Question asked by Jocelyn
Hi dear Pastor Niral Patel,
Thanks for your reply. As described on https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/buddhas-dharma/dorje-shugden-retreat-a-powerful-practice-to-fulfill-wishes.html ,
the retreat of Dorje Shugden is allowed to set aside of weekend, for example consecutive Saturday and Sunday, with at least one session per day. So for the Yamantaka retreat, according to tradition, can i do the consecutive 2 days "Closed" Retreat, and set a weekly goal for example 10,000 of mantra. and then by the time, let say many many weeks after, 1 million is accumulated, then I do a fire puja to seal it? So i dont have to do fire puja every weekend. Thanks a lot again and have a nice day!












































































































Dear Jocelyn,
A retreat is only valid when one engages in an entire retreat session at least once a day. This is the minimum. So every day you need to engage in the entire sadhana of the deity that you are doing the retreat on. So if you are doing a retreat intensively on the weekends, you would still need to do at least one session a day during the week as well, for the retreat to be continuous. Traditionally speaking, close retreats are not done this way, but are engaged in intensively for a periods of time every day until the mantra count or other commitments have been fulfilled. These retreats would necessarily require certain prayers or even rituals to be done to begin and end the retreat. An addition to this would be the fire puja requirement at the end.
Therefore, the sort of retreat you have described will not be considered a close retreat. However, depending on your circumstances and your commitments, it would be advisable to consult with the guru who gave you the empowerment of the deity. This is because the guru would know what would be the best method for you to engage in the retreat. I would strongly suggest for you to seek your guru’s advice. I hope this helps.
Thank you