Kum Nye Retreat at Glacier Park, Montana  

A retreat each season offers an opportunity to deepen practice, relax, refresh, and let go of habitual patterns. Traditionally mountain retreats offer solitude and silence. To practice together at Sperry Chalet seems to be a gift from the heavens. -- Kum Nye flyer

This year’s fourth annual retreat at Sperry Chalet in Glacier Park, Montana, began amidst inclement conditions. Record amounts of snow had caused an avalanche, damaging the chalet, trails were closed, and snow banks required extra care to cross.

The season was shortened. The chalet was only open six weeks. We were fortunate to have reservations in mid-August and on the day we began our hike the trail through snow banks had been blasted open with dynamite.

Our group of eight, four men and four women, from all over the country, turned out to be hearty, good spirited, in shape and appreciative. It made for a memorable retreat.

Doing Kum Nye in a scenic alpine setting has unimagined benefits. The natural beauty reawakens a feeling of well-being and peacefulness. The long hikes seem to build confidence. The Kum Nye exercises allow the breath to flow and the body relaxes. One feels lighter, more present, and certainly less stressed.

“To practice together at Sperry Chalet does seem to be a gift from the heavens.”

We will soon make our 2012 reservations - please contact Guna at 510.809.1543 if you are interested. We will book more rooms but expect to be filled as soon as the word is out.

A NOTE FROM GUNA’S NEW FILMMAKERS: CHELSI & JESSICA

Arrive at the Nyingma Institute; unpack; rest, and then off to the Brower Center to the Guna Foundation’s first major premiere - that in a nutshell was our first day in Berkeley. The best introduction to the work of the Guna Foundation was watching Light of the Valley: The 15th Renovation of Swayambhu alongside a packed house. It was the perfect time to arrive to start work that actually relates to the degree we each received in May. Score!

Something we both share is that this environment is totally new to us. Google only gets you so far. Not only did we meet that evening some of the people involved in the production of the company’s first documentary film, but the walk to the Brower Center helped to give a sense of the town too.

Following the premiere we wasted no time in continuing the work of our Guna predecessors. The current team, Barry, Pema, Luis and Pauline, warmly welcomed us. We immediately began to pursue new opportunities to screen Light of the Valley, both domestically and internationally. As if that wasn’t enough to keep us busy, we also started work on the next Guna documentary, the forty-two year chronicle of TNMC.

As recent film school graduates, the opportunity before us is as daunting as it is exciting. Our contributions will yield an end product that we can both be proud to say, “I helped accomplish that.” We welcome the growth we will see in the next year, not only in ourselves, but also in the Guna Foundation. -- Chelsi & Jessica

Guna is an all-volunteer non-profit. Full-time volunteers typically commit for a 1-year period and are housed at the Nyingma Institute.