Wearing the Body of Visions

An exploration of the rich and dramatic symbolism of inner Tantra through practices of vision, song, chant, painting, mudra, and spiritual music. Ngak’chang Rinpoche and Khandro Déchen explain the meaning of enlightened symbolism, which functions as an inspiration and also as a direct communication to our own awakened mind.

As beings caught up in the illusion of duality, we are symbols of our true enlightened selves. Because of this, tantric symbolism functions as a powerful method by which we can transform our experience to reveal our true nature through ‘wearing’ the visionary body of the yidam (meditational deity).

We will learn about the different kinds of yidams (peaceful, joyous, and wrathful) and the different ways in which they function as the focus of our practice.

The weekend will include teaching, ample opportunity for questions and answers, yogic song and chant, and an introduction to the powerful practice of envisionment (self-arising as the yidam). We will learn methods of practice that allow us to experience emptiness, which is the space from which the experience of vision arises, and the vajra pride that allows us to bring enlightened awareness into our experience of everyday life.

The weekend will include an empowerment (tantric initiation) into the practice of Yeshé Tsogyel, the female tantric Buddha of Tibet and the main yidam of the Aro gTér Lineage.

This residential retreat will commence on the evening of 17th May (please arrive 5:30pm) and run until lunch time on Sunday 19th May 2013.