Summer Retreat on Elements in Wales:
Igor Berkhin
From the Dzogchen Community of the UK:
Discovering, Balancing,
and Integrating the Elements
with Igor Berkhin and John Renshaw
Kunselling
19th–27th July 2025
Dear Vajra Family and Friends
We are pleased to announce this upcoming retreat with Igor Berkhin and John Renshaw entitled Discovering, Balancing, and Integrating the Elements. It will take place at Kunselling, our retreat centre in Wales, from Saturday 19th July 4pm to Sunday 27th July 1pm.
Retreat Programme
In the practice of Guru Yoga, we visualize five colours representing the five elements—space, air, water, fire and earth. But what do these elements truly mean? How do they manifest in our experience, both externally and internally, through body, voice, and mind?
Elements appear in various ways: as colours, sounds, smells, touches, tastes, as well as feelings, thoughts, and visions. They embody the fundamental qualities of our primordial potentiality—solidity, cohesion, transformation, movement, and openness. In Dzogchen, the process of going beyond dualistic perception of the elements is known as integration.
Balancing the Elements
When body, energy, and mind are in harmony, it means the elements are balanced. An imbalance of the elements can lead to physical, emotional, and mental difficulties, as well as obstacles in spiritual practice. Therefore, it is essential to understand how to work with the elements in a concrete way.
Retreat Approach
In this retreat, we will explore the experience of the elements through developing an understanding of our elemental constitution and current physiological state from Eastern medicine, particularly Tibetan Medicine.
- Constitutional Dominance – the inherent balance of elements in an individual
- Current State – how these elements manifest in the present moment
Through direct experience in practice, we will learn to recognize our unique subtle mix of elements and how they manifest in practice. Based on this, we may apply specific practices from Dzogchen contemplative and yogic methods to modify and balance them.