Returning home
reconnect with being
Arising from the vision of Dr. Nida Chenagtsang and Lama Justin von Bujdoss, the Yangti Yoga Retreat Center is envisioned as a place for spiritual practice and awakening rooted around the practice of Yangti Yoga, or dark retreat.
Rooted in the profound wisdom of the Dzogchen tradition, Yangti Yoga offers a unique space where the ancient practice of dark retreat can act as a gateway to inner exploration and understanding. Here, in the embrace of absolute stillness and darkness, the mind finds a rare opportunity to delve into its deepest layers, fostering insights that are at once personal and universal.
We focus on primarily on Yangti Yoga practice based upon the the Yuthok Nyingthig tradition. The Yuthok Nyingthik lineage is the source of Sowa Rigpa (གསོ་བ་རིག་པ་།), the Tibetan language term for the traditional medical system of Tibet, translated into English as “the Science of Healing”.
While we specialize in the presentation of Yangti Yoga meditation, or Dark Retreats, in which participants retreat in complete darkness for anywhere from 1 day up to 7 weeks, we are also dedicated to the presentation of the Ati Yoga practice traditions of the Karma Nyingthik and Konchok Chidu.
We believe in the transformative power of contemplative traditions that transcend cultural and religious boundaries. Our retreat center is dedicated to fostering a deeper understanding of the universal elements present in spiritual practices, with a special focus on meditation, dark retreats, and inter-contemplative dialogue.
is an American vajrayana Buddhist teacher, writer, and the is a co-founder of Bhumisparsha an experimental Buddhist sangha along with Lama Rod Owens. He is the author of Modern Tantric Buddhism: Authenticity and Embodiment in Dharma Practice published by North Atlantic Books, and contributor to Buddhism and Whiteness: Critical Reflections published by Lexington Books. From 2016 until December 2021 Justin served as the Executive Director of Chaplaincy and Staff Wellness for NYC Department of Correction where he also served as Staff Chaplain supervising over 30 chaplains and guided wellness programming for staff.
Justin also has professional experience in home hospice and hospital settings as a pastoral caregiver. Justin was ordained as a repa, a lay tantric yogin in the tradition of Milarepa, by His Eminence Gyaltsab Rinpoche, one of the heart sons of His Holiness the 16th Karmapa. Lama Justin has presented on Buddhist practice at Harvard, Princeton, Yale, University of Chicago, Wellesley, Columbia University, has been a visiting instructor at Union Theological Seminary, and is a senior teacher at Pure Land Farms. Justin is passionate about helping to create the conditions for authentic embodied tantric Buddhist spiritual practice in the West.
Lama Justin von Bujdoss
Born in Amdo, in North Eastern Tibet Dr. Nida began his early studies Sowa Rigpa (Traditional Tibetan Medicine) at the local Tibetan Medicine hospital. Later he was awarded scholarship to enter the Lhasa Tibetan Medical University, where he completed his medical education in 1996 with practical training at the Tibetan Medicine hospitals in Lhasa and Lhoka.
Alongside his medical education, Dr. Nida trained in Vajrayana with teachers from every school of Tibetan Buddhism, especially in the Longchen Nyingthig of the Nyingma school from his root teacher Ani Ngawang Gyaltsen and in the Dudjom Tersar lineage from Chönyid Rinpoche and Sremo Dechen Yudron.
He received complete teachings in the Yuthok Nyingthig lineage, the unique spiritual tradition of Tibetan Medicine, from his teachers Khenpo Tsultrim Gyaltsen and Khenchen Troru Tsenam, and was requested to continue the lineage by Jamyang Rinpoche of the Rebkong ngakpa/ma (non-monastic yogi and yogini) tradition.
A well-known poet in his youth, Dr. Nida later published many articles and books on Sowa Rigpa (Traditional Tibetan Medicine) and the Yuthok Nyingthig tradition both in the Tibetan and English languages which have been translated into several languages. He has extensively researched ancient Tibetan healing methods, and has gained high acclaim in the East and West for his revival of little known traditional Tibetan external healing therapies.
In addition to his work as a physician, he trains students in Sowa Rigpa and the Yuthok Nyingthig tradition in over forty countries around the world.
Dr. Nida Chenagtsang
Ethics Statement
Yangti Yoga Retreat Center is committed to providing support as a place for practitioners who are engaged in the work of awakening.
An essential aspect of this work is ethics. We recognize that adhering to an ethics code is an important activity to model for others.
We are committed to an ethics that includes disrupting patterns of abuse and harm that arise both outside of, but especially within, spiritual communities. We are specifically committed to the application of the dharma towards liberation from unexamined habitual behavior that cause harm. Such cycles of harm include, but are not limited to, the exclusion of underrepresented groups in dharma communities, misuse of power, poor boundaries, and lack of understanding around sexual ethics. We also seek to avoid the spiritual harm created by overly orthodox spiritual communities who may disempower the individual to preserve an unexamined status quo.
We are also committed to the maintenance and continued propagation of the tantric Buddhist path as an organic continuation of this brilliant tradition that speaks to the needs and intersecting specificities associated with ‘Western’ culture. As such we are committed to breaking new ground and maintaining vital relevance in the support of lay tantric practitioners rooted in the foundation, and spirit, demonstrated by Yuthok Yonten Gonpo, Padmasambhava, Yeshe Tsogyal, the early Kagyu gurus, Rangjung Dorje, Jatson Nyingpo and countless others both known and unknown to history.
We are committed to keeping this tradition alive and bright with the full recognition that spiritual growth and the sense of empowerment that accompanies it is not always easy or convenient. Lineage cannot exist outside of the individual practitioner, and in this way, we commit to the slow, steady contribution to the lineage by supporting practitioners as they themselves commit to and delve into this powerful, important work with us.