Chöd Healing Retreats

Immerse Yourself in the Liberating Wisdom of Machig Labron—One of Tibet’s Most Revered Female Meditation Masters
with Buddhist Teachers Sue Kochan and Sunisa Manning

Co-Sponsored by Dharma Refuge and Heart Sangha

SAVE THE DATES
October 24-26, 2025
Rochester NY • non-residential

February 27-March 1
TBD (near Philadelphia) • residential

Registration and additional details to come!
What is Chöd?
The 11th century Tibetan meditation master Machig Labdron created a dharma called Chöd, which means cutting through. Chöd is a radical, immediate path to awakening. It is prophesized to be one of the most appropriate medicines in our current turbulent times, called kaliyuga—when ego-clinging and mental afflictions dominate the personal and collective psyche. 

Chöd invites participants to turn toward, not away from, life's unwanted experiences. This orientation is a potent medicine that transforms the root of fear and painful psychological patterns into the wakeful qualities of love and freedom.  

What happens in a Chöd ceremony?
Retreats offer a mix of teachings and ceremony sessions. Sunisa and Sue's teachings will be infused with the contemporary wisdom of Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC), Sustainable Compassion Training (SCT), and Internal Family Systems (IFS). 

Chöd ceremonies are shamanic. The teachers sing and play instruments to create the Chöd container in an unbroken lineage from the 11th century. Chöd is a Vajrayana ceremony that evokes the wisdom of emptiness, drawing directly from the Heart Sutra, a revered Mahayana sutra. Participants are held in the limitless compassion of the buddhas and bodhisattvas in the alive lineage held by the teachers. 

Who is leading the ceremonies?
For years, dharma teachers Sunisa Manning and Sue Kochan have worked with Anam Thubten Rinpoche's transmission of Chöd. They are sharing it publicly now with their teacher's blessing and the aspiration that others may receive the healing they have experienced. They will offer Jigme Linga's Chöd, The Roar of the Dakini's Laughter. 
What will be taught
Sue and Sunisa will offer teachings on Chöd as a path and a way of being in the world based on radical acceptance, non-dual wisdom and sacred perception.

Teachings and ceremonies will work together on emotional, physical, and spiritual levels, inviting participants into the immediate experience of cutting through and releasing the personal, ancestral, and collective cycles of harm, shame, and confusion that limit our lives and our world.

Who can participate?
There are no formal pre-requisites for the retreat. Sue and Sunisa will offer Chöd-based Dharma teachings and will guide participants through each stage of the ceremony.

A degree of physical stamina is needed for 2+ days of meditation and visualization. Participants should have some experience with sitting meditation.

This retreat is not recommended for people who are currently experiencing active trauma or deep grief or who may be undergoing significant depression or struggling with emotional regulation.

As we get closer to registration opening for these retreats we will have a way for you to contact us to discuss participation concerns and questions.