VIBING VAJRASATTVA

Featuring a 1-month cohort program of vibraphone infused Vajrasattva practice culminating in an in-person weekend retreat in upstate New York with live vibraphone music and guided practice.

With vibraphonist Chris Dingman

& co-facilitators Dina Percia & Doc Kelley

June 2025
(online + in-person)

Please submit your interest by completing the form below—thank you!

Vibing Vajrasattva is a sonic-based approach to Buddhist sādhanā practice ("instructions for practice") that features a four-six week incubation period of synchronous and asynchronous online cohort practice that culminates with an in-person weekend retreat—invocation of the deity— followed by online group and individual integration.

This three-phase approach, dubbed our Third I Approach, is inspired by the Vajrayāna Buddhist Mahāsiddha model in ancient India and Tibet. These, largely autonomous practitioners, were remarkable for their diversity of composition (coming from all walks of life and occupations), and their tradition of periodically coming together as a sangha to hold space for the ganachakra; a sensory rich invocation of the deity that is believed to have included antinomian behaviors.

The Third I Approach is also an evolution of Timothy Leary’s psychedelic protocol of “set and setting.” However, we believe proper set (in this Buddhist context) requires an incubation of 1-month of daily practice.

This program is not intended to substitute the traditional Buddhist preliminary (ngöndro) practice of reciting 100,000 Vajrasattva mantras. There is no empowerment or refuge ceremony for this program. And it is open to both Buddhists and non-Buddhists alike.

THE THIRD

I

APPROACH

𓁹

INCUBATION

(online or in-person)

4 synchronous cohort video meetings

4 graduated guided audio tracks for daily practice

𓁹

INVOCATION

(in-person only)

Weekend retreat

𓁹

INTEGRATION

(online or in-person)

2 synchronous cohort video meetings

ABOUT VIBRAPHONIST
Chris Dingman is a New York-based vibraphonist and composer. Chris Dingman is known for his distinctive approach to the instrument, which is at once sonically rich and conceptually expansive. In his captivating solo performances, he casts an enveloping atmosphere, creating layers of simultaneous sound that take listeners to a transcendent place. Chris has worked with the legendary artists Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter and many other of today’s jazz and world music luminaries. Based in NYC since 2002, Chris had been documenting his solo improvisations privately for many years. When his father entered hospice care in 2018, he created the 5-hour extended album Peace. This led to an ongoing evolution of his solo music and his critically acclaimed albums Journeys Vol. 1 and Vol. 2. Chris actively tours and has performed worldwide. He has been profiled by NPR, the New York Times, AMNY, and many other publications. He has received fellowships and grants from Chamber Music America, New Music USA, South Arts, and the Thelonious Monk Institute.

The vibraphone is a percussion instrument that looks like a xylophone but has aluminum bars instead of wood. The vibraphone player uses one or two mallets (beaters) in each hand to strike the bars. Underneath each bar is a tube or “resonator” with an electric motor that helps create a unique resonance. In the hands of sonic shaman Chris Dingman, the vibes become a powerful tool for subtle bodywork that is incredibly intimate--but without physical touch.


ABOUT FACILITATORS
Dina Percia holds a Master’s of Arts in Holistic Counseling Psychology with an emphasis in Somatic Psychology. As a psychotherapist, she has worked with adults, adolescents, and children in community mental health agencies focusing on complex and developmental trauma. Having trained as a palliative care doula at Mount Sinai Hospital, an end-of-life doula with Peaceful Presence Project, and an abortion doula with Bay Area Doula Project, Dina is called to support those traversing expanded and liminal states of consciousness; the bardos of life and death.

Doc Kelley is a scholar of Buddhism and a part-time professor in religious studies at Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts, The New School University. He is also the co-founder of Psychedelic Sangha and lives in Brooklyn, NYC.

Doc received a Ph.D. in Religion from Columbia University, where he studied Indo-Tibetan Buddhism with Robert A. F. Thurman. Before attending graduate school, he was a “dharma bum” who traveled Asia and practiced Buddhism initially at Kopan Gompa in Kathmandu and later at Sermey Monastery in India. He did his first Heruka-Vajrasattva retreat at the FPMT Tushita Dharma Center in Dharamsala in 1997.

REGISTRATION PROCESS
Please complete our intake interview and we will follow up to schedule a Zoom call with our facilitators.