Tag: tibetan buddhism

Ego-clinging and Compassion: Everyday Remedies for a Complex World

March 28, 2024

April 12 – 14, 2024

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

Mechanics of Meditation: Demystifying the Methodology on the Path of Liberation

March 28, 2024

May 16 – June 13, 2024

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

Feeding Your Demons® Kapala Level I

March 28, 2024

May 24 – 29, 2024

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

Skymind: Glimpsing the Radiance of Our True Nature

March 28, 2024

June 7, 2024

Public Talk in Frankfurt, Germany (+ live online)

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

Chöd – Cutting Through Ego-Fixation

March 28, 2024

June 8 – 11, 2024

In-person Retreat in Frankfurt, Germany

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

Kapala I: Feeding Your Demons

March 28, 2024

June 8 – 12, 2024

In-person retreat in France

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

Skymind: Opening to the Vast Radiance of Our True Nature

March 28, 2024

June 21 – 23, 2024

In-person Retreat in Prague, Czech Republic

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

Kapala I: Feeding Your Demons

March 28, 2024

June 27 – July 1, 2024

Retreat in Tuscany, Italy

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

Skymind: Vast View, Sacred Land

March 27, 2024

July 11 – 16, 2024

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

Liberation in One Seat (Dentog Chigma Chöd)

March 27, 2024

September 27 – October 2, 2024

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)

Skymind: The Path of Open Awareness (Online Course)

July 15, 2021

October 22 to December 17, 2021

Following on last year’s popular course, we return for a deeper dive into Machig’s verses on the nature of mind, offered both to those new to these teachings and as a deepening for those who attended last year’s program.

Machig Labdrön – the great 11th century Tibetan yogini – is unequivocal in her insistence that our truest nature, the very ground of being, is not elsewhere:
Once one’s mind is recognized for sure, there’s no need to establish buddha from elsewhere. … More Skymind: The Path of Open Awareness (Online Course)

Wisdom Rising: Journey into the Sacred Masculine (Virtual Retreat)

July 5, 2021

Postponed until Spring 2022

The Mandala of the Five Buddhas is for all of us who long to integrate the awakened, sacred, and wise masculine within ourselves. Buddhism sees the enlightened masculine as the capacity to act skillfully and with wise compassion. These are capacities that must be nurtured by all of us, regardless of our gender identity. … More Wisdom Rising: Journey into the Sacred Masculine (Virtual Retreat)

Wisdom Rising: Journey into the Union of the Sacred Feminine and Sacred Masculine

February 19, 2021

March 14 – 20, 2021.

The image of “masculine” and “feminine” joined in union – Yab Yum – is central to Tantric Buddhism. The Yab Yum represents our inherent wholeness which holds all dualities in a dynamic totality. As we enter the Yab Yum Mandala we recognize the completeness of our true nature and engage the “other” with openness, curiosity and compassion. … More Wisdom Rising: Journey into the Union of the Sacred Feminine and Sacred Masculine

Sacred World, Luminous Vision: Songs of Realization of the Mahasiddhas

February 19, 2021

April 17 – 18, 2021

How can we give expression to the deepest insights into the nature of reality? Can words ever capture that which is beyond concept? Many of the great early Tantric practitioners and mahasiddhas wrote their realizations through songs and poems (dohas) which point, like rainbow arrows, to ineffable truth. At times, these verses draw on everyday, ordinary experience to reveal a view of the sacred world; at others, they point directly and unflinchingly to the nature of mind. … More Sacred World, Luminous Vision: Songs of Realization of the Mahasiddhas

Green Tara

February 19, 2021

June 12 – July 20, 2021

Green Tara 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 online course, you have the opportunity to learn to embody Green Tara, the female Buddha of compassion, who provides protection from fears and obstacles. … More Green Tara

Lion-Headed Dakini (Simhamukha)

February 19, 2021

June 22 – 30, 2021

This retreat offers transmission and teachings on the Lion-Headed Dakini (Simhamukha) practice as well as on Lama Tsultrim’s personal transformation work within the mandala. Simhamukha is known as a powerful remover of obstacles and as Queen of the Dakinis. This practice is a mind treasure given to Ayu Khandro when she was in dark retreat by the Queen of the Dakinis. … More Lion-Headed Dakini (Simhamukha)

Machig Lapdron

Cutting Through Views: Three Practice Verses by Machig Labdrön

January 19, 2021

Published on the Lion’s Roar website

Machig Labdrön, the founder of Chöd, taught there is no view we can’t cut through, no perspective we can’t let go of. Charlotte Z. Rotterdam shares three verses by Machig that we can carry with us in our daily lives.
Click here to read the article on Lion’s Roar https://www.lionsroar.com/cutting-through-views-three-practice-verses-by-machig-labdron/ … More Cutting Through Views: Three Practice Verses by Machig Labdrön

“Look in the Way of Not Looking:” Reflections from Retreat

September 16, 2020

In May 2020, I had the fortune of engaging in one month of solitary retreat, supported by a grant from the Hemera Foundation. I spent a portion of my time reading, studying and contemplating the writings of Machig Labdrön, the great 11th century Tibetan yogini. I chose “slogans” or pith instructions to bring into my … More “Look in the Way of Not Looking:” Reflections from Retreat

DENTOG CHIGMA CHÖD: The Method for Accomplishment on One Seat

August 18, 2020

The profound 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. … More DENTOG CHIGMA CHÖD: The Method for Accomplishment on One Seat