A space where leaders can explore the intersection of spiritual inquiry and social transformation. … More Compassion in Action: The Sanctuary Sangha
Join us for this exceptional opportunity to explore open awareness in the most beautiful island setting. With teachings inspired by Machig Labdrön, including meditation and outdoor practices. Financial support is available via scholarships. Register by February 28, 2025, for a 10% accommodation discount. Don’t miss this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. … More Skymind in Canada: Sacred Land, Sacred View
Evening talk: Regenbogen Pfeile: Machig Labdröns Lehren über die Natur des Geistes (vor Ort + live online); followed by a weekend retreat: LIEDER DER ERLEUCHTUNG: TANTRISCHE WEISHEIT FÜR DEN HEILIGEN ALLTAG … More Charlotte in Germany: Evening Talk & Weekend Retreat
Skymind is the brilliantly awake, natural radiance of our being. The sky remains expansive and spacious even as clouds, rain, and wind move through it. So too our true nature, the “nature of mind,” is vast and abiding even within the turmoil of everyday life.
How do we come to know our sky-like nature? The great 11th century Tibetan yogini Machig Labdrön offers this fundamental instruction: “don’t search…rest in your nature.” … More Skymind in Germany: The Radiance of our True Nature
Buddhist teachings reveal our innate wakefulness and inherent wholeness, asserting that there is no fundamental lack in ourselves, others, or the world. Everything and everyone emerges from the ground of being, the Great Mother, accessible through the essence of our awareness, the nature of our minds. As the esteemed 11th-century Tibetan yogini Machig Labdrön advises, “rest in your nature.” Join us on the powerful land of Tara Mandala for an immersive exploration of these teachings, as conveyed by Machig. … More Skymind: Vast View, Sacred Land
Feeding Your Demons® Kapala Level I is a simple but profound five-step process that guides the practitioner to transform their demons into protective allies through a sequence of illuminating questions and visualizations. Created by Lama Tsultrim Allione, it employs principles of the Tibetan Buddhist practice Chöd, as originally articulated by the eleventh-century female Tibetan teacher, Machig Labdrön. This method has helped thousands of people transform and heal negative emotions, fears, illnesses, and self-defeating patterns. … More Feeding Your Demons® Kapala Level I
This five-week series is for experienced and beginner meditators alike. So often we are told: “follow your breath”, or “visualize the following”, or “rest in open awareness”. But what is it that we are really doing with our attention and our awareness, and how can we optimize our meditation experience? … More Mechanics of Meditation: Demystifying the Methodology on the Path of Liberation
Given all that’s going on in our world, how do we witness the strife, turmoil, and dissonance without succumbing to its weight? On a personal level, how do we manage our challenges, neuroses, and emotions without losing our capacity for presence and kindness? The Buddha suggested that our grasping to a self lies at the very heart of all our suffering. Machig Labdron, the great 11th-century Tibetan yogini, calls it ego-clinging and offers the remedy of “cutting through,” releasing our sense of an isolated, separate self. But what does this really mean in a practical sense? … More Ego-clinging and Compassion: Everyday Remedies for a Complex World
Join us to embody Green Tara, the female Buddha of compassion, who provides protection from fears and obstacles. She sits with one foot in the meditative posture and one foot in the world, thus embodying active compassion and serving as a model for modern day contemplative life. In this retreat you will learn the Green Tara practice from the Luminous Secret Vajra Treasury, a treasure cycle of Adzom Drukpa. … More Green Tara Retreat
The following programs will be taught by Pieter and Charlotte either together or with others at Tara Mandala Retreat Center this summer.
Three Yana Retreat: June 17
Sutrayana: June 17
Green Tara Retreat: June 21… … More Pieter and Charlotte Summer Retreats 2018
We humans seem to come pre-programmed with a primeval fear of negativity.
We are so deeply conditioned to turn away from what we sense or perceive as negative, uncomfortable, painful, or unpleasant that we mostly do it automatically. Ironically, the avoidance itself is often very uncomfortable. It seldom leads to a sunny disposition, instead depositing us in the borderlands around our shadows.
So how to deal with this? … More Turning into Darkness
In Part I I reflected on busyness as a response to a fear of space which we try to cover up through activities and distraction. Another way to look at … More The Suffering of Busyness Part II: Poverty Mentality and Dissatisfaction – Reclaiming the All-Accomplished Moment