Dear Friend,

Concerning: the 3 year Foundation Retreat (men)

This is the invitation to write your 'First Contact letter' addressed to the guides of the retreat at Kundreul Ling - Le Bost.

You have expressed the profound wish to study and practise the dharma. You have also perhaps thought about completing a three year retreat and so it is therefore necessary to know clearly what this implies and how to prepare yourself for it.

First of all, the start of the next retreat cycle is in 2012. It is called the 'foundation retreat' and follows a structure and programme set out by the 17th Gyalwa Karmapa Trinley Thaye Dorje. The retreat gives a profound introduction to the basic teachings and practices of our lineage, the Karma Kagyu, which provide a firm foundation for the life-long practice of Bodhicitta and Mahamudra. It will be preceded by a pre-retreat of four months from February to May 2012.

In order to help you see if such a 'foundation retreat' would be of interest to you, we are enclosing with this letter the outline details of the programme contained in our letter of 19 January 2009.

Also, as such a retreat demands as much preparation on your part as it does on the part of our retreat guides, it is good to establish contact and a feeling of confidence right from the start and so we are inviting you now to write them a 'letter of first contact'. This needs to include:

your name and surname, your address, telephone number(s) and e-mail
a summary of your reasons for wishing to do a retreat
a description of your practice of the dharma up to the present day
basic personal information such as date of birth, profession, work, family

At a later date, an official 'letter of request' for the retreat will ask for more precise details (see the letter of 19 January 2009). Other information will be able to be given to you along with the preparation, so please stay in contact with us.

Our very best wishes with all the preparation, your time for reflection and your practice,

Lama Tendzin and Lama Lhundrup
(the lamas responsible for the men's retreat)