[Abbe Blum]

Here’s another description with a bit more info including pricing

Kum Nye Meditation
Sunday Aug 11th dinner – Friday Aug 23rd lunch, 2024
– AH –
After his one-year solitary retreat in the Nepal mountains, guided by Tarthang Tulku Rinpoche, Arnaud is looking forward to share Rinpoche’s in-depth and detailed instructions on Kum Nye for mind as presented in the magnificent book The Joy of Being (Dharma Publishing, 2005 and 2016). Learning to surrender to Kum Nye’s flowing feelings and expanding the silent field of mind, the light of awareness begins to shine through.

Kum Nye, and especially when we quicken feelings, will transparentize your undermining, inner whisperer and expose your soul has a continual ‘yes’ within it. To be joyful is natural – the joy of being, grounded in that which does not change, without beginning or end.

With Rinpoche’s book Gestures of Great Love (Dharma Publishing 2022) we will discover the dynamic of time’s ‘instant’. On the threshold of precognition, before thoughts take shape, the instant glows – AH.

The program will further include detailed practices from The Joy of Being’s rich chapters Being Present in the Breath, Surrendering to Calmness and Making Mind our Friend. Additionally sound, specifically AH and the rhythms and frequencies of quickening feelings will be methodically repeated in mostly silent practice times. Authentic contact with stillness, the unknown speaks.

The Kum Nye feeling experience reveals what the present offers: complete, perfect human possibilities. Nothing missing. Arnaud: “I have no doubt that Living the Kum Nye Experience, as intimated by Tarthang Tulku Rinpoche, will lead to Living Liberation”.

This retreat is also an opportunity to build your resources for times of change and for less harmonious times. To further guide and protect our inner development, we will study and practice a short puja Homage to the Twenty-One Taras, as introduced by Rinpoche, for those who are interested.

If this sounds right for you, join us for a twelve-day in-depth retreat. No late arrivals or early departures. The wish for a ‘nice’ experience will not do. The only requirement is full participation, a genuine interest in learning Tarthang Tulku Rinpoche’s Teachings, particularly Kum Nye.
Place: Haus Ohrbeck, near Osnabrück, Germany.
Costs per person:
Single room: € 2245; Double room: € 2095, incl. accommodations, all meals plus the teachings.
For registration, please contact Jutta: j.fethke(at)web.de

The retreat will be led by Arnaud Maitland and Andis Egle.
Arnaud has been on retreat for over four years after having studied and worked with Tarthang Tulku Rinpoche since 1977. Leading seminars and retreats solely on Rinpoche’s teachings, Arnaud wrote three books, all with Dharma Publishing: MasterWork, Living without Regret, and Reflections of Faith (to be published in Spanish, German, and Portuguese in 2024).
Andis has been a Kum Nye teacher since 2009 and is Rinpoche’s main sculptor on many sacred art projects, currently nearly singlehandedly creating a 30ft tall standing Padmasambhava statue.
OM AH HUM

[Abbe Blum]

Very interesting – also I wonder about the mouth allowed to fall open, and how tension may be eased along the jaw. Perhaps a “reset” happens in gently returning to upright, too, which head and neck able to find an easeful relationship to the shoulders and spine.

I am recalling Jonathan’s “happy baby” comments about the occiput – in questions for teachers, I think. I’m putting in what I mentioned then….
The occiput region is featured in the head massage section. There’s description especially of one important point, #6. Rinpoche suggests we “go deeply into” a certain feeling and special energy. Not everyone may have access to this right away -it’s important not to rush to try to produce results. This area also, however, is where many tensions get caught, and “rubbing it refreshes all bodily energies.” The feeling here, gone deeply into, “brings the subtle senses alive” (KNTY p. 100).

I’m intrigued especially by the relation of slight arching and releasing in all this – along with what happens with breath….

[Abbe Blum]

Hi Peter,

Continuing on with a Kum Nye way of considering inner and outer, you might take a look at Ch. 5 “Breath, Energy, Feeling” in the second Kum Nye book, Joy Of Being. This book’s exploration of mind and perception in the “Massaging Mind” section might also be of interest. In addition, the discussions in the first Kum Nye book in “The Inner and Outer Massage of Feeling” are relevant, and see the first few pages of “Massage as part of practice” on pp. 59-62. Also see the chapter from Gesture of Balance, “Body, Breath, and Mind,” one of our readings.

There are various esoteric treatments of this topic, Buddhist and otherwise, but with regard to the Kum Nye approach and also to access the experiential and not necessarily adhere to the conceptual, the above are what I have found especially helpful. Also you might find interest in some essays in Tarthang Tulku’s Challenging Journey, Creative Journey – though these are pretty technical. See chapter 40, “The Winds of Freedom” and later chapters. Another kind of approach is taken in Rinpoche’s Dimensions of Mind.

I hope you find some interesting descriptions that are helpful to your practice.
Take care,
Abbe

[Abbe Blum]

Jonathan – you invite us to have ongoing curiosity about not just this region but about what is stimulated by such practices. For me, this has been an ongoing area of interest – one that it has taken quite some time (years) to explore in depth – and that I’m still developing.

The occiput region is featured in the head massage section. There’s description especially of one important point, #6. Rinpoche suggests we “go deeply into” a certain feeling and special energy. Not everyone may have access to this right away -it’s important not to rush to try to produce results. This area also, however, is where many tensions get caught, and “rubbing it refreshes all bodily energies.” The feeling here, gone deeply into, “brings the subtle senses alive” (KNTY p. 100).

Also perhaps, sessions spent entirely on certain sections like head massage might be wonderful to do for later or further Kum Nye. The fourth semester of Kum Nye Teacher Training is devoted entirely to Kum Nye massage.

[Abbe Blum]

Practicing each day – or most days as you can – already is helpful and encourages the flow of feeling to unfold. Try out those shorter sessions! Also, having a regular time and a dedicated space/place dedicated to practice, may allow a deepening of experience. Please explore with kindness and curiosity, whatever you do.

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