DLM - Spiritual Development Program
 
Drepung Loseling Monastery, Inc.
an affiliate of Emory University, presents
Freedom from the
Four Attachments
Year-End Retreat
December 27 to 30, 2025
*In-Person only
Taught by
Geshe Ngawang Phende
 
Drepung Loseling Monastery is delighted to offer this Year-End Retreat on the Four Attachments, an in depth exploration on the obstacles to spiritual practice and the path to genuine freedom.
The Four Attachments is a concise teaching from the Sakya tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, revealed to the master Sachen Kunga Nyingpo in the 11th century. These four lines serve as a complete guide to the Buddhist path, addressing the key obstacles that prevent spiritual awakening.
 
Attachment to this life keeps us focused on immediate concerns, wealth, status, comfort, preventing genuine spiritual practice. When we're consumed by this life's affairs, our practice remains superficial.
Attachment to samsara means clinging to existence itself, even future lives or heavenly rebirths. This attachment keeps us cycling through conditioned existence. The antidote is renunciation, not rejecting life, but seeing through the illusion that any worldly condition can provide lasting satisfaction.
Attachment to self-interest is the self-centered mind that prioritizes personal gain over others' welfare. This blocks bodhicitta, the compassionate intention to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all beings. Bodhicitta is considered the heart of Mahayana Buddhism.
Attachment to grasping refers to ego-grasping and the belief that things exist inherently and independently. This fundamental ignorance is the root of all suffering. The antidote is wisdom realizing emptiness, understanding that neither self nor phenomena have inherent, independent existence.
 

Together, these four teachings provide a progressive path: first loosening attachment to immediate concerns, then to all conditioned existence, then transcending self-centeredness through compassion, and finally uprooting ignorance through wisdom. They encapsulate the entire Buddhist path from initial practice to complete enlightenment.
 
This retreat will combine instruction, meditation practice, and discussion.
 
This event is open to the general public.
 
 
Retreat Schedule
1st Session:
 10:00 am - 12:00 Noon
Lunch Break:
 12:00 Noon - 2:00 pm
2nd Session:
2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
3rd Session:
 4:30 pm - 6:30 pm
 
  Geshe Ngawang Phende was born in Nepal in 1968. As a young boy he became a monk at Drubthob Rinpoche’s monastery in Nepal for two years where he received his initial monastic training. He joined Drepung Loseling Monastery, south India in 1982 at the age of 12, where he successfully completed his monastic education and passed Geshe Lharampa examination in 2001. He then attended Guymey Monastery for further Tantric studies and stayed there for a year. Geshe Ngawang was the resident teacher at the Lam Rim Tibetan Buddhist Center in Johannesburg, South Africa for almost four years. Twice he has been on the Mystical Arts of Tibet tour and now, currently is one of the resident teachers at DLM.
     
     
Tuition
   $195 - DLM Members Free
(membership must be valid through 12-30-25)
     
    A voluntary offering to the teacher is customary in the
Buddhist tradition.
     
Location
   DLM Meditation Hall
     
Deadline
  

Tuesday December 22, 2025

     
Registration
     
 
Recording Policy:
No recordings, audio or visual, without express permission from Drepung Loseling Monastery.
 
Cancellation Policy:
One-day events: If you withdraw before the day of the event, we will refund your fees, minus a $20 administrative charge. You must speak with a member of the administrative staff by 6pm. Leaving a message will not alter your registration. There will be no other refunds.
If you do not attend a session it is counted as a withdrawal and there will be no refunds or exchanges.
*When purchasing a series for either the Foundation or the Intermediate classes note that the series advantage gives you a lower rate and purchasing classes individually gives you flexibility. When purchasing these series the first class will count toward the one day cancellation policy. After the first class has begun for the purchase of the series there will be no other refunds or exchanges.

Multiple-day events: If you withdraw before the start of the retreat, course, or event, we will refund your fees, minus a 10% administrative charge. If you withdraw after the first retreat or teaching session, we will refund 75% of the fees. After the start of the second session there will be no refunds.