Long time Tara Mandala resident and staff-member Clinton Spence offers a blog post on living the Magyu path
My mantra these days is “do the things you love, and help people.”
I have had the honor and fortune to work with Tara Mandala for the last 6 years, as a Communications Coordinator. The most important advice I received was something Lama Tsultrim told me when I started my job. She was talking about a social-media post I was creating, and she said: “Does it help people?”
This advice stuck with me, and I use it for every aspect of my job. But more importantly, I use it for almost every aspect of my life. I have found that what satisfies this advice, is how pieces of my practice will surface, meeting the need of the moment, whether that be supporting my well-being, or extending positive energy to others.
Of course when I began spiritual practice, it immediately influenced my every day life. But, over the years, as I moved through the variety of Magyu practices, these pieces of practice started to form endless combinations of specific and very personal healing that meet very specific and personal moments I experience in life. The differences in each practice only enhance the applicability of others. They are “practiced” during formal sitting, and they are “applied” as I experience the ups and downs of my day, or week, or month, etc. And it is always imbued with Bodhicitta.
For example, when I am in a crowded public place, my real-world interactions are enhanced by a simple overlay of the mandala, or a specific Buddha family, or a Green Tara mantra, or quickly feeding a demon. In some cases Zhitro runs through me, as I experience the death of some “thing” in the world. All these pieces of practice happen quite naturally, and either embed the wordly experience, or allow me insight, resilience, and transformation, in my reactions to life.
During staff Losar retreat in 2019, I had my strongest experience of feeling and understanding how valuable Magyu is, as a “family” of practices. How one combines with the other to offer multi-layered healing and transformation.
I was working with a core personal issue, and was practicing the Five Dakini Mandala to explore how each encumbered emotion was present in this issue. With each investigation into each emotion, specific characteristics were revealed to me that I could see contributed to the debilitating effects of this issue. The mandala offered a wholistic form of healing. I would then work with the strongest aspects of these characteristics in a Feeding Your Demons session, to specifically offer them healing. With evening Chöd practice I was able to feed all beings who I imagined as feeling a similar weight that I felt from this issue. Coming out of retreat, I had developed more empathy and willingness to help people, whether through practice or activity.
After our staff retreat, I spoke to Lama Tsultrim about the mandala and Feeding Your Demons practices, and how in combination, they were very effective. She said: “Of course, that’s why I developed them.”
Magyu is a loving path. The practices are different expressions of love. And they help people. So by walking the Magyu path, I am living my mantra. I hope that it can do the same for you.
We are now accepting applications for 2023. This is a perfect time to apply for Magyu, but please note that applications are open year-round and you can begin your journey at any time! To learn more and to apply, click here.
