VIBING VAJRASATTVA

This is the registration page for the June cohort, 2025. All are welcome to register now for the "incubation phase." Registration for the weekend retreat is separate and dependent on successful completion of the incubation phase.
Featuring a 1-month cohort program of vibraphone-infused Vajrasattva practice culminating in an in-person weekend retreat in upstate New York with live vibraphone music and guided practice.
Vibing Vajrasattva is a sonic-based approach to Buddhist sādhanā practice that features a four-six week incubation period of synchronous and asynchronous online cohort practice that culminates with an in-person weekend retreat—invocation of the deity— followed by online group and individual integration.

This three-phase program of incubation, invocation, and integration we've dubbed our "Third Eye Approach" and is inspired by the Vajrayāna Buddhist Mahāsiddha model in ancient India and Tibet. These largely autonomous practitioners were remarkable for their diversity of composition (coming from all walks of life and occupations) and their tradition of periodically coming together as a sangha to hold space for the ganachakra, a sensory-rich invocation of the deity that is believed to have included antinomian behaviors.

The Third Eye Approach is also an evolution of Timothy Leary’s psychedelic protocol of “set and setting.” However, we believe a proper set (in this Buddhist context) requires an incubation of 1 month of daily practice.

This program is not intended to substitute the traditional Buddhist preliminary (ngöndro) practice of reciting 100,000 Vajrasattva mantras. There is no empowerment or refuge ceremony for this program, which is open to both Buddhists and non-Buddhists.

THE THIRD EYE APPROACH & TIMETABLE

4 prerecorded guided audio tracks for asynchronous daily practice.

Invocation Phase
In-person weekend retreat (1 night)
June 29th-30th

Integration Phase
2 live synchronous group Zoom video meetings
Monday, July 7th & 14th

SLIDING SCALE

Gainfully Employed Tier
"I have a good job that allows me to spend money on things I value."

Dharma Bum Tier
"I have trouble paying my bills every month."

TUITION
Registration and payment proceed in three phases (incubation, invocation, and integration). Registration for INCUBATION is currently open.

All are welcome to register for the INCUBATION phase now.

Incubation
OPEN NOW
Dharma Bum $150
Gainfully Employed $500
Benefactor $800

Invocation
OPENS IN JUNE
Dharma Bum $300
Gainfully Employed $500
Benefactor $1000

Integration
OPENS IN JUNE
Dharma Bum $75
Gainfully Employed $150
Benefactor $300

ABOUT THE VIBRAPHONIST
Chris Dingman is a New York-based vibraphonist and composer. Chris Dingman is known for his distinctive approach to the instrument, which is at once sonically rich and conceptually expansive. In his captivating solo performances, he casts an enveloping atmosphere, creating layers of simultaneous sound that take listeners to a transcendent place. Chris has worked with the legendary artists Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter and many other of today’s jazz and world music luminaries. Based in NYC since 2002, Chris had been documenting his solo improvisations privately for many years. When his father entered hospice care in 2018, he created the 5-hour extended album Peace. This led to an ongoing evolution of his solo music and his critically acclaimed albums Journeys Vol. 1 and Vol. 2. Chris actively tours and has performed worldwide. He has been profiled by NPR, the New York Times, AMNY, and many other publications. He has received fellowships and grants from Chamber Music America, New Music USA, South Arts, and the Thelonious Monk Institute.

The vibraphone is a percussion instrument that looks like a xylophone but has aluminum bars instead of wood. The vibraphone player uses one or two mallets (beaters) in each hand to strike the bars. Underneath each bar is a tube or “resonator” with an electric motor that helps create a unique resonance. In the hands of sonic shaman Chris Dingman, the vibes become a powerful tool for subtle bodywork that is incredibly intimate--but without physical touch.

ABOUT THE FACILITATORS
Dina Percia holds a Master’s of Arts in Holistic Counseling Psychology with an emphasis in Somatic Psychology. As a psychotherapist, she has worked with adults, adolescents, and children in community mental health agencies focusing on complex and developmental trauma. Having trained as a palliative care doula at Mount Sinai Hospital, an end-of-life doula with Peaceful Presence Project, and an abortion doula with Bay Area Doula Project, Dina is called to support those traversing expanded and liminal states of consciousness; the bardos of life and death.

Doc Kelley is a scholar of Buddhism and a part-time professor in religious studies at Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts, The New School University. He is also the co-founder of Psychedelic Sangha and lives in Brooklyn, NYC.

Doc received a Ph.D. in Religion from Columbia University, where he studied Indo-Tibetan Buddhism with Robert A. F. Thurman. Before attending graduate school, he was a “dharma bum” who traveled Asia and practiced Buddhism initially at Kopan Gompa in Kathmandu and later at Sermey Monastery in India. He did his first Heruka-Vajrasattva retreat at the FPMT Tushita Dharma Center in Dharamsala 1997.