Wisdom Flame
About
We are contemplative practitioners living in Nova Scotia, the ancestral, unceded territory of the Mi'kmaq. Our group is dedicated to uncovering and practicing the innate wisdom in ourselves and our communities. In the fall of 2017 we began gathering informally to study Buddhist women teachers—to take a closer look at their struggles and breakthroughs, their life examples and teachings. This became a jumping-off point for exploring our own personal questions, stories and ancestry, as well as multiple "ways of wisdom." Most recently we have engaged topics and practices related to decolonizing, psychotherapy and animism.
Lama Tsultrim at Herring Cove Park, Nova Scotia, May 2018, prior to leading a Wisdom Rising retreat at Cabot Shores, Cape Breton.
Some of us have a connection to Tara Mandala, a Buddhist retreat centre in Colorado that is a hub for an international network of practitioners and sanghas under the direction of Lama Tsultrim Allione. Tara Mandala is carrying forward the lineage and spirit of Machik Labdrön, an 11th-12th century Tibetan woman whose teachings and practices continue to be influential in all Tibetan Buddhist lineages. In April 2016 Lama Tsultrim led an introductory retreat at Windhorse in Nova Scotia. Since then, we have continued to host retreats and explore practices she developed based on Machik's teachings, such as Feeding Your Demons and Dakini Mandala. Visiting Tara Mandala teachers Lopon Charlotte Rotterdam and Pieter Oosthuizen have also led workshops in Nova Scotia. This spring we are looking forward to hosting Tulku Ösel Dorje, who will introduce the profound practice of Green Tara from the Ösel Dorje Sangdzod (The Treasury of Secret Vajra Luminosity).
Coming this May. All welcome.
In-person weekend retreat
Green Tara
Teachings and practice from the Tibetan Buddhist tradition
with visiting teacher Tulku Ösel Dorje
May 26-28, 2023. Halifax, Nova Scotia/Mi’kma’ki
Green Tara, the female buddha of compassion, swiftly provides protection from fear and suffering. She sits with one foot in the meditative posture and one foot in the world.
Please join us for a weekend immersion in the practice of Green Tara. Through deity visualization, mantra recitation, mudras, musical offering and feast offering, we will connect with the luminous compassion of Green Tara and our own innate, awakened heart.
This retreat is open to everyone and will be a great opportunity for new and seasoned students alike to deepen their understanding and embodiment of compassion. Read more....
Open practice sessions
Meditation
Mondays and Fridays, 8:30-9:00 am
An ongoing online drop-in space for anyone interested in practicing with others. We begin with a guided meditation, sit in silence for 20 minutes, and conclude with a few minutes of compassion practice. All welcome.
Contact: susan@howwethrive.org
Articles
Earlier
Ways of Wisdom study circle, fall 2021 & ongoing
Inviting our ancestors
Bi-weekly on Wednesdays, 7:00-9:00 pm
As a way of getting to know ourselves and each other better, we are bringing our ancestors into the circle—the gifts, strengths and inspirations, as well as the unresolved legacies and burdens. Find out more...
Note: this group is now closed.
Practice and study circle, fall 2020
Wisdom Rising
Mondays, 7:00-8:30 pm
Begins online September 21
Over the past few years, Lama Tsultrim Allione and other senior teachers from Tara Mandala have visited Nova Scotia, introducing the Mandala of the Five Wisdom Dakinis, Feeding Your Demons, Prajna Paramita, and other teachings and practices.
This fall we will use Lama Tsultrim's book Wisdom Rising as a jumping-off point for discovery, deepening, and community through these practices. We will explore topics such as feminine dimensions of spirituality, the mandala of one's life, dakini as sky-dancer, waking up to these times, cultivating compassion, refuge...and whatever arises.
Summer 2020 practice and study circle
Reconnecting to wholeness
In her book Wisdom Rising, Lama Tsultrim Allione introduces practices that strengthen and integrate nature's elemental qualities in ourselves— the clarity and fluidity of water, the richness and groundedness of earth, the warmth and connectedness of fire, the energy and movement of wind, the openness of sky.
We will explore these practices in the context of the Tibetan Buddhist mandala, an ancient symbol of wholeness that includes everything, both wisdom and confusion. We will see how our personalities and emotions are part of the same colourful play of energies and elements that make up our world.
Mondays, 7:00–8:30 pm,
July 13, 20, 27. August 10, 17, 24, 31.
On Zoom.
Mandala painting by Michele Tanaka
Spring 2020 WoW study circle
Waking up to where we are
From our social institutions and spiritual traditions to the environment and the future itself, so much in our familiar world is unraveling. What can we learn from each other and the wisdom and practices of the feminine about how to be and what to do in these times?
Biweekly, March 11–June 17, 7:00–8:30 pm. On Zoom.
Fall 2019 book study
In Love with the world
At the age of 36, Mingyur Rinpoche slipped through the monastery gate in the middle of the night, leaving behind the comfort, safety and claustrophobia of the structures that had defined his spiritual life.
As he ventured into the unknown, his experience paralleled the search for the life-giving, sometimes ruthless, wisdom of the feminine. Hers is the wisdom of naked awareness, birth and death, and the play of coincidence in everyday life. In this book study we related Mingyur Rinpoche's journey to our own, as well as to the collective journey now unfolding in our communities and our world. Read more...
"One of the most inspiring books I have ever read." —Pema Chodron
Public talk
Real Love with Sharon Salzberg
November 8, 2018. Thank you to the wonderfully wise, funny and down-to-earth Sharon Salzberg for a great evening of stories and nuggets like these—Love is really a freedom of the heart. It is not a feeling, it's an ability. It is a bone-deep sense of connection to ourselves and one another. It is not the same as liking somebody, but knowing deeply that our lives have something to do with one another.
Listen to a clip from the talk.
Co-hosted with Mindful Magazine. Photo by Rita Wuebbeler.
Winter retreat
Kapala Training 1
February 1-4, 2018. Who knew that our inner "demons" are allies in disguise? For four days, we immersed ourselves in the surprising and profound practices of Feeding Your Demons and Prajna Paramita. Read more about our retreat...
