dzogchen Cycles
Why Dzogchen Cycles?
Dzogchen is the crowning jewel of the Nyingma (ancient) Tibetan Buddhist traditions. Its radiance illuminates the entire path from beginning to end. Inspired and guided by Ad.zom Rinpoche, widely praised as perhaps the greatest Dzogchen master in Tibet today, we have created a program that offers students fundamental teachings and practices. We are particularly blessed to provide access to treasure texts (gter ma) recently revealed by Ad.zom Rinpoche. The program has been praised for enhancing personal experiences of wisdom and compassion, and as a portal to direct realization of our true nature.
Dawn Mountain is blessed to hold lineage teachings from Longchen Rabjam, Jigme Lingpa, and their spiritual heirs, including Rinpoche and the late Khetsun Sangpo Rinpoche, our teacher for several decades. Especially destined for our era and conditions, Dzogchen teachings are a further blossoming of the ancient Dzogchen Nyingthig traditions, which we practice in light of wisdom writings by Longchenpa and Jigme Lingpa.
In Dzogchen,the Great Completeness tradition of TIbet, wisdom is there from the start. Recognizing this makes a huge difference in our hearts and in our lives. Dzogchen Cycles introduces and furthers our path to our innate wisdom.
We invite you to join Dawn Mountain, on a transformative path of practice, study, and personal growth, especially destined for our era and conditions.
Our annual Dzogchen Cycles on-line program celebrated a revelation from one of the most illustrious Dzogchen masters in Tibet today. These teachings unite the compassion of Avalokieshvara with Dzogchen spaciousness with poetic songs revealed by Rinpoche.
Rinpoche received these teachings during his day-long direct encounter with Avalokiteshvara on Potu Island, off the coast of Shanghai. This mountainous isle has for centuries been revered as the home of Avalokiteshvara, known in China as Kuan Yin.
With Rinpoche’s encouragement and blessings, these profound and simple poems from his Lotus Heart Essence cycle of Dzogchen were taught for the very first time in the West by Dawn Mountain founders Lamas Rigzin Drolma and Namgyal Dorje (Anne C. Klein & Harvey Aronson), who report that “Rinpoche revealed during this encounter, he received the entire Dzogchen teachings of Avalokiteshvara. We and Dawn Mountain are beyond honored and inspired to be sharing them with you all.”
Dawn Mountain’s next three-year Dzogchen Cycles program offers Seeing to Being—a teaching that emerged from Lama Rigzin’s contemplative dialogue with Adzom Paylo Rinpoche and encompasses the entire path from ordinary perception to natural freedom—alongside Dakinis of Dzogchen, featuring different and rarely taught forms of Yeshe Tsogyal, and a furthering of our connection with Green Tara (in Germany for certain, if nto Houston) . These interwoven cycles bridge traditional dharma transmission with practices that speak directly to contemporary life, honoring both ancient wisdom and contemporary understanding.
Cycles 2025-2026
May Retreat: Powa
May 12-19
Online and In-Person at 4803 San Felipe Street, Houston TX 77056
Powa is the profound practice of transferring your own or another’s consciousness at the moment of death to arrive in Amitabha’s Pure Land. This means that instead of powerlessly falling back into samsara after death, you remain with Amitābha until you fully awaken to freedom there from this swirl.
The practice of Powa (Transference) is traditionally described as “Buddhahood without Meditation” because you can accomplish it in a single week of retreat. We will practice four sessions each day together, a tremendous support for everyone involved. While we offer on-line participation as needed, this is a retreat to attend in person if at all possible. Experience shows there is nothing like uniting our voices and energies in physical space as we power this practice together to join with Amitabha.
We are aided by Rinpoche’s own powerful connection with Amitabha. Not long after founding his monastery in Rege, Rinpoche had a vision of Amitabha–the Buddha of boundless light and limitless vision–dancing in space above the sacred land he was then reopening. These words rang out for him:
May I and my companions, everyone,
In all times be born in the Pure Land (of Amitabha).
This vision inspired him to begin the annual Amitabha Pure Land Festival, and that prayer graces our Powa practice as well. Rinpoche’s connection with Amitabha is personal, and we conduct this Powa retreat with his blessings, guided also by Adzom Drukpa’s written instructions (recently translated by Lama Rigzin). Under the guidance of Lama Rigzin Drolma, who has sat in five Powa retreats with Rinpoche, together with Lama Namgyal Dorje and with further assistance from Rigzin Sherab Gyatso, we sing sacred words and melody as we train to transfer our consciousness to the Pure Land, the place of our true nature, as Rinpoche indicated for those who took the retreat more than once.
Natural Liberation into the Nature of Mind: Core Principles & Practices of Seeing to Being Part 1
September 12-14
Online and In-Person at 4803 San Felipe Street, Houston TX 77056
In 2002 Rinpoche revealed to Lama Rigzin Drolma an exceptionally brief and profound quintessential instruction on the path of Dzogchen. He later titled this Natural Liberation into the Nature of Mind (Sems nyid rang grol), or Natural Liberation into Evenness (mnyam nyid rang grol). In this retreat we share with you the very practical core principles and practices of this precious revelation.
Following Rinpoche’s revelation of the core of Natural Liberation into the Nature of Mind, Lama Rigzin unfolded it further based on several meaningful dialogues (2007, 2014) with Rinpoche aimed at identifying an array of distilled Dzogchen-related principles that apply to the entire spectrum of the path, and that were implicit in Rinpoche’s initial revelation. This endeavor was remarkable and perhaps unheard of – a traditional Treasure Revealer (Terton) working with a contemporary scholar-practitioner to produce a model of practice for modern students, in what can be described as a teaching developed in tandem, something like a co-revealed revelation.
We find this model is proving to be of inestimable value for accessing the profound view of Dzogchen through nuanced steps that are easily digested by mind and body. It is a blessed practice and thus carries the transmitted blessings of Rinpoche and his lineage.
The 2025-2026 series is foundational to our teaching in the next 3-5 years, an opportunity to get in on the ground floor of an exciting sequence of Seeing to Being retreats and sādhanas on various topics. It is highly recommended to everyone seeking a pithy introduction to crucial aspects of the path as a whole, as well as anyone wishing to optimize benefitting from our work together in the next three to five years.
Exploring the Elements : Natural Liberation into the Nature of Mind: Core Principles & Practices of Seeing to Being Part II
February 20-22 2026
Online and In-Person at 4803 San Felipe Street, Houston TX 77056
We are all conditioned to one degree or another by certain habit patterns: we are fiery, weighed down, compulsively active, flexible to a fault, or spaced out. In traditional Buddhist language, these states are associated with the elemental energies of fire, earth, wind, water, and space. Exploring our own proclivities and obstacles provides a path for us to the compassion and wisdom already present as latent elemental energies in our mind and body.
Following a unique sādhana from the Seeing to Being cycle, this retreat explores patterns that bind us and reveal how, when released, these same elemental energies become available as one or more of the boundless states or Buddha wisdoms.
Teachings and practices on the elemental energies are essential to traditional systems of mind-body healing and foundational for Tantra and Dzogchen. This retreat approaches the teaching on the elements through the lens of Seeing to Being, as inspired by Rinpoche’s teachings and specifically tailored to the needs of the contemporary practitioner.
These retreats will greatly support the May 2026 Dzogchen Cycles program, a first-of-its-kind retreat whose details will be announced later in the year.
2026-2027 Year
Yeshe Tsogyal, the Great Bliss Queen: Treasure from Jigme Lingpa I
May 22-31, 2026
The passionately compassionate Great Bliss Queen, Yeshe Tsogyal, is principle Dakini of the famous Heart, Essene, Great Expanse Cycle revealed by Jigme Lingpa, who also composed the practice we use, as arranged by our own Teacher. Throughout the practice we see and seek her until we thoroughly resonate with her vibrant heart of liberating love. Through Rinpoche’s key instructions, including those from Seeing to Being, we train to sense deeply how she emerges throughout the practice, finding increasing ease in our relationship with Her and the real arena (dharmadhātu) she embodies. Formal Jenang with Lama Rigzin Drolma. All this prepares us to fully embody her by our 2027 Great Bliss Queen formal retreat (Drup-chô (see below) )
Seeing to Being III: The Elemental Dakinis
Fall 2026 Sept 18-20
This practice is another passage to wisdom, and to furthering connection with the dakini already in you. The earth element diking, for example is a steadfast support to us, glowing brownish-gold. Learning see, seek, sense, and be her, valuable in its own right, also accustoms us to the process of becoming a wisdom being, such as we will emphasize in our Great Bliss Queen II retreat in May.
Seeing to Being IV: Ultimate Purification & Training in the Four Phases of Initiation
2027 Losar period, Feb 19-21
We deepen our understanding of the four phases that move from seeing to being through focusing on the Tamtric approach and accomplishment stages of Adzom Drukpa’s extraordinary Vajrasattva Teachings. We see as well the seeing-to-being four-fold structure of initiation. The Vajrasattva purification is practiced daily as part of the foundational practices. It is also practice prior to any initiation, since purification allows us to receive an initiation’s blessings more completely. Deepening our familiarity here will enhance lthe Great Bliss Queen II retreat in May, when we are initiated into actually becoming Her.
Unique Features of Full Dzogchen Cycles Program
We encourage those of you who want to deep your overall practice and understanding of Dzogchen to take our Full Cycles program. Each year is carefully planned so that its retreats support and strengthened each other, and also complement previous years. Your learning is additionally supported because you have access to a mentor, a senior student whom we have trained to help guide you, you are also invited to a peer bi-monthly peer support group, as well as follow-ups to each of our three retreats so as to give you more time to process and received feedback on it. All included in your annual Cycles fee.
A La Carte Participation
This provides maximum flexibility; some students are attracted to one or more courses from different years. Once you are accepted to Cycles, you may take any course appropriate to your level of experience at that time. There are no other meetings nor a mentor option. Should you wish to join full cycles at some point, you need only write us, you need not reapply.
Please submit an application here. If you are interested in prior retreats, please reach out to us, and we will provide you with a link to register, and after paying the appropriate fee, you can take the class at your discretion (some retreats are limited to those with prior experience).
Past Dzochen Cycles Events
Upon approval of you application, either as a Full Cycles Member or an A La Carté participant, you are eligible to take past Dzogchen Cycles events. Here is a list of the events we have had previously.
2017-2018
Longchenpa’s Seven Trainings
Becoming Guru Rinpoche
Severance Though Offering
2018-2019
Yeshe Tsogyal: Wisdom Dakini Foundations
Secrets of Wisdom
Green Tara Practice Retreat
2019-2020
Yeshe Tsogyal: Accomplishment
Jigme Lingpa Severance: Deep Wisdom
Guru Yoga
2020-2021
Yeshe Tsogyal Practice Retreat
Troma Severance
Troma Practice Retreat
2021-2022
Yeshe Tsogyal 2021
Embodying the Elements
Dakini Element Practice
2022-2023
Avalokiteshvara’s Dzogchen Part II
Liberation Through Hearing
2023-2024
The Great Compassionate One
The Fullness of Refuge: Sutra, Tantra, and Dzogchen
Losar Retreat
2024-2025
Being Human and a Buddha Too
Zhitro Calm & Fierce Deities of Our Being
Chö Severance
Guru Yoga
