Mandala Training Program

Wisdom Rising Mandala Training Program

The Path of Transformation

Overview

The Wisdom Rising Mandala Training Program offers an exploration into the ancient Buddhist template of the mandala as it applies to our inner path of transformation and our outer experience in the world. As a sacred geography, the mandala creates the framework to move from fragmentation to wholeness.

In the Mandala Trainings, you will learn a contemporary application of the mandala practice and principles, transforming encumbered emotional patterns, such as ignorance, anger, and craving, into wisdom through meditation, sound, art, movement, and the five elements. You will learn about each of the five buddha families, as well as have the opportunity to focus on particular families in order to have an in-depth experience during each retreat. This is an experiential program exploring the divine feminine, masculine, and union of both feminine and masculine aspects of our psyche.

Conception Mandala from a dream shared by Lama Tsultrim and Paul Kloppenburg the night of the conception of their daughter Sherab by Stuart Hamill (1974); mineral pigments in the style of ancient Indian miniature painting. Lama Tsultrim Allione.

Although the practices shared in these trainings are based in Tibetan Buddhism, they are accessible to people of any faith or gender identity. For those interested in mindfulness, this work offers a path to a deeper and more embodied spiritual practice. For those long immersed in Buddhism, it provides rich new insights into familiar concepts.

The Mandala Training retreats can be taken in any order and there are no prerequisites for the retreats.

The Mandala Training Program is situated within the broader Magyu: The Mother Lineage path, as a focused training to deepen and develop the mandala work; however it may also be practiced independently.

 

Overview of the Wisdom Rising Mandala Trainings

Wisdom Rising: Meeting the Mandala of the Five Wisdom Dakinis

This retreat is open to everyone.

Experience transformation through the power of the mandala—a universal map for inner and outer balance, wholeness, and practical awakening. This retreat offers a journey into the Mandala of the Five Wisdom Dakinis, developed by Lama Tsultrim Allione to bring emotional transformation into alignment with the spiritual path. A template of wholeness, the mandala has as its basic structure the center and four directions, represented by five families of elements, colors, seed syllables, emotions, psychological types, and wisdoms.

The wisdom dakinis are female deities in Tantric Buddhism who embody profound wisdom and the empowered feminine. Lama Tsultrim Allione writes, “They are luminous, subtle spiritual energy, the gatekeepers and the guardians of the unconditioned wisdom and sacred earth.” In Tibetan art, they are depicted as naked, except for ornaments, dancing, wild and powerful.

In this experiential retreat, you will have the opportunity to focus on one of the five dakini families to explore more deeply your encumbered patterns and how to transform those patterns into the wisdom of that particular family.

This meditation retreat includes

  • The Mandala of Five Wisdom Dakinis, female embodiments of wisdom, a daily meditation practice you may continue at home
  • Three enhancement methods:
    • The 5-step practice of Feeding Your Demons® with the emotion of the chosen family
    • Guided Journey with the Dakini of the chosen family
    • Art through Mandala Work with your Hands
  • Integration with the elements through meditation (outdoors if weather permits)
  • Further personal and dyad work relating to the Five Families
  • Embodiment through movement inspired by the mandala principle

The Mandala of the Five Wisdom Dakinis offers you a practical method of finding strength and clarity within while empowering you to become an effective change agent in the world. Return home rejuvenated, with the guidance you need to activate all aspects of your being, from your body to your creative life and spiritual realization.

Recommended reading: Wisdom Rising; Feeding Your Demons; and Women of Wisdom by Lama Tsultrim Allione.

Wisdom Rising: Journey into the Sacred Masculine

This retreat is open to everyone.

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. The Jungian understanding of the psyche tells us that we each have both feminine and masculine aspects of ourselves, which he calls the anima and the animus.

The work of healing and moving towards wholeness involves drawing forth and cultivating the positive aspects of each; otherwise, the hidden agenda of our anima or animus can be destructive and self sabotaging. With the Mandala Training we offer a sublime method to work with the anima in the Dakini Mandala, the animus in the Mandala of the Five Buddhas, and the union of the two in the Yab Yum Mandala. The Mandala of the Five Buddhas offers a practical method to awaken the enlightened masculine in all of us by empowering us to bring into balance the mutually supportive inner feminine-masculine unity. It is this inner union that allows us to find strength and clarity within so that we may become “in-powered” and effective change agents in the world.

During this retreat you will experience transformation through the power of the mandala—a universal map of inner wholeness and embodiment. The mandala is a template of wholeness with a universal structure of the center and four directions, represented here by five families connected to elements, colors, seed syllables, emotions, psychological types, and wisdoms. This training offers a journey into the Mandala of the Five Buddhas practice developed by Lama Tsultrim Allione to bring emotional transformation into alignment with the spiritual path.

In this experiential retreat, you will have the opportunity to:

  • Learn the Mandala of the Five Buddhas, embodiments of sacred masculine and wisdom, and a daily meditation practice.
  • Focus on one of the Five Buddha Families to explore more deeply your encumbered patterns and learn how to transform those patterns into the wisdom of that particular family.
  • Practice three enhancement methods:
    • The 5-step practice of Feeding Your Demons®
    • Guided Journey with the Buddhas
    • Art through Mandala Work with your Hands
  • Integrate with the elements through meditation (outdoors if weather permits).
  • Further personal and dyad work relating to the Five Families.

Recommended reading: Wisdom Rising, Feeding Your Demons and  Women of Wisdom by Lama Tsultrim Allione.

Wisdom Rising: The Union of Divine Feminine and Masculine – Journey into the Yab Yum Mandala

This retreat is open to everyone.

Venture into the mandala of the sacred feminine and masculine, called the Yab Yum Mandala. This retreat focuses on how to transform your encumbered patterns that arise in relationships, such as attachment, anger, jealousy, into wisdom.

C.G. Jung, the Swiss psychologist, worked extensively with mandala. The Jungian understanding of the psyche tells us that we each have both feminine and masculine aspects of ourselves, which he calls the anima and the animus. The work of healing and moving towards wholeness involves drawing forth and cultivating the positive aspects of each; otherwise, the hidden agenda of our anima or animus can be destructive and self sabotaging. With the Mandala Training we offer a sublime method to work with the anima in the Dakini Mandala, the animus in the Mandala of the Five Buddhas, and the union of the two in the Yab Yum Mandala.

You will have the opportunity to focus on one of the five families to explore more deeply your encumbered patterns related to these themes, learning how to transform them in the wisdom of that particular family.

This meditation retreat includes:

  • The Yab Yum Mandala, embodiments of the sacred masculine and feminine wisdoms, a daily meditation practice you may continue at home
  • Three enhancement methods:
    • Deepening your Feeding Your Demons® practice, focusing on the demon of the chosen family
    • Guided Journey with the Yab Yum Buddhas
    • Further exploration of art through Mandala Work with your Hands
    • Deepening experience of integration with the elements through meditation (outdoors if weather permits)
    • Further personal and dyad work relating to the emotion of the chosen family
    • Embodiment through movement based on the obstructed pattern and the wisdom of the chosen family

The Yab Yum Mandala offers you a practical method of finding strength and clarity within while empowering you to become an effective change agent in the world. 

Note: This is the final step in the Mandala Training Program.

Recommended reading: Wisdom Rising, Feeding Your Demons and  Women of Wisdom by Lama Tsultrim Allione.

From the Aug/Sept. issue of Lion’s Roar Lama Tsultrim answers the question “How might the feminine face of enlightenment inspire your practice?”  Listen here.