Healing the World Within and Around Us:
Medicine Buddha and Sur Chöd Retreat

Led by Lama Palden Drolma & Lama Döndrup Drolma

This weeklong retreat offers an immersive opportunity to engage deeply with the practice of Medicine Buddha, both as a path of personal healing and as a way of cultivating a responsive, compassionate presence with our loved ones and in the world.

Participants will receive the Medicine Buddha empowerment (wang), along with the reading transmission (lung) and teachings (tri) that support a grounded and meaningful connection to the practice. These transmissions provide not only access to the formal practice, but also a living sense of connection to the lineage from which it emerges.

A significant portion of the retreat will be dedicated to direct engagement with the practice itself. Through repeated sessions of meditation, mantra recitation, and visualization, participants will have the opportunity to become increasingly familiar with the felt sense of the practice, allowing it to move from something we do into something we begin to embody.

The retreat will also include teachings on the practice of Sür Chöd, an evening ritual of offering that expresses generosity in its most expansive form. This practice supports the release of grasping and invites a widening of perspective, as we relate not only to our own experience of difficulty, but also to unseen dimensions of suffering and need, particularly those navigating the bardo between this life and the next. Participants will both learn about and actively engage in this ritual during the retreat.

Throughout the week, teachings will be offered to support:

• A clear understanding of the view and intention behind the practices

• A sense of confidence and familiarity in engaging them

• The integration of these practices into daily life

Participants will also engage daily in Lujong (Tibetan yogic movement) and either Chenrezig or Niguma’s Extraordinary Tonglen practice.

This retreat is suitable for both those who are newer to Vajrayāna and those with prior experience who wish to deepen their connection to Medicine Buddha practice. The emphasis will be on making the practices accessible, experiential, and workable, while also honoring their depth and integrity.

Prerequisites: Have taken Refuge Vows.

In a time when many feel the impact of uncertainty, illness, and collective strain, this retreat offers a space to reconnect with a source of healing that is not separate from our own awareness, one that can be accessed, cultivated, and shared.

Retreat details, schedule, and registration can be found at Sukhasiddhi.org/annualretreat2026.