Preparing for the Dark

​Michael Sheehy presents on the Jonang Kālacakra tradition's distinctive practices of dark retreat. Drawing on his lifetime of work with the Jonang, and broader research at the intersection of historical scholarship, phenomenology, and cognitive science, he discusses contemplative exercises used for preparing Kālacakra practitioners for darkness. Michael R. Sheehy is a Research Associate Professor and the Director of Research at the Contemplative Sciences Center, University of Virginia. He is Principal at the CIRCL, Contemplative Innovation + Research Co-Lab, and Executive Director of the Jonang Foundation. He spent more than a decade conducting field research in Tibet, including three years in a Jonang monastery.