About Pullahari Retreat Center
Pullahari Retreat Center was established in 1993, growing out of
the inspiration to practice the core contemplative practices that
both Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche and the Vajra Regent Osel Tendzin
imparted. It was established under the guidance of the Venerable
Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche, and blessed by him in 1996. Pullahari
serves the Satdharma community as a retreat space for group and
solitary retreats throughout the year.
Located in the hills above Cayucos, CA, on the Central Coast of
California, the forty acres of Pullahari provide a protected environment
which has been purified by the practice that has taken place there.
With an elegant shrine room, a main house, a luxurious retreat cabin
(Mr. Sweeney’s residence when he is there), and two newly
built tent platforms, Pullahari can support up to thirty people
for a group retreat.
The Seat of Naropa
The following Text is an edited excerpt
from a talk given at a dathun by Patrick Sweeney on June 26, 1999
at Pullahari Retreat Center, in Cayucos, CA.
This retreat center is named Pullahari because of my relationship
with the Vajra Regent. When he gave me the book The
Life of Naropa, he explained to me how my fundamental neurosis
matched Naropa’s fundamental neurosis, and how my path would
be similarly tortuous, and it would be a path of devotion in a very
bizarre way. If you read the life of Naropa, you’ll see just
how bizarre it got for him. Pullahari became Naropa’s spiritual
seat in India, and it was the place where he finally settled down.
It was also where Naropa passed his lineage on to Marpa. Similarly,
Pullahari is the place where I decided I had better settle down
and really plant the stake of dharma, plant this lineage here, right
on this seat, right in this room. |