Basic goodness: a philosophical retreat on buddha nature

To enter this question we will start from a little-known source that is rarely taught in this context: In Praise of the Dharmadhatu (Dharmadhatustava), a beautiful work attributed to Nagarjuna.

The text belongs to the collection of hymns attributed to him, alongside his central treatises on emptiness. While those treatises examine the absence of inherent existence in all phenomena, In Praise of the Dharmadhatu dwells on the same reality from another angle: not on what mind and phenomena are not, but on the luminous, awake quality that makes them up. That is why, over time, it became a reference for the lineages that integrate sutra and tantra: it is one of the textual bridges between the philosophy of emptiness and the Vajrayana teachings on the nature of mind.

The Vajrayana does not describe buddha nature as a future possibility that is built up little by little. It presents it as something already complete, present in this very moment, obscured but not damaged by passing confusion. The images these texts use —buried gold, a lamp burning inside a vase, a sky covered with clouds— point to the same thing: what we are looking for does not have to be manufactured, only recognised where it already is.

This way of understanding buddha nature underpins much of tantric practice, which does not work to produce a new awakening, but to relate directly to what is already pure in our own experience. Over these five days we will read In Praise of the Dharmadhatu together with the Mahayana teachings on buddha nature, to see how a single question —what are we, beyond confusion?— is answered from two different and complementary angles.

• Study Nagarjuna’s In Praise of the Dharmadhatu as a textual bridge between the philosophy of emptiness and the Vajrayana teachings on buddha nature.
• Distinguish how buddha nature is articulated in the Mahayana and Vajrayana traditions, and what that distinction means for practice.
• Take study into meditation and contemplation, to examine in our own experience in what sense confusion is a passing obscuration and not the ultimate nature of mind.

Retreating to go deeper

A retreat is an opportunity to stop the usual pace and devote time exclusively to practice and reflection. Stepping away from daily distractions, the mind gains space to settle, to see more clearly and to go deeper into what really matters.

What it involves

This retreat combines teachings by Arne Schelling and Lama Norbu based on Nagarjuna’s text. It offers a careful rhythm that alternates teaching, formal practice, time for personal assimilation and space to resolve questions, creating favourable conditions for cultivating wisdom.

• Sustained exposure to the teachings: five continuous days allow the teachings to be received progressively, something a one-off session cannot offer.
• Cultivating wisdom: immersion in practice offers a space to explore wisdom in a sustained way and gradually bring it into the way we relate to the world.
• A community of study: studying and meditating alongside others who hold the same question provides a context that strengthens one’s own understanding.
• Direct contact with the text: working on In Praise of the Dharmadhatu gives access to an original source, not a simplified version, and turns the reading itself into part of the practice.

“Because everything is emptiness, everything is possible.” — Nagarjuna