We all have fears, anxiety, depression and the rest, but the trouble is we over-identify with these aspects of our self, believing that they are who we really are and assuming that we’re stuck with them. But we’re not. 

Instead, we need to consciously identify our sense of self in terms of our beauty, courage, compassion and the other marvelous qualities that are at the core of our being – and finally identify with our ultimate nature, that of a buddha: our potential to be utterly free of all delusions and fully developed in wisdom and goodness.

This is the essence of the psychology of tantra. What we think is a powerful cause for becoming exactly those parts of ourselves. The various buddhas are simply manifestations of these qualities: the buddha of compassion, Chenrezig; the buddha of wisdom, Manjushri, and Tara – in Tibetan, Drolma, the Liberator: the liberator from the fears of samsara – the manifestation of power, courage, action. By meditating on them, identifying with them, we become our own Chenrezig, our own Tara.

During our retreat we will introduce this approach in the framework of the three principal aspects of the path: On the basis of renunciation, the understanding of reality, and compassion we can enter into the most advanced stages of Buddhist practice, which explains how to transform all aspects of ourselves, all the good and all the bad, into the path to enlightenment.