Kapala Training
Lama Tsultrim Allione brings an eleventh-century Tibetan woman’s practice to the West for the first time in her book, Feeding Your Demons: Ancient Wisdom for Resolving Inner Conflict (Little Brown Co. 2008), outlining an accessible and effective approach for dealing with negative emotions, fears, illnesses, and self-defeating patterns. Lama Tsultrim explains how when we fight our ‘demons’ they grow stronger. If we feed and nurture them, however, we can free ourselves from the battle. Through the clearly articulated practice outlined in Feeding Your Demons® (FYD), we can learn to overcome any obstacle and achieve freedom and inner peace.
Kapala Training is a five-level training program comprised of five retreats of increasing levels of depth and preparation designed for deeper learning and understanding about the FYD process. The training offers an in-depth exploration of the Chöd teachings of 11th century Tibetan yogini, Machig Labdrön; related Mahayana teachings of Prajñaparamita; as well as the practice of FYD developed by Lama Tsultrim Allione. The Training is designed both for professionals, who can apply these practices to their healing work, and for individuals who wish to work deeply with their own ‘demons’ through contemplative practice.
Kapala Training thus offers a path to certification for those who wish to become authorized to use the FYD method with clients in a therapeutic setting. That path consists of completing the online Certification Level. See here for more details >>
Kapala Training Levels I through V are also a foundational part of the Magyu Path of Study in Tibetan Buddhism offered through Tara Mandala Retreat Center.
Please note that Kapala Training Level I & II (Onsite) correspond closely with the Buddhist Track of FYD Online I & II and could, therefore, be taken interchangeably, provided the required assignments have been completed (as outlined below). Both online and onsite paths qualify as Magyu Path requirements.
There is no formal application or prerequisite to begin the Kapala Training Path, although there is an application process for those who wish to become certified to use the FYD process with clients.
Kapala Training Path
Kapala Training Level I
Prerequisites: None
Kapala Training Level I includes:
- Feeding Your Demons® – solo and partner work
- Feeding Your Demons® with drawing and clay
- Types of Demons
- Mapping Demon Complexes
- Prajnaparamita practice
Kapala Training Level II
Prerequisites:
- Completion of Kapala Training Level I or FYD Online Level I (Buddhist Track)
- 25 Feeding Your Demons® processes: 20 solo and 5 with a partner
- For partner work, tracking forms from both partners equal one partner work process. This should not be done with clients. It is acceptable to work with gods instead of demons for some of these sessions.
- 80 sessions of Prajnaparamita practice.
- Plant a tree or sponsor a tree to be planted.
- This requirement came to Lama Tsultrim in a dream in which she was flying over Europe and saw that it was dry, parched and very hot. She heard a voice that said: “For Climate Change everyone should plant a tree before Kapala Training Level II.” Planting a tree connects your practice to healing the earth and to Machig’s experience in the Serlag tree, overseen by the king of the Nagas, during her initiation from Sonam Lama. The tree is also considered a metaphor for individuation.
Kapala Training Level II includes:
- Making a full-sized body map
- This entails sketching where the 25 demons/gods you did between Kapala Training Level I and II appeared in your body and reflecting on what you see in the body map
- Extended Ally Process – solo and partner work
- Male and female family lineage demon and ally maps
- Further refinement of the hydra map
- “Transmitting the Meaning of the Mother” practice
- “Supplication to the Great Mother” practice
- “Cutting Four Demons Loose into Space” practice
- Teachings on excerpts from the “Grand Poem of Aryadeva the Brahmin” and “Machig’s Last Instructions”
- Taking and Waking practice
Kapala Training offers a path to certification for those who wish to become authorized to use the FYD method with clients in a therapeutic setting. That path consists of completing the online Certification Level. See here for more details >>
FYD Certification
(not required to progress to Kapala Training Level III)
The Feeding Your Demons® Certification Level is the final level of our FYD Certification Program. This final level offers in-depth training on topics such as the psychological foundations of FYD, the anatomy of the FYD Process, how to work with challenges arising in facilitation, and how to deepen your own FYD practice. For successful candidates, the training results in becoming certified to use the method to help others on their path.
Prerequisites:
- Completion of Kapala Training Levels I and II, or FYD Online Level I and II
- 40 Solo Demon Feedings
- 40 Partner Demon Feedings
- 10 Solo Extended Ally processes
- 10 Partner Extended Ally processes
- 10 Facilitator Tracking processes
See www.feedingyourdemons.com for full information and registration.
Kapala Training Level III
Kapala Training Level III goes more deeply into meditation practices from the Mother Lineage and introduces approaches to FYD that are more trans-personal and altruistic.
Prerequisites: (Please note – While FYD Certification is not required in order to progress to Kapala Training Level III, for those who have completed FYD Certification, you will have already completed some of these)
- Completion of Kapala Training Levels I and II, or FYD Online Level I and II (Buddhist Track)
- A total of 40 Solo + 20 Partner sessions (completed as part of the Kapala Levels I & II)
- 10 Solo Extended Ally + 10 Partner Extended Ally processes (with- or without Journey)
- 80 sessions of “Supplication to the Great Mother”
- 80 sessions of “Transmitting the Meaning of the Mother” with “Cutting Four Demons Loose into Space”
- You may choose how much time to spend with each (Transmitting the Meaning and Cutting the Four Demons) in one practice session.
- 80 sessions of Taking and Waking
In Kapala Training Level III you will receive:
- The Empowerment of Machig Labdrön
- The practice of “Opening the Gate to Space”
- Feeding Your Demons® with dreams figures
- Collective Societal, Cultural, and Historical Demons
- Organizational and Group-dynamic Demons
- The Fourth Demon: Ego-clinging
- Your processes of Journey with the Ally
Kapala Training Level IV
Prerequisites:
- Completion of Kapala Training Levels I & II or FYD Online Levels I and II (Buddhist Track) and Kapala Training Level III
- 90 sessions of “Opening the Gate to Space”
- Completion of one (1) week of Dentog Chigma Chöd solo retreat (committing to 3 additional consecutive weeks before Kapala Training Level V).
- 10 Feeding Your Demons® with dream figures with tracking forms
- 10 Feeding Your Demons® with demon of ego-clinging with tracking forms
- 10 Feeding Your Demons® with collective societal/cultural/historical demon with tracking forms
- 10 Journey with the Ally processes
- 90 thirty-minute sessions of the Four Immeasurables practice
In Kapala Training Level IV you will receive:
- “Machig’s Direct Transmission” from Lama Tsultrim
- “The Crystal and Its Rays” movement practice
Kapala Training Level V
Prerequisites:
- Completion of Kapala Training Levels I & II or FYD Online Levels I and II (Buddhist Track) and Kapala Training Levels III & IV
- 90 sessions of “Machig’s Direct Transmission”
- 90 sessions of “The Crystal and Its Rays” movement practice
In Kapala Training V:
- We will look at the scientific studies connected to FYD.
- We will work with the demon of racism and how it affects us, and the demon of ecological narcissism. We will also do partner work with whatever is arising for each of us individually.
- You will receive the practice of “Machig Labdrön and the Five Chakra Dakinis” a Dagnang (Pure Vision) Terma from Lama Tsultrim. She received this at Zangri Khamar in Tibet on December 13, 2010.
- You will receive Machig’s Longevity sadhana practice that Lama Tsultrim received in the cave of Machig Labdrön in Bhutan in 2017.