Wearing the Body of Visions

This weekend explores the rich and dramatic symbolism of inner Tantra, through practices of vision, yogic song, chant, mudra, and Tantric music. The weekend includes a slide presentation of rare Tantric paintings, rites, and symbolic dances. The Lamas explain the meaning of symbolism in such a way as to unlock a field of language. Symbolism may be mysterious in the way it conveys what it conveys – but it is a language which can be learnt and a tool with which we can come to understand the intrinsic beauty of all beings. The peaceful, joyous, and wrathful awareness-beings (yidams, or meditational deities) are the key to both to personal dignity and to perceiving the dignity of others. These three categories cover every human body type – and in so doing, release us from the bondage of societal sanction with regard to how we appear.

“From the perspective of enlightenment, we are symbols of ourselves. As symbols, we can journey into the enlightened textures of realisation through the practice of envisionment. Envisionment enables us to discover what we always knew – that we were beyond the limits of hope, fear, and boredom. To receive empowerment is to be struck by lightning in the gentlest possible manner. It is to be burnt by searing kindness, into nothing but what we actually are.”

Ngak’chang Rinpoche

You can read a question and answer session on these topics.

Recommended books: Wearing the Body of Visions; Introduction to Tantra.