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Requirements

Magyu: The Mother Lineage

Magyu Path Requirements

The Magyu (Mother Lineage) Program is a life path, not something you do for a certificate like in a training program of some sort. It is meant to bring you to awakening and that takes a long time, much more time than is in the Magyu Program listed here. The Magyu Program is a container and a path on which you progress toward your own awakening.

Before applying to the Magyu Program we ask that you attend at least one in-person retreat (a weekend program or longer, at Tara Mandala or elsewhere) or an online program taught by Lama Tsultrim Allione or one of Tara Mandala’s Senior Teachers.

Requirements

  • Completion of All Kapala Training Levels (KT1 – KT5)
    • Please note that Kapala Training Level I & II (onsite) correspond closely with the Buddhist Track of FYD Online Level I & Level II and could, therefore, be taken interchangeably, provided the required assignments have been completed (as outlined below). Both online and onsite paths qualify as Magyu Path requirements.
  • Completion of foundational Three Yana Retreats:
Photo credit: Josh Brownlee
  • Completion of Chögyal Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche (CNNR) Chöd Retreat and 108 Chod sessions. (This is a prerequisite for Dentog Chigma Chod and KT4)
  • Completion of Zhitro (Namchö Mingyur Dorje) Retreat. (This is a prerequisite for KT5)
  • Completion of P’howa Retreat at Tara Mandala or through Tara Mandala associated Lamas. (This is a prerequisite for KT5)
  • Completion of The Lion-Headed Dakini (Simhamukha) Retreat (Formerly called Dakini Retreat)
    • A Mind Terma of Ayu Khandro. (You must complete 170 hours of mantra recitation after attending the retreat and before KT4).
    • Knowledge of the Five Buddha/Dakini Mandala families is suggested but not a required prerequisite for this retreat. This suggestion can be fulfilled by attending the Wisdom Rising Mandala Training retreats, Wisdom Rising Online Course or reading Wisdom Rising.
  • Completion of Green Tara Retreat or Green Tara Online Program. This Green Tara practice is from the Luminous Secret Vajra Treasury, a treasure cycle of Adzom Drukpa. (It may be taken anytime while in Magyu)
  • Completion of Three-Week Solo Green Tara Retreat (170 hours of mantra recitation).
    • Preferably without break (in a single period of time). Retreat may be broken up in 1, 2, or 3 week sections under special circumstances, i.e. parent of a young child. (It may be done anytime while in Magyu)
  • Completion of the White Tara Retreat. 
    • This White Tara practice is from Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo as taught by Lama Pema Dorje.You must complete 170 hours of mantra recitation after attending the retreat. (This retreat can be taken anytime while in Magyu)
  • Completion of Dentog Chigma Chöd Retreat from Machig Labdrön. This is a prerequisite for KT4. Prerequisites for Dentog Chigma Chöd retreat:
    • Completion of all Three Yana Retreats and associated practice requirements.
    • Completion of all the 225 hours of the Dakini Mandala Practice with the transformational work. You must do at least 30 days of daily practice of the Mandala of the Five Dakinis to prepare you for the Dentog Chigma practice. See Mandala and Other Required Practices for complete details on practice requirements.
    • Completion of the Chögyal Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche (CNNR) Chöd retreat. And, you must do 108 CNNR Chöd practice sessions, and be able to play the bell and drum well before attending Dentog Chigma Chöd retreat.
  • Completion of one month long Solo Dentog Chigma Chöd Retreat at Tara Mandala (or another retreat center, not at home) ending with a fire puja (we will help you do fire puja) 
    • Preferably without break (in a single period of time). Retreat may be broken up in 2 or 4 (one week) sections under special circumstances, i.e. parent of a young child, or have a job that cannot be left for so long.
    • Fire puja can be completed during Kapala IV Training or before if you have learned how to do it.
  • Completion of Chöd Dulzhug Pigrimage: 
    • Go for 108 days to different charnel grounds (including battle ground sites, concentration camps, prisoner or war camps, cemeteries, places like Ground Zero, springs or lakes), 4 sessions of Chöd a day. Any one of these following Chöds may be practiced on this pilgrimage:
      • Magyu required Chöds: CNNR Chöd.
      • Or non-Magyu required Chöds: Parchangma Chöd, Dudjom Tesar Chöd, Tsog Ley Rinchen Trengwa Chöd, or Jigme Lingpa’s Khandro Kejang Chöd.

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Photo credit: Josh Brownlee

The Order

  • It is recommended to do the Three Yana Retreats as early on in the program as possible because it will give you a good foundation for all the Magyu practices you will learn throughout the course of the program.
  • Other retreats can be done at any time in the program unless otherwise stated, as some are prerequisites for specific Kapala Trainings or other required retreats. Similarly, Magyu practices can be done as you like except when there is a prescribed order like in the Kapala Trainings and Mandala work. For example, you could do Kapala Training Levels I and II, and then start the Mandala practices. You could then return to Kapala Training Level III or do another practice such as Green Tara, White Tara, The Lion-Headed Dakini (Simhamukha), or the CNNR Chöd. Once you’ve done Kapala Training Level III and all required practices, you could then do Kapala Training Level IV and then go on to Kapala Training Level V.

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Keeping Records of Practices & Retreats Completed

Please keep a record of the practices you have done for your own records. Check in regularly with your Kalyanamitra and if you need help being consistent with your practices, ask them for guidance and support in setting realistic and clear goals for yourself. Also, keep track of all the retreats you do online through Tara Mandala or elsewhere with a Tara Mandala Senior Teacher. Tara Mandala only keeps track of retreats you do in person at Tara Mandala.

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Photo credit: Josh Brownlee

Kapala Training

Kapala Training Level I

Prerequisites: None
Kapala Training Level I includes:

  • Feeding Your Demons® – solo and partner work
  • Feeding Your Demons® with drawing and clay
  • Types of Demons
  • Mapping Demon Complexes
  • Prajnaparamita practice

Kapala Training Level II

Prerequisites: 

  • Completion of Kapala Training Level I or FYD Online Level I (Buddhist Track)
  • 65 Feeding Your Demons® processes: 50 solo and 15 with a partner
    • For partner work, tracking forms from both partners equal one partner work process. This should not be done with clients. It is acceptable to work with gods instead of demons for some of these sessions.
  • 108 hours of Prajnaparamita practice
    • A practice session is a minimum of 30 minutes. One hour is recommended. 30 minutes is just for those with very limited time. This 30 minutes includes the beginning and ending parts of the practice.
    • FYD Online: Please note that only 80 hours of Prajnaparamita practice are required before attending FYD Online Level II. However, if you wish to continue with Kapala Training Level III after completing FYD Online Level II, you will need to complete an additional 28 hours of Prajnaparamita practice.
  • Plant a tree or sponsor a tree to be planted.
    • This requirement came to Lama Tsultrim in a dream in which she was flying over Europe and saw that it was dry, parched and very hot. She heard a voice that said: “For Climate Change everyone should plant a tree before Kapala Training Level II.” Planting a tree connects your practice to healing the earth and to Machig’s experience in the Serlag tree, overseen by the king of the Nagas, during her initiation from Sonam Lama. The tree is also considered a metaphor for individuation.

Kapala Training Level II includes:

  • Making a full-sized body map
    • This entails sketching where the 65 demons/gods you did between Kapala Training Level I and II appeared in your body and reflecting on what you see in the body map.
  • Extended Ally Process – solo and partner work
  • Male and female family lineage demon and ally maps
  • Further refinement of the hydra map
  • “Transmitting the Meaning of the Mother” practice
  • “Supplication to the Great Mother” practice
  • “Cutting Four Demons Loose into Space” practice
  • Teachings on excerpts from the “Grand Poem of Aryadeva the Brahmin” and “Machig’s Last Instructions”
  • Taking and Waking practice

Kapala Training offers a path to certification for those who wish to become authorized to use the FYD method with clients in a therapeutic setting. That path consists of completing Kapala Training Levels I and II, followed by the FYD Certification Level, which is an online program with an onsite Certification Capstone retreat. See here for more details >>

Kapala Training Level III

Kapala Training Level III goes more deeply into meditation practices from the Mother Lineage and introduces approaches to FYD that are more trans-personal and altruistic.

Prerequisites: 

  • Completion of Kapala Training Levels I and II, or FYD Online Level I and II (Buddhist Track)
    • FYD Online: Please note that only 80 hours of Prajnaparamita practice are required before attending FYD Online Level II. However, if you wish to continue with Kapala Training Level III after completing FYD Online Level II, you will need to complete an additional 28 hours of Prajnaparamita practice.
  • 4 Solo Demon Feedings
  • 39 Partner Demon Feedings
  • 10 Solo Extended Ally processes
  • 10 Partner Extended Ally processes
  • 108 hours of  “Supplication to the Great Mother”
  • 108 hours of “Transmitting the Meaning of the Mother” with “Cutting Four Demons Loose into Space”
    • You may choose how much time to spend with each (Transmitting the Meaning and Cutting the Four Demons) in one practice session.
  • 200 thirty-minute sessions of Taking and Waking, or 100 hours total – You can do as much time as you like in one practice session, but 30 minutes is the minimum per session.
  • Completion of the Three Yana Retreats in sequential order:
  • Completion of Wisdom Rising: Meeting the Mandala of the Five Wisdom Dakinis or Wisdom Rising Online Course  (If you completed the Vajrayana Retreat prior to 2020, that retreat counts in place of this retreat and the entire Wisdom Rising Mandala Training Retreat series)
  • 225 hours of Mandala of the Five Dakinis
    • 30, 1.5-hour sessions with each family (5 families total), can be done in order or as you need. 

In Kapala Training III you will receive:

  •   The Empowerment of Machig Labdrön
  •   The practice of “Opening the Gate to Space”
  •   Feeding Your Demons® with dreams figures
  •   Collective Societal, Cultural, and Historical Demons
  •   Organizational and Group-dynamic Demons
  •   The Fourth Demon: Ego-clinging
  •   Your processes of Journey with the Ally

Kapala Training Level IV

Prerequisites: 

  • Completion of Kapala Training Levels I & II or FYD Online Levels I and II (Buddhist Track) and Kapala Training Level III
  •  200 hours of “Opening the Gate to Space”
  • Completion of Dentog Chigma Chöd retreat (please see also the prerequisites for this retreat).
  • Completion of The Lion-Headed Dakini group retreat (Simhamukha) (Formerly called Dakini Retreat) and accomplishing 170 hours of mantra recitation after attending that retreat (please see also the prerequisites for this retreat).
  • 10 Feeding Your Demons® with dream figures with tracking forms
  • 10 Feeding Your Demons® with demon of ego-clinging with tracking forms
  • 10 Feeding Your Demons® with collective societal/cultural/historical demon with tracking forms
  • 10 Journey with the Ally processes
  • 200 thirty-minute sessions of the Four Immeasurables practice (as learned in the Three Yana Retreats)

In Kapala Training Level IV you will receive:

  • “Machig’s Direct Transmission” from Lama Tsultrim
  • “The Crystal and Its Rays” movement practice
  • “5 Elements” practice

Kapala Training Level V

Prerequisites: 

  • Completion of Kapala Training Levels I, II, or FYD Online Levels I and II (Buddhist Track) and Kapala Training Levels III, and IV
  • 200 hours of “Machig’s Direct Transmission”
  • 200 hours of “5 Elements” practice, 40 hours each element
  • 100 hours of “The Crystal and Its Rays” movement practice
  • Completion of the Zhitro (Namchö Mingyur Dorje) Retreat
  • Completion of the P’howa Retreat

In Kapala Training Level V:

  • We will look at the scientific studies connected to FYD.
  • We will work with the demon of racism and how it affects us, and the demon of ecological narcissism. We will also do partner work with whatever is arising for each of us individually.
  • You will receive the practice of  “Machig Labdrön and the Five Chakra Dakinis” a Dagnang (Pure Vision) Terma from Lama Tsultrim. She received this at Zangri Khamar in Tibet on December 13, 2010.

See Upcoming Magyu Retreats  »

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Wisdom Rising Mandala Training Retreats

 

Overview

The Mandala Training Program is situated within the Magyu Lineage as a focused training to deepen and develop the mandala work; however it may also be practiced independently. For those in Magyu, these trainings can be taken anytime as an enhancement to your practice of the Mandala work. Of them, only one is required as part of the Magyu path: Meeting the Mandala of the Five Wisdom Dakinis or Wisdom Rising ‘Live’ Online Course. This training must be taken before Kapala Training Level 3.

Mandala Practice Requirements

The Mandala practices may be done once the Wisdom Rising Mandala Training Retreats connected to each Mandala practice have been completed or if you receive transmission of these practices in another setting or during a Vajrayana Retreat. There are 150 practice sessions per Mandala practice; 30 sessions with each of the five families.

We suggest to begin with Mandala of the Five Dakinis: 

Approximately 1.5 hours practice – one hour of the Mandala of the Five Dakinis practice followed sequentially by thirty minutes (or more) of transformational personal work related to each family of the five dakinis.

This transformational personal work consists of working with Buddha, Vajra, Ratna, Padma, and Karma families and their encumbered patterns either with 

  1. Feeding Your Demons®, 
  2. Feeding Your Demons® with Art (drawing, painting, or clay), 
  3. Guided Journey with the Dakini (formerly “Meeting the Dakini”), or 
  4. Mandala Work with Your Hands.

Please note: practice duration times are meant to be approximations, not hard and fast rules. 

Mandala Practice Requirements in Summary:

  •   225 hours of Mandala of the Five Dakinis
    • 30, 1.5-hour sessions with each family (5 families total) (This should be done prior to attending KT3), can be done in the order or as you need. 
  •   225 hours of Five Buddha Mandala
    • 30, 1.5-hour sessions with each family (5 families total) (This can be done any time), can be done in the order or as you need. 
  •   225 hours of Yab Yum Mandala
    • 30, 1.5-hour sessions with each family (5 families total) (This can be done anytime)

 

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