Reclamation of the Sacred: A Special Benefit at the Durango Dharma Center

We invite you to gather together for this special daylong to uplift and celebrate the sacred within Mother Nature and all life. 

These days, as climate crisis looms over all of us, we are called to bring forth a response beyond the habitual business-as-usual. We are called to look not only to solutions, but also at the causes that have brought us to such a tipping point. 

In Dharma practice we contemplate cause and effect, and understand that the root of disharmony, and all oppression arises from the mind itself. “Mind” as the Buddha said, “is the forerunner of all things.” And so it is to Mind – Citta, heart/mind/conscious knowing – that we must return. 

In essence, our multiple world crises are the manifestation of a crisis of consciousness. Therefore, the primary task before us is a movement from separative consciousness, experienced and acted out as chronic “othering,” to a direct realization of the profound “intimacy of all things” or unitive consciousness. 

It is at this inner level, that Dharma can intersect with the emergence of a new vision for our wounded world, with its potential to inform our way forward — enabling each of us to embody clarity, wise reflection, and compassionate inclusion. 

Join us for a day of contemplation, Dharma talks, chants, qi gong, and a Kuan Yin Compassion Ceremony, dedicated to the healing of old injustices and the restoration of the sacred. In the evening, Thanissara and Kittisaro will host a limited-seat dinner with a “question and answer” period at the Himalayan Kitchen. Dinner and daylong tickets may be purchased together or separately.   

This special daylong is offered as a benefit to support the first retreat at Vallecitos for Indigenous Peoples of Turtle Island. This groundbreaking retreat is an acknowledgement and gesture towards reparative justice. Through recognizing the land at Vallecitos as Jicarilla Apache and Ute land, it is the sacred intention of Vallecitos, to honor this deep moral imperative by offering this sacred space for Indigenous Peoples’ healing meditation and ceremony.