ABOUT THE HABIT ALIGNMENT KEY (HAK) EXPERIENCE
The opportunity of the group:
Spending time with a group provides opportunities for shared experiences, diverse perspectives, and collaborative learning, which is metaphorically enriching. Everyone is participating together in the activities, boosting our desire to share, grow and improve. We have been living in tribes for thousands of years, it is normal we are attracted to being accepted into the group.
The Habit Alignment Key (HAK) is a profound, unique and innovative retreat experience created by Tenzin Osel Hita to facilitate deep insight and awareness into our inner and outer environments. Combining Buddhist wisdom with current scientific thinking we will discover our intricate relationship to ourselves and the ever-changing interdependent worlds around us.
Grounded in the earth and the elements, we will cohabitate and learn how to align ourselves in a positive, sustainable way through our thinking, eating, living, and consumer habits. We will explore our mental and emotional habits, the neural pathways we establish, the importance of flexibility and movement to our mind, the nature of reality and our personal relationship to it, how to live sustainably and contribute in a positive constructive manner to the earth and society.
We will be feasting on gourmet plant-based meals, with an experienced plant-based chef demonstrating how to prepare wholefoods at home to benefit ourselves and others. We will explore how perception and attitude are linked to the nutrition we receive and learn what is truly nourishing.
Experienced professionals from a variety of fields will provide stimulus for growth, new understanding and rethinking our habitual patterns. We are exploring all aspects of ourselves -spiritual, mental, emotional and physical – how we relate to ourselves, those around us, and the environment we live in.
The HAK provides the potential for our minds to become more flexible, more understanding, open, happier and productive. Collectively the HAK experience will help us transcend conventional perspectives, leading to a deeper understanding of reality and our place in it. We will be well nourished at all levels and have the tools to change and improve habits aligned with our true nature and aspirations.
BOOK THROUGH LINK AT BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE.
Details about accommodation, location, cost, transport, cancellation policy are at the bottom of this webpage. The retreat will take place on the lands of the Dja Dja Warrung People, Bendigo.
ABOUT TENZIN ÖSEL HITA
Tenzin Ösel Hita, born in 1985, is a radical freethinker, humanitarian, documentary filmmaker, musician, father, friend, lifelong student, and former 21st-century Buddhist monk. When just 14 months old, Ösel was formally recognized by His Holiness the Dalai Lama as the reincarnation of Lama Thubten Yeshe, the revered Tibetan yogi, scholar, and teacher.
Today, the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), which Lama Thubten Yeshe and his main disciple Lama Zopa Rinpoche founded in the early 1970s, comprises an international family of thousands of students and a network of more than 130 centres, projects, and services. The FPMT was under the spiritual direction of Lama Zopa Rinpoche until Rinpoche’s passing in early 2023.
Ösel served on the FPMT board of directors from 2008 to 2013. He continues to attend teachings and supports the organisation by sharing love, experience, and knowledge with the FPMT family around the world. “There is no separation between me and the FPMT,” says Ösel. “We are all working together in many aspects and fields. Humanity is our office.”
Ösel was enthroned as the reincarnation of Lama Yeshe in March 1987. In 1991, when he was six years old, he entered Sera Je Monastic University in southern India, where he lived and studied until he was 18 years old. Ösel then made the decision to leave monastic life to explore modern ways of living and thinking. Ösel continued his education, graduating from high school at St. Michaels University School, a private boarding school in British Columbia, Canada. After high school, Ösel attended university in Switzerland, studying Western philosophy, human rights, the French language, and art.
Ösel furthered his interest in film by moving to Madrid and studying for a degree in Film Direction, Direction of Photography, and a Master’s in Documentary Filmmaking at the International School of Audiovisual Media. Ösel has also taken communication courses at Cabrillo College in Santa Cruz, California. From California, Ösel went to the University of Hawaii, where he studied financial and organisational behaviour. Ösel returned several times to continue his Buddhist philosophical studies at Sera Je Monastery with his beloved teacher Geshe Gendun Choephel, who passed away in 2016. Ösel places an emphasis on seeking non-traditional learning and creative experiences.
“We are all one family and we are sisters and brothers,” says Ösel. “Never forget this. Starting with yourself. You are your best friend. You have to live with yourself all your life, so make the most of it. Don’t be hard on yourself. Just relax. Love yourself. Beware. Enjoy your own company without depending on external agents, such as intangible concepts—surreal and intoxicating idealizations which add more samsara on top of the samsara we already have. Be present, and don’t be dissatisfied, because the main cause of dissatisfaction means that you are not living in the moment. Or—live in the moment. This moment. It is always the same moment. Agree?”
Download and read in full the HAK experience written by Ösel HERE.
THE PROGRAM
The program will incorporate meditation and yoga, sessions on dance and movement, talks about quantum physics, sustainabilty, veganism and so much more. Ösel places an emphasis on seeking non-traditional learning and creative experiences.
You can find the full program HERE.
Dancing is the motion of our body and mind in union. Dance and movement is liberating and expressive, allowing us to connect with our inner selves and let our spirits soar. We let go of what we think others may think and feel free through the expression of our inner beauty, balance, health, joy, and connection with the animals within us.
Ösel Hita
ABOUT THE PRESENTERS
VENERABLE GYATSO – A CHAT ABOUT EMPTINESS
Ven Thubten Gyatso is one of the first Westerners to become a monk in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. He is an FPMT veteran who has been instrumental in establishing a number of Dharma centres in France, Taiwan, Australia, and Mongolia.Ven Gyatso is the director of Monastery in Bendigo Australia, is an author, teacher, builder, and meditator. His spiritual path is a quest to slay the ego and his life story is a parable for modern times.
ZE – SOUND EXPERIENCES
Onezee State is an experimental soundscape artist embodying the tactile nature of existence through a sonic and visual odyssey. Awaken the very depths of your nature through play, movement and expansion. An invitation to still your mind and calm your waters along the journey.
VENERABLE DRIME – YOGA EXPERIENCES
Venerable Drime is an FPMT nun based at the Atisha Centre and is also an experienced yoga teacher.
TOM TRUTY – APPROACHING VEGANISM AND CONSCIOUS CONSUMERISM
Tom Truty served as FPMT’s Director of Education Services for ten years, has taught both Buddhist and secular meditation. He now serves as CEO of Tenzin Osel Hita’s not-for-profit organization, Universal Clear Light, as Executive Assistant to Tenzin Osel Hita,
A vegan and conscious consumer for many years, Tom has written for several vegan publications and helped produce vegan events, promoting compassion for all sentient beings.
KATIE WARD – VEGAN MASTER CHEF DEMONSTRATIONS
Katie Ward has travelled the world in search of people and lands that inspire beauty, wisdom and healing. A long time Dharma student she is passionate about nutrition and wellbeing. As a retreat cook for 14 years, it brings her joy to nourish people engaged in retreats and delight them with the freshness, colours and fragrances of the world’s cuisines
CARMELA QUIMBO – GROUP INTERACTION DESIGN
Carmela Quimbo is a social worker, pastoral care worker, writer, yoga and meditation teacher. She studied for a law degree and completed an internship in New Orleans, volunteering for an organisation that represented people facing the death penalty. She has worked as a lawyer in Melbourne, and as a social worker, worked in drug and alcohol counselling and palliative care.
MARK ALLAWAY – PRACTICAL ECOLOGICAL AWARENESS
Mark Allaway studied agricultural science and landscape architecture at university and ran his own landscape design consultancy. In 2002, he took up a role as a senior Government policy analyst in environmental management in primary industries in Victoria focussing on soils, water, biodiversity and climate change. Since 2021, Mark has been the Coordinator for Osel’s Global Tree Initiative in Australia.
KIKE MANTECON – HISTORY OF HUANITY AND NATURAL MEDI CINE
For the last 15 years my partner Beatriz and I have spent every summer in England, searching for energy points in powerful ancient places and making documentaries about them.
Since 2006 I have worked with Tibetan lamas, helping them as much as possible on their world peace tours to raise funds for their monastery. And since 2012 I have studied Ayurveda, the original native medicine of Asia, in Kerala, India.
DR KRISTINA MAH – FLOW, CREATIVITY, VULNERABILITY, CURIOSITY
Kristina is an artist, researcher, educator and athlete.
Kristina holds a PhD in interaction design. Her work examines how to translate, embody and enact vulnerability and compassion through design and technology. Her practice takes form primarily as installation, combining interactive technologies with video, photography, mixed media. Kristina will speak about her experience of the process of training practical habits to dance with self-doubt and rest in the discomfort of vulnerability.
WHERE THE HAK WILL TAKE PLACE
The retreat will take place on the lands of the Dja Dja Warrung People, Bendigo, Victoria.
Accommodation will be at the Atisha Centre, and it’s a 5 minute walk to the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion where the retreat will occur.
GETTING TO THE GREAT STUPA/ ATISHA CENTRE
Driving from Melbourne (approx 2hrs) via the Calder Fwy/M79
Public Transport: catch a VLine train from Southern Cross station to Bendigo (2 hr) and then an Über to the Atisha Centre (approx $30). You will need a Myki card available at 7/11 or a train station.
If arriving at the airport in Melbourne: from the Terminal 4 car park you can catch the 479 bus to Sunbury Station (30 mins) then the VLine train to Bendigo (1 hr 19 mins) and then an Über to the Atisha Centre (approx $30). You will need a Myki card (before catching the bus) available at Terminals, 7/11 or a train station.
Bendigo Airport Bus
The Bendigo Airport Bus runs between Tullamarine Airport and Bendigo train station. Services run every two hours, and a little less often on the weekend. Find out more HERE.
There are also flights that go directly to Bendigo.
ACCOMMODATION
Onsite accommodation will be at the Atisha Centre. It is mostly in our single and double tents with stretcher beds or BYO camping and can be booked once you have booked your course ticket. Full bedding (including linen and towels) are provided in the twin-share and single tent accommodation. Accommodation prices for the whole retreat are as follows:
BYO Tent $40
Twin-share tent provided $60 per person
Single tent provided $80
Dormitory (monks only) $100
Dormitory (nuns only) $100
Twin share + ensuite (nuns) $140
COSTS
Course fees are as follows:
$1,060 lay person
$ 850 sangha concession
Tickets are booked through Humanitix ticketing system which is a registered charity. Their 2.5% + $0.5 + GST booking fee proceeds go to charities for disadvantaged kids.
CANCELLATION POLICY
Please download our cancellation policy HERE.
HEART OF WISDOM INC.
This event is organised by the Heart of Wisdom Board Inc. Read more about the Heart of Wisdom Inc, Atisha Centre, the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, Thubten Shedrup Ling monastery and Machig Labdron nunnery HERE.