Yangti Yoga Retreat Center was founded on a simple and profound conviction: that the conditions for authentic Yangti (dark retreat) practice in the west, with real transmission, qualified teachers, sustained support, and a physical space devoted entirely to depth of experience - are rare, and worth building. Arising from the shared vision of Lama Justin von Bujdoss and Dr. Nida Chenagtsang, Yangti Yoga Retreat Center was conceived not merely as a place to visit, but as an institution to hold the full arc of the path supporting practitioners in the practice of dark retreat, or Yangti Yoga.

​

Over the years, as Spiritual Director, Lama Justin has continued to hone the focus and vision of the organization to include collaboration and affiliation with H.E. Chung Rinpoche, the mind reincarnation of the great Yangti Nakpo master, Trulshik Dongak Lingpa and the body incarnation of the first Chung Rinpoche, a great Tibetan dark retreat yogin who had settled in Bhutan. As such we are very focused in working closely with H.E. Chung Rinpoche in representing the Yangti Nakpo lineage dark retreat practices in ways that are approachable and authentically connected to the mother lineage. Part of our close relationship with H.E. Chung Tulku Rinpoche has led to our affiliation with his nunnery in Paro, Bhutan, Tshogyel Lungtok Tengayling Nunnery which is focused on training Bhutanese nuns in the Yangti Nakpo lineage.

​

We are committed to holding the various lineage practices connected to dark retreat including research and compilation of the various practice instructions, preparatory techniques and methods of addressing obstacles that can arise within the context of dark retreat with integrity as well as with the intention of maintaining a multi-generational location for these lineage practices to thrive here in the West. 

​

At the heart of our work is the practice of Yangti Yoga, or dark retreat — one of the most direct and demanding practices in the Vajrayana tradition, in which complete darkness becomes a gateway to recognizing the nature of mind. We hold this practice within a Rimé framework: non-sectarian, lineage-honoring, and committed to working with practitioners from across the full range of Vajrayana traditions. We believe the dharma is not the property of any single school, and that the conditions for genuine realization must be made available to those with sincere aspiration, wherever they come from.

​

Yangti is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. This status reflects our core commitment to making this work sustainable, transparent, and accountable to the community it serves. Everything we develop on the land, the retreat cabins, the teaching programs, the partnerships with lineage holders, is in service of practitioners’ genuine realization, now and for generations to come.