PRACTICES & RETREATS
PRACTICES & RETREATS
Our practices are rooted in Tibetan Buddhism, which comprises the three main phases of Buddhist thought and practice: the early teachings of the Buddha (Foundational Vehicle), the Mahayana (Great Vehicle) and the Vajrayana (Diamond Vehicle). Essentially, our focus is on cultivating compassion and wisdom, and being of service to others. Lama Tsultrim Allione, author and international teacher, is the founder or our practice community and has developed our curriculum based on her many years of traditional study with Tibetan masters and her own realization born of many years of practice, retreat, and teaching in the West.
Although many of our practice meetings have prerequisites, our goal is to provide teachings and make the practices accessible to all levels of practitioners. Please join our newsletter and refer to our calendar to see when teachings and transmissions are being offered. You can also email us for more info.
New Events and Retreats
Embodying Tara Book Launch
We are excited to be supporting Dorje Lopön Chandra Easton’s book launch activities this December and into the New Year! You are invited to support the book launch at various locations and on-line this Winter Season.
Embodying Tara
A Talk and Book Signing with Author, Dorje Lopön Chandra Easton
Saturday, December 16 · 6:30 - 8pm PST at the Alembic, Berkeley CA
Come to the exclusive book launch for Embodying Tara: Twenty-One Manifestations to Awaken Your Innate Wisdom, the first book from Lopön Chandra Easton. Many have heard of the female Buddha Tara, but few know of her twenty-one aspects. Come hear stories and anecdotes from the book, experience a guided meditation on Tara, and get your book signed!
Chandra's proceeds from this event will go to Ani Choying Drolma’s Ani Foundation, a Nepalese organization that serves women, children, the underprivileged, and the dispossessed by providing education, health care, food, and shelter to those in need.
For more information and to register please go to:
Winter Solstice Celebration and 21 Taras Book Launch
December 21, 2023 11:00am – 1:00pm (MDT)
Online Via Zoom, Sponsored by Tara Mandala
Join us this Winter Solstice as we begin a new cycle with intention and compassion for all beings. Winter Solstice provides an opportunity for us to sit in the great mystery as we feel the earth turn back toward the light. This time of year has been honored throughout history in many cultures, and we will be joining our energy with others around the globe who are performing similar ceremonies during this special time.
For more information:
Embodying Tara
Talk & Book Signing Celebration
Join us in person at the SF Dharma Collective, 2929 24TH Street San Francisco
January 13th 2024, 6:00PM - 7:30PM
OR online via Zoom: http://bit.ly/sfdharma (password: 108108) or 301-715-8592 to join by phone. Meeting ID: 545 039 806
Come celebrate the publication of Embodying Tara: Twenty-One Manifestations to Awaken Your Innate Wisdom by Chandra Easton. Many know of the female Buddha Tara, but few know of her twenty-one aspects. Come hear stories and anecdotes from the book, experience a guided meditation on the 21 Taras, and get your book signed!
For more information:
RETREATS
Embodying Tara Retreat and Book Signing
Meditation, Mantra, and Yoga Retreat
February 15-18, 2024MOUNT MADONNA RETREAT CENTER, SANTA CRUZ, CAOpen To Everyone
Tara, the female buddha of compassion, is called the “Savioress” because she is known for saving beings from the ocean of samsara (suffering). Her name also means “star” as she is as infinite as the stars in the sky. Ultimately, she is the Great Mother, and she represents the essential nature of your own mind, your buddha-nature, and in this way, she can manifest in each and every one of us in a myriad of different ways. The twenty-one aspects of Tara appear in the 11th century tantric text called the Twenty-One Praises to Tara, a devotional hymn popular in Tibetan Buddhism, from which Chandra’s book, Embodying Tara, draws its teachings and practices.
For more information:
Successful Retreat in October with Adzom Gyalse Rinpoche
We had a wonderful, and successful retreat with Rinpoche in person and online in October 2023. Thanks to all Sangha members from both Sanghas (Tara Mandala Bay Area Sangha and Osel Thegchog Ling) who helped out and made it a successful event! Rinpoche will return next year for more teachings!
Dzogchen Meditation Retreat
with Adzom Gyalse Rinpoche
Teachings from the Choying Dzod
An in-person retreat with Adzom Gyalse Tulku Rinpoche;
teaching on The Choying Dzod, "The Basic Space of Phenomena"
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Practice Descriptions
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Online and In-Person Practices
Tara Mandala Bay Area and other Satellite Sanghas are offering more online practice opportunities. Some of these will be classes with authorized teachers such as Lopön Chandra Easton , while others will be peer led practices by long-term sangha leaders. Please see below and join us!
All the following will be offered via the Zoom platform (you'll find zoom links in descriptions):
for more practices offered around the country click here:
for more practices offered around the country click here:
Well of Being Wednesdays
With Lopon Chandra and Eve Ekman
Every Wednesday, join us at the “Well of Being” where Chandra and Eve offer contemporary translations of ancient Tibetan Buddhist tools coupled with modern psychology for cultivating concentration, emotion awareness, insight, and compassion. As guides, Chandra and Eve respectively draw from their expertise as lead instructors in experiential and evidenced based trainings for emotion transformation, Feeding Your Demons® and Cultivating Emotional Balance. Reveal the healing source of your inner well-being through meditation, contemplation, and discussion.
Wednesdays 7:30 – 9:00pm via ZOOM
Join using this link: http://bit.ly/sfdharma
Password to log in: 108108
or 301-715-8592 to join by phone
Meeting ID: 545 039 806
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Five Wisdom Dakinis Practice
In person Reading Group and Practices will resume in 2024
The
Dakini Mandala creates a sacred geography within the psyche leading
toward the realization of the innate perfection of the world. The
mandala is a blueprint for sacred reality on every level. Ritually,
aesthetically, and symbolically it expresses the inherent purity of all
existence, and embodiment as a path to liberation. Through the mandala,
the psyche is provided with a container and structure for transformation
and architecture of enlightened experience. In this practice, we
explore through color, light, sound and visualization how our human
emotions are the very seeds for our own transformation and
enlightenment. Pre-requisites: must have familiarity with the book and/or learned the practice from Lama Tsultrim or an authorized teacher.
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Prajña Paramita Practice
Practice will return in 2024
Prajña Paramita is the Great Mother. She is luminous clarity that is full of compassion. She is a deity, a symbol, and a sutra. Above all, she is the teaching that guides us to the experience of prajña, or wisdom, which is the capacity to perceive the ineffable vastness of basic space. The Prajña Paramita practice from Lama Tsultrim Allione is a nature of mind practice which requires transmission. Prajña Paramita is a foundational practice in our sangha. We offer courses locally throughout the year in the Bay Area and at Tara Mandala during the retreat season (April-Oct).
Pre-requisites: at least two years of meditation or internal arts practice (i.e. Chi kung, Tai chi, or yoga) and must have received transmission from Lama Tsultrim, Chandra Easton, or other authorized teacher.
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Chöd
The Chögyal Namkhai Norbu Chöd came to this great Dzogchen master in a dream. Chöd is a unique blend of the Tibetan Shamanic traditions and the Buddhist tradition of compassion and emptiness. This centuries-old practice is sung and is accompanied by the use of a traditional Chöd drum and bell. Healing comes when fear, fixation, and self-clinging are cut through, based on nurturing not fighting what assails us, giving rise to the awareness of the empty nature of afflictive emotions. Pre-requisites: This practice is open to all. People who have learned the practice can join in and anyone can come and receive the healing energy of the practice.
The Parchangma Chöd is an integral part of Do Khyentse Yeshe Dorje’s Dzinpa Rangdröl (Self-Liberation of Clinging) treasure cycle (terma). This practice is sung and is accompanied by the use of a traditional Chöd drum and bell. Healing comes when fear, fixation, and self-clinging are cut through, based on nurturing not fighting what assails us, giving rise to the awareness of the empty nature of afflictive emotions. Pre-requisites: This practice is open to all. People who have learned the practice can join in and anyone can come and receive the healing energy of the practice.
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