Explore, Deepen and Attune Through Your Heart

In Tibet the monasteries were built by taking into account sacred principles that are similar to those of feng shui. The elements were always considered as they were very much a part of the over all indigenous cosmology.  The most desirable location for a monastery or retreat center was against a mountain and if there was a stream nearby, the stream flow was considered best if from left to right.  Almost all monasteries and retreat centers were located near mountains.  Local deity protectors usually inhabited these locations and the great practitioners like Milarepa, Padmasambhava, and many other Lamas subdued and converted these deities to be protectors of Dharma and its practitioners.

Crestone is located in the San Luis Valley, one of the highest intermountain valleys (almost at 7,000 feet) in North America. The valley is ringed by the continental divide on one side looking across the valley to the San Juan Mountains and the Sangre de Cristo (blood of Christ) mountains on the other side as the back drop.

A notable lama once said “To see the greatness of a mountain, one must keep one’s distance; to understand its mood, one must experience it from above and below, at sunrise and sunset, in all weather and during the various seasons. The life of a mountain is as intense and varied as that of a monastery. There is a deep inner relationship between the mountains and monasteries, the true embodiment of the spirit of the Himalayas. What monasteries and mountains have in common is Greatness, Simplicity, Strength, Aloofness, and Endurance. Wherever beauty, solitude, and grandeur conspire to produce an atmosphere of awe and religious inspiration there will be found a sanctuary, a hermitage or monastery, or a place of pilgrimage. These citadels of faith amidst the most challenging forces of nature are the fulfillment of nature on a higher plane, expressing its transcendent spirit through the ascending aspirations of man.” May these words also come to describe Thrangu Rinpoche’s Vajra Vidya Retreat Center in Crestone, Colorado.