Additional Protocols for Attending a Retreat
 
To ensure that our retreats are fruitful, Lama Tendar advises us to observe the following code of conduct in addition to the General Protocols for Attending the Centre.
 
1. Observe the Individual Liberation vows and the Ten Virtuous Paths of actions.
 
2. Observe the Bodhisattva’s vows.
 
3. During a retreat, you cannot leave the Centre or the retreat site unless for emergency medical reasons or are instructed by Lama to do so.
 
4. Leave your mala and ritual implements placed on the table in front of you inside the Gompa during the retreat, do not take them outside of the Gompa until dissolution.
 
5. If you need to use the bathroom during a session, please make three prostrations to the altar and mentally ask Lama’s permission to leave. When you rejoin, please also make three prostrations to the altar and mentally ask permission to rejoin.
 
6. Once your seat is blessed, you cannot change the seat until dissolution.
 
7. Avoid eating garlic.
 
8. Refrain from yawning, too much drinking, and passing wind during recitation.
 
9. Observe silence through out the retreat.
 
10. No talking or disturbing others during recitation of mantras.
 
11. Offer respect and space for others to practice even during breaks. Please remember that attending a retreat at the Centre is for internal mind training.
 
Please try to leave all “external things” behind when you enter the retreat. Avoid as much noise as possible and practice silence and tranquility. Avoid “worldly things” and try to engage mind, body and verbal activities fully on Dharma activities. Avoid using mobile phones unnecessarily. If talking, avoid taking about non-dharma matters. The whole practice is an act of purifying our body, speech and mind. Please respect the Centre as the sacred space of Buddha’s pure land and the Gompa as the sacred space of Mandala.