Chöd Healing Retreat: The Fierce Feminine Heart of Tibetan Buddhism

Transforming Poison into Wisdom with the Dakini Mandala

Chod is an ancient Buddhist practice that creates a sacred container for deep healing and awakening. Rooted in the fierce, nurturing wisdom of the feminine, it invites us to find true refuge within ourselves. Through ritual, meditation, and visualization, practitioners learn to turn toward—rather than away from—fear, grief, and other unwanted experiences. This radical act of compassion transforms pain at its roots, allowing the energies of suffering to become the ground for love, clarity, and liberation.

Often described as one of the crown jewels of Vajrayana Buddhism, Chod has been revered across all four Tibetan lineages for centuries. Traditionally transmitted only after years of practice, Chod is now being offered publicly as Chod Healing as a medicine for our collective time of instability and fragmentation. Chod practice calls on the great mother archetype of Tibetan Buddhism to guide practitioners in cutting through the roots of ego-clinging to restore wholeness. In this retreat, Sunisa will guide participants through Chod Healing meditations.

This retreat is open to experienced meditators and spiritual practitioners who feel called to work at the intersection of healing and awakening. It may be especially supportive for those who feel stagnant in their practice, survivors of trauma seeking embodied release, and anyone drawn to ceremonies that transform personal and collective pain into wisdom and compassion. While there are no formal prerequisites, participants should have familiarity with silent sitting and mindfulness practice, as well as having done internal mental health work, as the retreat calls up our inner demons or neurotic tendencies so that we may work with them.

This is the second Chod Healing retreat offered by Heart Sangha. It will focus on the dakini dance in Chod. This is how the fierce female archetype of enlightenment, the sky-dancing dakini, transforms the poisons of anger, pride, greed, jealousy and ignorance into enlightened qualities. It is not necessary to have done the first Chod Healing retreat on Refuge and the Haunted Ground, though that background is helpful. Heart Sangha recommends Anam Thubten’s Into the Haunted Ground: A Guide to Cutting the Root of Suffering, an introduction to the essence of Chod from Sunisa’s teacher.



Schedule:

Friday, February 27

9:30 - 12:30 am Arrival and Check In 
12:30 - 1:30 pm Lunch
2 - 4 pm Welcome Program
4 - 4:15 pm Break
4:15 - 5 pm Afternoon Program
5 - 6 pm Free Time
6 - 7 pm Dinner
7 - 9 pm Evening Program

Saturday, February 28

7 - 8 am Early Morning Program 
8 - 9 am Breakfast
9:30 am - 12 pm Morning Program
12:30 - 1:30 pm Lunch
2 - 5:30 pm Afternoon Program 
1:30 - 3:30 pm Break and then 3:30-5:30 Program
6 - 7 pm Dinner
7:30 - 9 pm Evening Program

Sunday, March 1

7 - 11 am Check-out of Rooms
7 - 8 am Early Morning Program
8 - 9 am Breakfast 
9:30 am - 12 pm Morning Program
12:30 - 1:30 pm Lunch & Departure

*Please note that this schedule is subject to change.