Expression of Interest
The text below is from an email sent out by Jonathan Chambers, one of the organisers of the retreat. Please note that this retreat is not being organised by QDC.
Hi All
This email is to let you know that a group of Lama Mark’s New Zealand students have extended an invitation to Lama Mark Webber (Lama Chokyi Gyaltsen) to give the full Abhidhamma transmission.
This is a very precious teaching for all Dharma practitioners and may be the last opportunity to receive this from Lama Mark.
At this stage we are asking for those with a serious interest in attending this retreat to complete a Registration of Interest using the linked form. This is to enable us to confirm the viability of the proposed retreat and start firming up plans. Please feel free to forward this email to other practitioners you know who may be interested.
Proposed location: New Zealand – either within or around Nelson or Queenstown
Proposed dates: December 2026 – March 2027 (4 months)
Retreat Costs: We are currently working through a preliminary budget. Once available, details will be shared with those who have registered their interest in attending.
Link to form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdY8_vLat6_GqTxYyQITLGljwmWKbtTbAoWPmZozEzBIIO2cg/viewform?usp=dialog
More about Abhidhamma:
The Abhidhamma (Pali for “Higher Laws” or “Higher Phenomena”, Sanskrit: Abhidharma) is one of the three-baskets (collections) of the Buddha’s teachings. In the Theravadin tradition, the Patthana, “The Great Book” of the Abhidhamma, interdependent causal relations is considered to be the pinnacle of the Buddha’s illumination. So many of the great masters throughout all Buddhist traditions beginning with Sariputra undertook Abhidharma training and periods of reflection and meditation. It is the basis underlying all the ancient and modern vipassana-wisdom traditions, including the great meditation manuals of the Path of Freedom and the Path of Purification. The great Mipham Rinpoche, a dedicated practitioner of Abhidharma wrote in his commentary on Abhidharma:
“By the power of gaining certainty in these ten topics (aggregates, elements, sources, dependant origination, the correct and incorrect, the faculties, time, the truths, the vehicles and conditioned and unconditioned things), you will be freed from the delusion of unwholesome views that should be abandoned, such as banishing the ten types of self-orientated views and so forth and you will increase the wisdom of things as they are and of all that exists.”
From the perspective of the Buddha’s penetrative Insight, Abhidhamma is a deep study and series of meditative investigations into mind and form, states, meditative concentration, realms of being, mental processes – cognition, stages of liberation, path factors, emptiness, interdependent origination and the causality/emptiness teaching of the interdependence of all phenomena (Patthana).
Abhidhamma studies combined with meditation guidance and themes are essential for a richer understanding of the whole of the Buddhist teachings and meditations. The three-month transmission, involving classes, workshops, study groups, cognition labs, reviews and meditation assignments will be followed by a one-month classically taught silent vipassana retreat, with individual guidance from Lama Mark Webber. This rich journey, given from the perspectives of the three-turnings of the Buddha’s teachings and the Lama’s deep background in modern science is highly recommended for practitioners who are or will teach and aspire one day to skillfully guide people in Dharma and meditation.
Intro to Abhidhamma – A talk by Lama Mark Webber: