Please note: Registration is open until January 8, 2026

Skymind is an invitation into the lived experience of the Nature of Mind – the vast, potent, and radiant nature of reality. Though ultimately beyond words or concept, this ground of being is imminently accessible to us, given that it is our very own nature. Machig Labdrön, the great 11th century Tibetan yogini describes it like this:

it abides inherently
it occurs naturally
it is unborn
it is unceasing
it is all-pervasive
it is oneself

Guided by Machig’s pith teachings, we explore ways to access this ground and make it count in our daily lives. You’ll learn the Skymind Meditation, along with a variety of attention and awareness practices, to ground your inquiry in direct experience. As a path of awakened compassion, Skymind applies the unique insights of Buddhist psychology to the nuances of emotional and mental challenges, and offers techniques to meet whatever arises in our personal and shared human lives with clarity and courage.

The realization of the nature of mind includes all phenomena without exception.

When we awaken to our sky-like nature, we recognize that we can – and must – include everything in the totality of our being. We can meet every moment with a heart of unending compassion and a mind as vast as space.

What Will I Learn?

• Practice and apply Machig’s pith instructions that point directly to our true nature.
• Receive detailed instruction and learn Open Awareness meditation in which you recognize and stabilize the wakeful mind – clear, vast, and brilliant.
• Gain a set of nuanced techniques and mind training tools that can be integrated into daily life to meet and transform emotional and mental challenges.
• Take a deep experiential dive into the heart of Machig’s teachings to cultivate compassion for ourselves and others.
• In this way, you will learn:
  • To truly rest.
  • To inspire compassion for yourself and others.
  • To cultivate attention.
  • To relax into expansive awareness.
  • To love more fiercely.

Who Is This Course For?

• This online course supports both the experienced practitioner and the beginning meditator in accessing the radiance of open awareness and applying it to the concrete challenges and joys of everyday life.
• Anyone interested in uniting a vast, inclusive view with compassionate engagement.
• Individuals who desire to expand their practice of “nature of mind” into their daily experience.
• This open awareness meditation training will complement and strengthen the deepening of your existing practices.
• This course is included as a recommended but not required retreat within the Magyu Program.
• Since the nature of this material is always living and fresh, each course is unique. We invite those who attended previous courses to return.

The live sessions will include:

• Teachings on a series of Machig Labdrön’s verses, drawn from source texts. Machig’s verses prod, inspire, and awaken. We will progress through a variety of teachings over the course of 8 weeks, ranging from more absolute nature of mind teachings, to instructions for working with attention and awareness, to detailed guidance on integrating vast view into everyday life.
• Exploration of Buddhist psychology and ways of navigating difficult emotions and challenging states of mind with compassionate awareness.
• Exercises and guided meditations to support a direct, personal experience of the teachings.
• Mind training techniques for heightening and honing attention, and cultivating awareness. These techniques will progressively build on each other over the duration of the course.
• Training in Open Awareness Meditation.
• Q & A and opportunities for participant reflections and group discussions.
• Online discussion forum to continue sharing reflections between live meetings.

Program Schedule

The live sessions of the program are listed below. All times are Mountain Standard Time. Please use this link to see how this daily schedule translates into your timezone. The live teaching sessions will be on Fridays, 10:00am – 12:00pm MST.

• December 12th, 19th (2025)
• January 9th, 16th, 23rd, 30th (2026)
• February 6th, 13th (2026)

Scholarships are available. For more information or to apply, please follow this link.

This is program is offered through Tara Mandala International Buddhist Community