Seeing to Being
and The Dakinis of Dzogchen
Two Intertwined Wisdom Teachings Dzogchen Cycles 2025-2028
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.
Starting this fall, the next phase of Dzogchen Cycles offers three Seeing to Being Retreats in support of the three week-long Dakinis of Dzogchen retreats in May 2026-2028.
Each of the Dakinis of Dzogchen retreats 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.
Seeing to Being is part of our Dzogchen Cycles curriculum. Click here to read about Dzogchen Cycles.
SCHEDULE:*
Among the practices that Guru Rinpoche especially intended
for Tibetans there are many whose chief deity is Yeshe Tsogyal.
Natural Liberation into the Nature of Mind:
Core Principles & Practices of Seeing to Being I
September 12-14 2025
In 2002 Rinpoche revealed to Lama Rigzin Drolma an exceptionally brief and profound quintessential instruction on the path of Dzogchen. Following his revelation and with his encouragement, Lama Rigzin unfolded it, and in dialogue with him they co-created a sequence of distilled practices and principles, encompassing the entire path of Sutra, Tantra, and Dzogchen in four phases — “seeing,” “seeking,” “sensing,” and “being.” These lead us from the duality of ordinary experience to the nonduality of our true nature. Whether practiced on its own or as a foundational support for all other practices, Seeing to Being is a unique framework for spiritual practice that is exquisitely sensitive to the lived realities of modern life.
In this retreat, we will share with you the very practical core principles and practices of this precious revelation.
The 2025-2026 Dzogchen Cycles series is foundational to our teaching in the next 3-5 years. This is an opportunity to get in on the ground floor of an exciting sequence of Seeing to Being retreats and the Dakinis of Dzogchen. It is hightly 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 is Dawn Mountain’s unique framework co-authored by Rinpoche and Lama Rigzin Drolma encompassing the entire Buddhist path within four phases that traverse all Buddhist vehicles spanning Sutra, Tantra, and Dzogchen
Natural Liberation into the Nature of Mind:
Core Principles & Practices of Seeing to Being II
FEBRUARY 20-22 2026
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.
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
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.