Skymind explores the Nature of Mind through teachings from Machig Labdrön, focusing on meditation techniques and compassionate engagement. It supports both experienced and beginner practitioners in integrating mindfulness into daily life, enhancing awareness, and transforming emotional challenges. … More Skymind: Machig Labdron and Open Awareness
Come join us in romantic Rome for another powerful Feeding Your Demons retreat! … More Feeding Your Demons in Rome: Kapala I
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
The dynamic and transformative practice of Dentog Chigma, “liberation on one seat,” combines the melodic and rhythmic aspects of traditional Chöd with the visualization and mantra recitation of Tibetan Buddhist deity practice. The practitioner engages with various forms of Machig Labdrön – including a wrathful emanation – through purification, receiving blessings, radiant compassion, and ultimately the awareness of our inseparability from the ground of being. As such, it is an incredibly dynamic and transformative practice. … More Liberation in One Seat (Dentog Chigma Chöd)
Kapala III is an advanced Feeding Your Demons (FYD) retreat that requires the completion of Levels I & II plus additional prerequisites. In this retreat, we go deeper into Machig Labdrön’s teachings and receive a profound new practice of hers. Participants will also expand their FYD journey by working with collective demons, such as societal, cultural, and historical demons, and the demon of ego-clinging. Please visit the Tara Mandala website for details. … More Feeding Your Demons Kapala Level III
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 is a powerful and profound method for working with rather than fighting against the obstacles, conflicts, and challenges of our life. By meeting our fears and obsessions with gentleness and compassion, and nurturing their underlying need, we allow them to transform into allies, insight and wisdom. Drawing on traditional practices and teachings of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, this process was developed by Lama Tsultrim Allione, a Western Buddhist teacher and author of Feeding Your Demons: Ancient Wisdom for Resolving Inner Conflict. … More Kapala I: Feeding Your Demons
At the heart of Buddhist teachings lies the invitation to rest in our true nature, which is not other than the ground of being from which all things and all beings arise. In every moment of life – even in times of confusion and unrest – this ultimate refuge is accessible to us, offering us support, inspiration and a profound connection to all beings. But this ground also calls on us to open our hearts to all aspects of the human experience – even the most difficult emotions, people and situations. This retreat – based on Pieter and Charlotte’s forthcoming book – introduces nature of mind teachings and a meditation practice to access this ground of being in our direct experience. … More Skymind: Opening to the Vast Radiance of Our True Nature
Chöd (literally ‘to cut’ or ‘to sever’) is an ancient Tibetan Buddhist practice through which we confront our fears and attachments by cultivating compassion and generosity. We visualize offering our own body to the forces that seem to destroy us, learning to let go of our grasping at the self. At the same time, we open ourselves to the innate freedom, compassion, and wisdom within. This practice, sung to beautiful melodies and accompanied by a drum and bell, has its roots in shamanic traditions and has traditionally often been used as a healing practice. … More Chöd – Cutting Through Ego-Fixation
Feeding your Demons is a powerful and profound method for working with rather than fighting against the obstacles, conflicts, and challenges of our life. By meeting our fears and obsessions with gentleness and compassion, and nurturing their underlying need, we allow them to transform into allies, insight and wisdom. Drawing on traditional practices and teachings of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, this process was developed by Lama Tsultrim Allione, a Western Buddhist teacher and author of Feeding Your Demons: Ancient Wisdom for Resolving Inner Conflict. … More Kapala I: Feeding Your Demons
At the heart of Buddhist teachings lies the invitation to rest in our true nature, an inherent, brilliant wholeness which is not other than the ground of being itself. Recognizing and remembering this fundamental and inextricable connection to everyone and all things paves the way for a life of awakened, joyful compassion. In this evening’s talk, we will draw on the teachings of the 11th century Tibetan yogini Machig Labdrön, whose wisdom remains relevant and applicable in everyday modern life. … More Skymind: Glimpsing the Radiance of Our True Nature
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
(In-person Retreat at Tara Mandala Retreat Center in Colorado) Friday, July 21, 2023 – Wednesday, July 26, 2023 With Charlotte Rotterdam and Pieter Oosthuizen Come to the beautiful land of … More Skymind: Sacred Land, Sacred View
March 24 – 30, 2019
Join us for a luminous 6-day retreat in Peru’s Sacred Valley. Held at beautiful Sacha Munay Retreat Center, our days include yoga and meditation; inspiring non-dual teachings and practices rooted in the most profound view of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition; and two excursions, including to Machu Picchu, one of the world’s most sacred sites. Our retreat integrates sensory awareness… … More Journey to Peru’s Sacred Valley: Tibetan Buddhist Wisdom, Meditation & Yoga
September 29 – 30, 2018
Encinitas, CA
Taught by Pieter O and Lopon Charlotte Rotterdam, with guided somatic movement by Gretchen Donovan … More Feeding Your Demons in California
July 7 – 14, 2018 Lopön Charlotte Rotterdam Tara Mandala Retreat Center, Pagosa Springs, CO In this retreat we will study how the Vajrayana developed historically and learn the fundamentals … More Vajrayana: The Mandala Principle
This retreat will explore new developments that took place during the Mahayana period such as the Prajnaparamita Sutra, Madhyamaka and Yogacara philosophies, Buddha Nature, and the greater emphasis on compassionate motivation. Meditations on Tonglen, the Four Immeasurables, and the Six Paramitas will also be taught. … More Mahayana: Vast View, Open Heart
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