This 2008 itinerary includes classes and retreats in:
Auckland
Wellington
Queenstown
Christchurch including The Nature of Familiar Materials
and Makaroa
For enquiries about any of the retreats and courses on this itinerary please contact
Queenstown Dharma House
12 Lake Street
Queenstown
9197
New Zealand
Tel: 0064 (3) 441 8008
Email: qtndharmahouse@yahoo.com
Auckland
February 8 - 10
Classes/residential retreat: Meditations on Overcoming Fears: Empowerment and Teachings on the Mandala of the Twenty-0ne Taras
"The meditations of the Twenty-one Taras (female embodiments of wisdom and compassion) are a powerful entry gate into liberation from fears and anxieties and the building of great emotional and mental strength. By becoming each figure in the mandala, different types of obstacles are dissolved and strengths and talents open. This is a mandala of compassionate awake activity. Each figure is an aspect of the central green figure of Tara (Tara -“to cross over”). Around her are four different Taras
representing the Four Buddha Activities of: peacefulness, unfoldment/increase, power, and fierce cutting through all obstacles. Then there are the remaining sixteen Taras that help remove deep seated fears and anxieties and bring about immense strength. In addition to explaining the rich and ancient tradition of Tara, this is an ideal time to share some modern psychological and physiological views about anxiety and fear, trauma and the remarkable plasticity and openness of our nervous system." Lama Mark
Contact: Janet Eades janete1@ihug.co.nz
Wellington
February 15 - 17
Classes/non-residential retreat: Deep Sensing and Seeing with the Heart- An Exploration of the Heart Sutra
Lama Mark will be teaching from the Heart Sutra during this non-residential retreat. The Heart Sutra is one of the great Buddhist classics pointing directly to the nature of emptiness, the essence of all experience and the wisdom mind. It is a pithy and poetic meditation text, it is deep and moving. Lama Mark will clarify the much misunderstood concept of emptiness and show why the term is used, its various levels of meaning and meditations. With mindful attention to the experiences of our eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind we begin to experience a vaster, fascinating and compassionate universe. The Tantric empowerment and meditation of Prajnaparamita, who embodies the teaching of the Heart Sutra, will be bestowed during this course.
Contact: Ruth Pink at pinkruth@clear.net.nz
Queenstown
February 20 - 22
Classes/non-residential retreat: The Foundation of Buddhist Meditation – The Practice of Loving Kindness
"At the heart of all Buddhist meditation is the practice of Loving-kindness. Without a good foundation in loving-kindness many obstacles will occur to unfolding the union of wisdom and compassion. There is so much frustration, anger, rage and jealousy in all of us; these states of mind and body must be quenched, tamed and dissolved into a loving, open heart of clear mind. To love, we feel we must hold on, deeply grasp to ideas, objects, people and places--this is not so--the more we empty out all grasping and delusions, the more love for all life pours into us. The less sticky we are, the greater the love. As loving-kindness develops and insight grows, we discover that love, the absence of fear, grows into a profound trust in the universe. We then want to engage with all life, explore, discover, share, and assist--be compassionate with clear and wise minds; the most natural thing to do. Let's explore and learn how to do this!" Lama Mark
Contact: Alan at qtndharmahouse@yahoo.com
February 24 - 27
Classes/non-residential retreat: How to Merge Deity (Yidam) Yoga Practice with Wisdom: Teachings from the Nyingma Tradition
"For those engaged in the Vajrayana tradition of Buddhism, Deity (Yidam) Yoga practice is essential. These meditations bring about mental and physiological strength, ripen talents and richness, clear away difficult obstacles and help bring about profound compassion and wisdom. There will be discourse, practice and commentary to help practitioners gain a vast view of the importance and joy of Yidam meditation and mantra yoga and how to deeply integrate it with the mind's inner potential. So many unnecessary misunderstandings and frustrations are present around these Yogas, especially the practice and view of mantra yoga, visualization, different modes of practice and the essential dissolution stage. The structure, purpose and inner nature of these meditations will be clarified. In addition, the training and explorations that must be accomplished, the signs of discovery, and how insight meditations such as Mahamudra and Dzogchen are seamlessly integrated into these Yogas will be shown. Without integrating these yogas with the View of Emptiness, one may as well plant seeds in barren ground or watch images in a mirror without ever investigating the nature of the mirror.” Lama Mark
Contact: Alan at qtndharmahouse@yahoo.com
March 5 - 9 & 14 - 18
Classes/non-residential retreat: The Western Mystical Path: teachings from St. John of the Cross, a bold illumination of the meditative path
Lama Mark Webber will be teaching on the topic of the Western Mystical path, a subject he is currently teaching and exploring during the three-month San Ginesio retreat. Readings and commentary from St. John of the Cross's manual of meditation called the Ascent of Mt. Carmel will form the core of this weekend of teaching and meditation. St. John of the Cross is a famous 16th century mystic and one of Spain's greatest poets. He was also a brilliant systematizer of the entire spiritual path, especially his division of the path into three Dark Nights; of the senses, of faith and of God, corresponding to the lights of evening, midnight and dawn. The equivalences, to be revealed in these classes between St. John of the Cross's teachings and the Mahamudra and Dzogchen traditions are unmistakable, illuminating and beautiful to behold. Lama Mark will also discuss some differences in cultural attitudes and history between Buddhism and its meditation systems and the path of the Western Mystic; including how we integrate our rich Western tradition of enquiry and scientific method. By exploring the teachings of a great Christian Mystic, meditative practitioners no matter what path they follow may see how universal and essential is the nature of liberation.
Contact: Alan at qtndharmahouse@yahoo.com
Christchurch
March 26 - April 5
Field work/Lab-work/classes: Possible, not finalized: Continuing research into the autoecology of the diatom Ditylum Brightwellii, Akaroa Harbour. Akaroa Harbour, coastal waters, plankton collection, nutrient survey, microscopy and lab work.
Contact: rafaelhoekstra1@gmail.com
An exciting course is being proposed as part of Lama Mark Webber's
teaching schedule in New Zealand. It is to be held shortly before the
3 week retreat (April 20- May 10), offering the opportunity for a full
month of Dharma study with Lama Mark.
April 7 - 15
Chemistry Department, University of Canterbury, Christchurch
The Nature of Familiar Materials: a practical lab course with Lama Mark Webber and Rafael Hoekstra:
This is a fun introductory chemistry course for non-scientists, specifically designed for practitioners of Dharma. No math skills required and no tests! It is going to be a very practical lab based discovery exploration into the realm of form: specifically where commonly encountered materials such as plastic, paint, metal, dyes, drugs and gases come from; what they are, their uses and their impact on our planet. We will find out how they are derived from natural sources, synthesized and modified by humans. What are these materials? Where do they come from? How are they made? Are they safe? What kind of world do we live in?
Today the split between vague concepts of chemistry and materials science, and actually handling them, studying them and making them has become a serious gap. Few people outside of the physical and biological sciences have a feel and knowledge of how much of what we touch, see, ingest, consume, walk or crawl on, wear, design, live in, earn money from and are transported by (such as cars, bikes and planes), every day, perhaps thousands of times per day, comes from modified natural materials and the science of chemistry. And very few of us comprehend how this has dramatically changed our lives, will continue to shape our lives, our mental and physical states, and drive so much of what we do and think. We are a product of this chemical age, so let us become more aware of it.
The art of enquiry will be another topic that threads throughout the course. We learn to research, experiment, observe, test and question in a scientific manner by being in a lab all day. We will be fully immersed in discovery and question about almost everything around us, and often in us!
In addition to exciting and fascinating hands on experiments making materials and chemicals guided by Rafael Hoekstra, Lama Mark is going to give classes on the history of science and chemistry from its birth in the mystical arts of Alchemy to the growth of modern science. He feels it is vital to those of us who are practicing meditation and spiritual traditions to understand the rich and important Western history and method of scientific enquiry. It is imperative that we have some real experience with a remarkable tradition that has brought us so many discoveries, saved many of our lives, at times brought about enormous harm, and fostered an extraordinary way of life with so many positive and negative results. Not to comprehend where we have come from, culturally, historically and physically; not to understand the joy and art of science and how it molds our lives, for good or ill; is to miss out on a critical shaper of our planet and all its organisms at every level.
Course Topics and Experiments:
· From Alchemy to modern science
· Safety in the lab
· The scientific method of inquiry- working together to untangle questions and
work with matter.
· Basic chemical principles: atoms and molecules.
· The elements: isolating the building blocks of the universe. Iron, iodine,
hydrogen, oxygen and chlorine.
· Making Salts
· From oil and coal to drugs and dyes- how chemists make these synthetic
everyday substances.
· Synthesis of a drug: aspirin.
· Synthesis of a plastic: nylon.
· Making paint: Titanium dioxide.
· Making glass.
· Making a ceramic.
· What is the green stuff? Looking at plant pigments.
· Extraction of sugars from beets.
· Extraction of DNA.
· What is in sea water?
Tutor Biographies:
Lama Mark Webber:
Lama Mark's passion for science goes back to childhood when he likely purloined his brotherʼs chemistry set and began experiments. For many years, with his father they grew beautiful single crystals out of aqueous solutions. By his early teens he had a chemistry lab at home and was immersed in experiments. Lama Mark had the good fortune in his teens to have studied organic chemistry for about 8 months in Dr. Wrightʼs (Professor Emeritus of Chemistry, University of Toronto) private lab. Soon after, he began a project of synthesizing acrylic salts, original experiments in molecular biology with E. coli and lambda phage (supervisor Dr. Andy Becker) and working on the organic synthesis of a novel dye molecule, all at the Ontario Cancer Institute, University of Toronto.
Although Lama Mark has been formally trained in Buddhist meditation since his late teens, and has been practicing and teaching meditation for over thirty years, which he continues to teach worldwide (see: www.markwebber.org) his interest and passion for science has continued throughout most of his life. At the University of Toronto he took some undergraduate courses in science, including the History of Science and Technology and later obtained his Masterʼs degree in Anthropology, under Dr. Charles Laughlin, Professor Emeritus, Carleton University, Ottawa; a study of meditation and ritual symbolic systems and their interrelatedness with neurophysiology. With Charles Laughlin he was a founding member of the Meditational Science Research Institute and for a number of years taught natural history, science and the history of science and technology at the Kinmount Seminary at the Dharma Centre of Canada in Ontario.
In the last few years he has begun collaborating with the BioMedia Facility at the University of British Columbia on producing an extensive image (light microscopic and SEM) database of marine and freshwater algae with taxonomic-ecological information (see the BioMedia database collections at www.emlab.ubc.ca/ and https://www.biomedia.cellbiology.ubc.ca/cellbiol/ ). Mark is currently conducting a long term study on the ecology and morphology of the marine diatom Ditylum sp. in Akaroa Harbour, New Zealand and other locations around the world.
Rafael Hoekstra:
Rafael Hoekstra's diverse interests have led him to study a full range of scientific disciplines; right through from microbiology to ecology, philosophy to physics. In 2007 he will graduate with a Bachelor of Science majoring in chemistry, from the University of Canterbury, NZ.
Rafael has been studying meditation with Lama Mark Webber for four years. During this time, he has been fortunate to be involved with some of Lama Mark's algal research- particularly in the study of the marine diatom, Ditylum sp., in Akaroa Harbour. This has led to a real "hands-on" understanding of the scientific method and a joy in the process- there's nothing quite like a day aboard a research vessel or a week studying cells under a microscope.
For a number of years Rafael has been a tutor for secondary school students in science, English and mathematics. He is currently employed in analytical biochemical research, on a project supervised by Dr. Michael Lever at Canterbury Health Laboratories. The research is focused on the assay of vitamin B3 derivatives as important biomarkers in the diagnosis of renal disease. He also works in Professor Zoltan Endre's Renal Research Group, managing a long-term study of acute renal failure. This summer, Rafael will undertake a scholarship within Associate Professor Michael Sherburn's group at the Australian National University, Canberra. There, he will join in the group's study of host-guest chemistry.
Enrolment limited to 15 participants.
For registration and information, please contact Rafael at rafaelhoekstra1@gmail.com
Makarora (South Island, New Zealand)
April 20 - May 10
Annual Three-week Makarora Retreat: Buddhist Meditations on Realizing the Naturally Awake State
Lama Mark will give more teachings from texts by the great 8th century teacher and yogi, Padmasambhava, individual meditation guidance and group practice sessions. This retreat will be a great opportunity to learn the essence of meditation, mind yoga and some physical movements to bring about peacefulness and bright awakeness. Throughout the course, Lama Mark will point to and instruct on the essence of true meditation; the natural continuum of mindfulness and lucid awareness inherent in every moment, in every one of us. We come to discover, through sustained concentration merged with loving-kindness, a compassionate, vividly aware mind free of mental obstacles and delusions. Empowerments to be announced.
Contact: Alan at qtndharmahouse@yahoo.com or through www.qtndharmahouse.org.nz
For enquiries about any of the retreats and courses on this itinerary please contact
Queenstown Dharma House
12 Lake Street
Queenstown
9197
New Zealand
Tel: 0064 (3) 441 8008
Email: qtndharmahouse@yahoo.com
Sarva Managalam - All is Blessing
Lama Mark (Lama K. Tenpa L. Yongdu) has been teaching and practicing meditation and Buddha Dharma (the teachings of Liberation) for over 30 years. His principle teacher was the late Venerable Namgyal Rimpoche. Mark’s style of teaching is non-sectarian and universal in nature, displaying for human beings the wondrous unity, uniqueness and intrinsic freedom of all life.