EXPERIENCE
Habit Alignment Key (HAK) Retreats are a profound, unique, and innovative retreat experience created by Tenzin Ösel Hita to help facilitate 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.
Grounded in our interdependence with the earth and the elements, we will cohabitate and learn how to align ourselves in a positive, equitable 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 how we interact with it, and ways to live sustainably while contributing in a positive, constructive manner to the earth and society.
We will be feasting on gourmet plant-based meals, with experienced vegan chefs demonstrating how to prepare whole foods 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 behave in relation to ourselves, those around us, and the environment we live in.
The HAK Retreat provides the potential for our minds to become more flexible, understanding, open, happier, connected, and productive. Collectively, the HAK Retreat 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.
RETREAT
Upcoming events
New Zealand – 2023
The retreat is located in the beautiful countryside near Nelson, New Zealand, at Chandrakirti Meditation Centre.
Australia – 2023
The HAK Retreat will be hosted at the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion in coordination with Atisha Centre and Thubten Shedrup Ling Monastery, just outside Bendigo, Australia.
Elements
The habits we have
Habits are what we repeat every day, the more we do something the easier it is to repeat it; we develop neural pathways that become very easy to follow. Developing positive habits leads to better health, personal growth and wellness, helping us to achieve our goals with confidence and courage. It is important to be mindful of our habits and work towards cultivating those which align with our aspirations. However, we first need to become aware of our negative habitual tendencies if we are to transform them.
Why travelling is important
When we travel, we have no home but ourselves. This is an essential way to understand that many of our habits come from the locations, people, tendencies, and hardships we have surrounded ourselves with. When the body is on the move, it's just us and our body. In this process, we begin to pick up new habits and change—or even abandon—old habits.
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 useful and recognized in the group. This process is called the group therapy process or HAK (Habit Alignment Key).
Nourishing body and mind
We are what we eat; food is a key factor in the health of our perceptions, attitudes, and physical wellbeing. We are learning to feed ourselves that which our bodies and minds truly need and are grateful for.
Dance of the souls
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.
Conscious consumerism
Cheaper, better, healthier, sustainable, and good for our environment. As consumers we create rubbish; we will learn to make purchasing decisions that consider environmental, social, and ethical impacts of products and services, minimising waste and supporting fair labour incentives. Nature gives us everything; we learn how to return the good graces, ensuring our children will thrive.
Applying Habit Alignment in our daily routine
Once back in our well known area of being, we commence jumping back into our old habits. After training our mind we may be able to condition ourselves slowly, step by step, moving into a more reasonable dynamic towards a happier and healthier life.
Ten steps to valuing our inner space and discovering our potential
There are ten different emotions and non-emotions that we have to attend to in our everyday life actions, thoughts, and speech.
1) Apologizing and forgiving
2) Letting go of our attachments
3) Understanding the reality of non-separation
4) Creating an emotion of empathy and desire to help
5) Gratitude towards everything that helps us exist
6) Cultivation of training mind and spirit
7) Using the body to activate the brain
8) Perception and attitude
9) Effort of constancy
10) Creating your own reality and controlling emotions
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 14th 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 160 centers, 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 organization by sharing love, experience, and knowledge with the FPMT family around the world.
Born and raised in Chicago, Tom Truty spent years living in Brooklyn, Los Angeles, and Portland, before returning to his hometown.
Tom served as FPMT’s Director of Education Services for over ten years, taught both Buddhist and secular meditation, and created online education courses for Wisdom Publications. He now serves as CEO and Board member of Tenzin Osel Hita’s not-for-profit organization, Universal Clear Light, as Executive Assistant to Tenzin Osel Hita, and as a HAK Retreat coordinator and presenter.
Enrique “Kiké” Mantecon de la Cruz was born in 1973 and grew up in the Batán neighborhood of Madrid, Spain. He completed a tourism degree at the Vox Institute in Spain, approved in 1994 and revalidated in 1997, acquiring the title of Business and Tourist Activities Technician.
In 2003, Kiké wrote a book,“Tibetan Land on the Tomb of the Cat,” and gave talks and conferences exposing the ideas and experiences narrated in the book.
During the last 25 years, Kiké has been searching, visiting, and sharing in 70 countries about the cultural traditions, tribes, religions, and philosophies of the world, learning and reading hundreds of books about ancient civilizations, ancient mythology, and Earth's mysteries.
Kiké has studied Ayurveda in Kerala, India, in three different schools since 2012, and now directs a school of Ayurvedic therapy, provide courses, teachings and therapies, and organizes an association called AyurvidaIbiza.
