I. Introduction to the Dizang-qi Retreat
The Dizang-qi Retreat is the name of a series of cultivation methods that were developed voluntarily by some people who practiced Buddhism at home. Based on the five major sutras and one treaty of the Pure Land School of Buddhism, we practice Buddhism through the following methods: upholding precepts and reciting the name of Amitabha Buddha; taking the Buddha, the precepts and hardships as our teacher; diligently practicing precepts, concentration and wisdom, and removing greed, hatred and ignorance. Based on the Five Precepts and Ten Good Deeds, the methods lay emphasis on eliminating karmic obstructions and take the Western Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss as the destination.
Through long-term developing and summarizing from practice, the Dizang-qi Retreat advocates the following practices: (1) being vegetarian, (2) chanting the Sutra of the Past Vows of Earth Store Bodhisattva, (3) prostrating in accordance with the Eighty-Eight Repentance Ceremony, (4) releasing animals, (5) conducting one good deed a day, and (6) reciting the name of Amitabha Buddha. People call the above six methods as “Six-step Cultivation”, and voluntarily adoptthis cultivation method.
Being a frequently used group practice mode, the Dizang-qi Retreat provides a seven-day learning of basic theories of Buddhism and cultivation method. The participants, via their practice and repentance of their misconducts during the seven days, are expected to realize their own problems, and establish their proper understanding towards Buddhism, the concept of “the law of cause and effect” and “Five Precepts and Ten Good Deeds”, and Buddhist opinions of the world, so as to guide themselves in their daily life, work, and practice.
We try to create a relatively pure environment for the Retreat, namely, one to gather in all the six organs: eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and mind. What we see are Buddha statues and scriptures, what we hear and what we say are the name of Amitabha Buddha and sutra chanting, what we smell are the fragrances of the incenses and fruits offered to Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, what we do are good deeds and Buddhist practice, and what we think is how to save our karmic creditors, relatives and the successive generations of ancestors and kinfolks in life after life, accumulate merits, cultivate virtues and attain Buddhahood as soon as possible. Let us immerse ourselves in this pure and supreme environment, and let the seven-day intensive study and practice guide us to the right path of Buddhist practice.
II. Introduction to various types of the Dizang-qi Retreat
The Elementary Retreat and the Volunteer Retreat are two cornerstones of the Dizang-qi Retreat. In addition, there are different functional retreats. All of these retreats are introduced below.
- Elementary Retreat
Objectives of the Retreat: The Elementary Retreat provides a seven-day learning of basic theories of Buddha Dharma and Buddhism, as well as an opportunity to master the Six-step Cultivation method. The participants, via their practice and repentance of their misconducts during the seven days, are expected to realize their own problems, and establish their proper understanding towards Buddhism, the concept of “the law of cause and effect” and “Five Precepts and Ten Good Deeds”, so as to guide themselves in their daily life, work, and practice.
。
Target participants: The Elementary Retreat is geared to the needs of the practitioners who believe in Buddhism and accept principles, theories and practicing methods of the Dizang-qi. We suggest that the participants read and get familiar with the Sutra of the Past Vows of Earth Store Bodhisattva before signing up. Familiarity matters a great deal in benefitting from the retreat.
- Intensive Retreat
Objectives of the Retreat: The Intensive Retreat is an advancement of the Elementary Retreat and a comprehensive practice of faith, vows and practice. By means of making repentance prostrations in an intensive way and other methods, the Intensive Retreat guides participants to breakthrough karmic obstructions and the breadth of their mind so that their inner strength and mental endurance can be improved, the dimension of their mind is somehow changed, and they can gradually feel the wonderfulfunctioning of the mind. As a result, it can help the participants strengthen their confidence in persisting in the practice and experience the benefit of Buddha Dharma.
Target participants:The retreat gears to the needs of the practitioners who have attended the Elementary Retreat. We suggest that the participants have been persisting in the practice for more than three months.
- Doctrine Study Retreat
Objectives of the Retreat: The Buddhist cultivation is a process of hearing, reflecting and cultivating as well as having faith, understanding, practicing and certifying. In order to apply the Buddha’s teaching to our daily life and in response to practitioners’ request, we are trying the Doctrine Study Retreat to help practitioners study Buddhist theories step by step and clarify their confusions related to cultivation. Good practice needs the guidance of scientific theories. So does the Buddhism cultivation.The Buddhist theories can guide our cultivation in the long run and practicing also needs theories’ support. We expect that this retreat can lead the participants to follow the Buddha’s footprints firmly, cultivate without any confusion or retreat, truly follow the Buddha’s teaching, and use Buddhist principles to guide our life and change our destinies.
Target participants: The retreat is open to practitioners who have attended the Elementary Retreat and have been persisting in the practice for over three months.
- Dizang-qi Career Development Retreat
Objectives of the Retreat: Career takes a major part of time in one’s life andthe career period is also the most mature and splendid time in one’s life. However, how many people have been struggling for food and clothing? How many people are frustrated, depressed, anxious or astray under the fierce competition and severe pressure and spend this golden period muddle-headedly!Through the learning in the Dizang-qi Career Development Retreat, we expect that Buddhist theories can help participants regain the meaning of career and learn introspection. By means of inspiring and helping each other, the participants will learn to change themselves with the power of love and awakening, thus change their living environment, so as to establish a brand-new, healthy and happy working and living style, and to achieve a perfect life.
Target participants: The retreat is geared to the needs of all practitioners with or without working experience.
- Retreat for Parents & Kids
Objectives of the Retreat:Although one’s childhood is short, it lays a crucial and underlying foundation for one’s life. Young parents, do you understand every age stage of your kid and the characteristics of his/her body, mind and soul development? Have you timely provided a rich soil for your kid’s growth? Have you mastered an effective way of communicating with kids?Through the seven-day study and practice at the Retreat for Parents & Kids, we will teach parents of kids aged 3 to 6 to know about kids’ sensitive periods and to learn the right way of loving kids as well as how to provide a pure living environment for body, speech and mind. In addition, by means of diverse ways including ballad, puppet, paper folding, and games, kids will be led to practice the Six-step Cultivation, accumulate their good roots, blessings, virtues and causal connections, and grow up to become a person of tremendous promise in the future!
Target participants: 2.5-6 year old kids and their parents, at least one parent of the kid has attended the Dizang-qi Retreat before.
- Retreat for Children
Objectives of the Retreat: Children are the hope of a family. The Dizang-qi expects that under the guidance of the Buddha Dharma children will establish a proper view on the law of cause and effect, develop a right notion of the way to behave and interact with others, and grow up in a healthy and happy way. At the same time, through practicing the Six-step Cultivation, childrencan eliminate their karmic obstructions, improve their intelligence, accumulate their blessings and virtues, and grow up with a healthy body and mind.
Target participants: Young practitioners from elementary school to high school.
- Marriage Retreat
Objectives of the Retreat: Based on understanding the law of cause and effect and fulfilling one’s obligations, the retreat is a seven-day journey that covers topics such as resolving marriage and relationship knots, revealing difference between man and woman, and cultivation of life interests. It will help you face your marriage and relationship problems from Buddhist right view, build the basis of a harmonious family, establish an idea of cultivating, growing, and perfecting the self in a marriage.
Target participants: The retreat is open to single or married practitioners who are above 22 years old and have attended the Elementary Retreat of the Dizang-qi.
- Pregnancy Retreat
Objectives of the Retreat: In order to have good kids, not only do parents need to have good health, but they also need to have good roots, blessings and virtues. For an unborn person, the pregnancy period is a stage that such person’s fate can be most easily changed since the karmic obstructions have not been formed yet at this stage. The study content of the Pregnancy Retreat includes the following two aspects: first, how to have children with good roots, blessings and virtues by right cultivation and under the Buddha’s blessings? Secondly, during the pregnancy, how to eliminate the karmic obstructions and foster blessings and improve wisdom for the unborn child? In addition, participants also learn prenatal education and good birth in this retreat.
Target participants: The retreat is geared to the needs of practitioners who are ready to get pregnant, are pregnant or just have interest in the retreat.
- Retreat for Parenting
Objectives of the Retreat: Grounded on the notion of “respecting those above us and interacting harmoniously with those below us”, this retreat aims to clarify various messy relationships in the society and helps the participants to apply the law of cause and effect and “Five Precepts and Ten Good Deeds” to those relationships. In particular, the Retreat for Parenting advocates an idea of being gentle. In fact, developing a gentle and caring mentality is the most important part of interpersonal relationships advocated by Buddha Dharma.
Target participants: This retreat is open to all practitioners who have attended the Dizang-qi Retreat before.
- Retreat for Seniors
Objectives of the Retreat: A Chinese saying says, “Treating others’ elders as our own”. During our retreat, a great number of seniors have experienced physical and spiritual changes.Therefore, we particularly set up this retreat for seniors and guide them to change themselves through cultivation, to achieve physical and spiritual health and peace, and to successfully achieve rebirth at the Western Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss at the end of their lives.
Target participants: The retreat is open to seniors who want to attend the retreat voluntarily and can look after themselves.
In addition, the Dizang-qi offers the following retreats: Retreat for the Law of Cause and Effect, Retreat for Intensive Level II for a Month, Retreat for Reciting the Name of Amitabha Buddha, Retreat for Babies, Rose Retreat (Retreat for Love), Youth Retreat, Angels Retreat, Fortune Retreat, Retreat for Starting a Business, Retreat for Entrepreneurs, Retreat for Overseas Students, Retreat for Kindergarten Teachers, Retreat for Attainments, Art Retreat, Wonderful Voice Retreat, Retreat for Cooking Skills, Retreat for Hosting a Retreat, Retreat forManagement, Retreat for Communication, etc, dozens of retreats as well as the corresponding Weekend Retreat, After-work Retreat, and Internet Retreat. All of these Retreats can fall into the following four categories: cultivation, development, the wonderful function and application of Buddhism.
Attention: The Dizang-qi retreats are Buddhist activities established voluntarily by practitioners. The retreat and registration are both free. So are food and accommodation. The Dizang-qi Retreat is non-for-profit and there are no organizers, management orresponsible person. Volunteers are practitioners who benefited from the Dizang-qi Retreat themselves and thus volunteered to provide service to participants of the retreats. All volunteers have freedom of coming and leaving, and receive no payment.The Dizang-qi does not raise money or materials in any form, releasesno news of matching funds, and participates in no commercial activities. Everyone must be very cautious upon receiving any request for remitting money through short messages, QQ messages or other ways. It is suggested to verify the information with the contacts themselves. Furthermore, in order to avoid being deceived, our practitioners must be cautious when asked tolend money for any reason; we suggest that any of such requests be rejected firmly.
We welcome all practitioners who have affinities to register to attend the Dizang-qi Retreat. You can find contact information under the title of “Register to Dizang-qi Retreat” on the Dizang-qi website and make a call to find out more detail. The Dizang-qi website is
For the practitioners who intend to attend the Dizang-qi Retreat, please register in advance according to the retreat requirements and provide real and effective register information. During the retreat, the participants are expected to follow every retreat rule on their own initiative and comply with the retreat arrangement. Throughout the entire retreat, three daily meals are purely vegetarian and no meat or animal fat is taken.In addition, no Five Pungent Plants, such as shallots, garlic, onions and leeks will be taken.
III. The Invited Dizang-qi Retreat Services
The invited Dizang-qi Retreat service refers to a new Dizang-qi Retreat mode that practitioners who have attended the Dizang-qi host training and have obtained corresponding chairing experience accept invitations and go to other places to provide the Dizang-qi Retreat services to practitioners in a certain area.
The invited Dizang-qi Retreat needs to meet the following requirements:
First, inviters should make sure that the specific local situations meet the requirements of the Dizang-qi Retreat, have corresponding space, board and lodging, equipments and resources for the Dizang-qi cultivation. The surrounding environment needs to be suitable and the retreat will not affect neighbours or have negative public effect or incur any safety issues.
Second, except for commuting expenses, the invitees will not charge any fees. Also, the invitees will not be involved in any form of raising money and materials, or participate in any commercial or non-commercial publicity activities.
Third, the Dizang-qi Retreat is a cultivation method of learning the Six-step Cultivation method and recommends practitioners to apply the Buddha’s teachings themselves through being vegetarian, chanting the Sutra of the Past Vows of Earth Store Bodhisattva, prostrating in accordance with the Eighty-eight Repentance Ceremony, releasing animals, conducting good deeds, and reciting the name of Amitabha Buddha. Therefore, during the retreat, other non-Buddhist cultivation activities that are not related to the Six-step Cultivation will not be involved. In addition, we do not help people to hold plaques or perform cross-over ceremonies. The retreat will also not mix with other schools of Buddhism or other cultivation methods.
In sum, we welcome practitioners, who possess the necessary conditions and accept the notion of the Dizang-qi cultivation and the Retreat principles, to contact the Dizang-qi Way-places that provide the invited Dizang-qi Retreat services and to discuss further detail.
IV. Benefits of the Dizang-qi Retreat and Persisting in the Six-step Cultivation
Below are some true experiences of practitioners who have attended the Dizang-qi Retreat, and have made improvement and benefited from the practice. If you are interested, please read the Story Column on the Dizang-qi website. All stories are practitioners’ own experiences during the Dizang-qi Retreat and their cultivation process.
Mind:
Heaven is fair and let me, an evil woman, suffer from acute depression. But Heaven also has pity on me and gives me an opportunity to know the Dizang-qi cultivation method, a life-saving Dharma Door of Buddhism. It can really revive people, help people to uncover the precious treasury of wisdom, let people realize the evilness inside them, and help people know how to repent, correct one’s mistakes, and cultivate one’s mind.
--The Aspirations of a Person with Acute Depression, Dizang-qi story, written by Laywoman Xu from Sui Zhou,