Dawn Mountain Dzogchen Cycles Curriculum
Dzogchen Cycles is a repeating year-long curriculum of three retreats: one long retreat in May, a weekend in the fall, and a weekend during the Losar period.
Seeing to Being & The Dakinis of Dzogchen
Two Intertwined Wisdom Teachings Dzogchen Cycles 2025-2028
Dawn Mountain’s next three-year Dzogchen Cycles program offers Seeing to Being—a teaching that emerged from Lama Rigzin’s contemplative dialogue with 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.
These interwoven cycles bridge traditional dharma transmission with practices that speak directly to contemporary life, honoring both ancient wisdom and contemporary understanding.
Seeing to Being: In 2002, Rinpoche offered four brief meditation essentials to Lama Rigzin Drolma. These piths, he later said, include the entire path. How could that be? Lama Rigzin reflected on this for a long time, encouraged by intermittent conversations in which Rinpoche confirmed and elaborated her understanding. Four clear phases were identified, each with its own arc of meditative training. Emphasizing this teaching’s import for Dzogchen, Rinpoche named it Semnyi Rangdrol (Natural Liberation, the Real Nature of Mind) and Nyamnyi Rangdrol (The Natural Freedom in Sameness). Each phase explores the movement from dualistic seeing to nondual being, a journey central in all paths to liberation. To clarify this point, in English we call it From Seeing to Being.
Dakinis of Dzogchen: Three one week retreats where each is a deep immersion in the world of the dakini. Each of the three sadhanas gives its own unique journey of meeting with the genuine dakini and then thoroughly becoming her by growing steeped in her wisdom. Each significantly amplifies the other, like getting to know a dear friend through familiarity with her different manners of manifestation. In particular in this series, we are getting to know different aspects of Yeshe Tsogyal. Seeing to Being helps deepen your intimate dialogue with the dakini, until her wisdom voice becomes one with yours.
What is Dzogchen?
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.”
Meet the Instructors
Lama Rigzin Drolma/ Anne Carolyn Klein
Buddhist scholar and lama, Founding Director of Dawn Mountain Tibetan Temple, and Dorje Lopon in the Nyingma Heart Essence Dzogchen tradition, bringing over 40 years of study, translation, and teaching experience in Tibetan Buddhism to her work uniting scholarship and contemplative practice.
Lama Namgyal Dorje/ Harvey Aronson
Harvey Aronson, PhD (Lama Namgyal Dorje), is a Dorje Lopön in the Nyingma Dzogchen tradition, Buddhist scholar, and psychotherapist who co-founded Dawn Mountain to integrate traditional Tibetan Buddhist practice with contemporary psychological insight, drawing on over 50 years of study, teaching, and therapeutic work.
Lama Rigzin Sherab Gyatso/ Nathaniel Rich
Nathaniel Rich (Rigzin Sherab Gyatso), PhD, is a scholar-practitioner of the Nyingma tradition, research editor and translator for 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, whose academic and spiritual work continues his teachers’ lineage through study, translation, and dedication to preserving authentic Tibetan Buddhist transmission for future generations.
Dakinis of Dzogchen Schedule
May 2026
Yeshe Tsogyal, the Great Bliss Queen, Yumka Deychen Gyalmo
(Jigme Lingpa, arranged by Rinpoche, retreat at Dawn Mountain. Opens with initiation from Lama Rigzin Drolma.)
May 2027
Yeshe Tsogyal, the Great Bliss Queen, Yumka Deychen Gyalmo II: Drupchö
Yeshe Tsogyal, the Great Bliss Queen: Treasure from Jigme Lingpa II
Full immersion in your own connection with Her. Four sessions daily, including the Feast Offering (Tshog) unique to this sadhana. Practicing together in this committed way greatly enhances the depths we can all reach and the ease we may find. Lama Rigzin will offer the formal Wang (initiation) for this practice. Attendance in person is very important to fully receive this initiation. The Jenang will also be offered as a backup for those online.
May 2028 #1
To be Determined: Further Yeshe
Tsogyal or Full Adzom Drukpa Green Tara
Drupchö
May 2028 #2
Yeshe Tsogyal of the Essential Black (Yangti Nagpo)
of Dungtso Repa and Trulshig Dongak Lingpa, transmission through Khetsun Rinpoche and Lama Tenzin Samphel, and only for those who have fully completed Longchen Nyingthig, Dudjom Tersar, or related Ngondro and who are already close students of ours. In person only at Dawn Mountain.
How to Join
Step 1:
Fill out your practice history
Our lamas want to get to know each and every student and evaluate if the program is appropriate for them. Click below to fill out the form and get the process started.
Step 2:
Approval and Recommendations
Keep an eye open for an email from us with news of your acceptance to the program and in some cases personalized recommendations from our lamas.
Step 3:
Choose A-La-Carte or Full Cycles
If you plan to join a-la-carte the process ends here! Just register for events as you see fit. If you want to be a full cycles member you still have a couple more things to do.
Step 4:
Set Up Membership
Full Cycles members are required to have an active monthly membership with Dawn Mountain. Click below to set up your membership.
Step 5:
Full Cycles Tuition
The final step is to set up your Full Cycles tuition for the year. Reach out to us at [email protected] to set up a personalized payment option.
2026-2027 Year
May 2026 Meeting & Befriend the Great Bliss Queen I
This begins a rare opportunity to meet the Yeshe Tsogya,l Great Bliss Queen from the depths of your being over a 2-year period.
Divine Tara, swift and courageous arose from a lotus heart
In the wilderness of snowy mountains she appears
Outwardly as the sweet-voiced Tsogyal,
Inwardly as the actual noble Tara,
Secretly as Vajravarahi.
—Jigme Lingpa
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).
Seeing to Being III: The Elemental Dakinis
Fall 2026 September 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, February
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.
Supplementary Events in Europe:
Our lamas will be guest teachers with other sanghas to offer some very profound teachings next summer. While not a part of the Dzogchen Cycles/ Seeing to Being curriculum, these teachings are aligned closely and compliment the programs we offer at Dawn Mountain. Please use the links provided to reach out about registration!
Green Tara of Adzom Drukpa in Leipzig, Germany June 15-18
Dakini Ngondro and Becoming Yeshe Tsogyal from Osel Nyingthig of Adzom Paylo Rinpoche, (Bodhicharya, Berlin) ] June 19-22.
Chenrezi—The Great Compassionate One –Full Practice Drupchö, Ganden Chokhor, Switzerland June 23-28 (if you are new to Chenrezi practice , contact Dawnmountain:info@dawnmountain, in subject line forward to Lama Rigzin
Past Programming
Anyone approved to participate in our Dzogchen Cycles program can reach out for recordings of past year programming. Take a look below at what has been offered and email [email protected] for anything you need.
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.
Seeing to Being Part II: Exploring the Elements:
February 20-22, 2026
Online and In-Person at 4803 San Felipe Street, Houston TX 77056
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.
Following a unique sādhana from the Seeing to Being cycle, we explore patterns that bind us and reveal how, when released, these same elemental energies become the four boundless states and five Buddha wisdoms
These retreats will greatly support the May 2026 Dzogchen Cycles program.
2024-2025
Being Human and a Buddha Too
Zhitro Calm & Fierce Deities of Our Being
Chö Severance
Guru Yoga
2023-2024
The Great Compassionate One
The Fullness of Refuge: Sutra, Tantra, and Dzogchen
Losar Retreat
2022-2023
Avalokiteshvara’s Dzogchen
Avalokiteshvara’s Dzogchen Part II
Liberation Through Hearing
2021-2022
Yeshe Tsogyal 2021
Embodying the Elements
Dakini Element Practice
2020-2021
Yeshe Tsogyal Practice Retreat
Troma Severance
Troma Practice Retreat
2019-2020
Yeshe Tsogyal: Accomplishment
Jigme Lingpa Severance: Deep Wisdom
Guru Yoga
2018-2019
Yeshe Tsogyal: Wisdom Dakini Foundations
Secrets of Wisdom
Green Tara Practice Retreat
2017-2018
Longchenpa’s Seven Trainings
Becoming Guru Rinpoche
Severance Though Offering