TRIKĀYA SYSTEM OF PRACTICE
Trikāya is a clear and comprehensive system of practice and guiding theory with many interrelated branches all leading the practitioner to irreversible realization of their own True Nature.
Students can learn at their own pace, stay focused in one track of study or customize their path to follow their particular interests and aptitudes. Trikāya’s modernized delivery system makes the teachings of nondual dharma accessible without sacrificing the effectiveness, integrity and sacredness of the tradition.
What is the relationship between Trikāya and the Mahāsiddhas?
Trikāya is not a new system of spiritual practice. It is Tantra or Tantrik Yoga from an Indian perspective, and Gyüd and Dzogchenfrom a Tibetan perspective. These different ethnic and cultural traditions share common roots. It is only in the sequencing of the methods taught in that path, their emphasis, and in the precise vocabulary and literary tradition of each that they differ. In 90% of theory and practice; they are identical.
The Fruit or result of the Indian and Tibetan Nondual Tantrik Yoga paths when taken to the end, and that of Dzogchen, are identical. The great masters of these traditions were living examples of the fruit of the path. They received the mantle of “Mahāsiddha” in Sanskrit, which translates roughly as Masters of Great Attainment.
Mahāsiddhas shared certain characteristics such as:
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A very strong emphasis on non-sectarianism. However, in clear contradistinction to this principle of the Way of the Mahāsiddhas, the Tibetan and Indian Nondual Dharma traditions/religions often claim these luminaries “as their own” in an attempt to “one up” their rival traditions.
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Esoteric Ritual
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Rich Inner Alchemy Practices
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Living in Direct Realization – a Non-Progressive way of practice and life.
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They often had an antinomian lifestyle in close contact with nature or unusual settings such as cremation grounds. But there were Mahāsiddhas who chose to live in communities.
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Most often they were in Mirror Consort Relationships.
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These masters were the first to be called “Crazy Wisdom” adepts.
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A great many of them underwent the process of transmogrification of the physical body instead of ordinary death. They reached total realization of Buddhahood and manifested the Rainbow Light Body, leaving no corpse behind. This demonstrated their seamless unity or Ultimate Intimacy with their Ultimate Nature.
The Mahāsiddhas set a high bar for spiritual realization. Their way of practicing and living is the standard reference point for Ultimate Realization in the Nondual Dharma Traditions.
Trika Mahāsiddha Yoga is a system comprised of the standard essential practices and principles of Indian and Tibetan Tantrik Yoga and Meditation. TMY is organized and delivered in the same way that the Mahāsiddhas of our lineages practiced, taught and lived.
If you are relatively new to the Nondual Yoga and Meditation traditions of the East, and unfamiliar with the Sanskrit words - “Tantra” and “Tantrik Yoga”, please read the next section entitled “What is Tantra?”
What is Tantra?
A Central Asian/Indian grouping of spiritual technologies which use the body, its energies, and the mind to attain freedom from suffering and limitation. It is the extension of the earlier shamanic and Vedic traditions, and nowadays is primarily carried by Indian Śakta-Śaiva, Tibetan Bön, Japanese Shingon & Tibetan Buddhist religious and cultural traditions. It has these general characteristics:
- Guru Yoga & Initiation – The central characteristic of all schools of traditional Tantra is the cultivation of the student-teacher relationship on outer, inner and secret levels in order to reflect the student’s own innate self-perfected state of being which can only be experienced outside of conventional mind and learning. There is no Tantrik Yoga without the Guru/Lama.
- Deity Yoga –meditation, mantra, visualization and ritual aided by the enlightened deities.
- Esoteric Ritual – The Mahāsiddhas revealed the subtle workings of the exoteric rituals of the earlier dualistic Tantrik traditions. They created systems of practice that expressed the inherent fusion of both the subtle body/mind complex’s inner energies and their correlated ritual actions.
- Inner Alchemy – Kriya Yoga – Trika Mahāsiddha Yoga uses the subtle, relatively simple, and yet powerfully transformative Kriya Yoga system of Swami Rudrānanda. This system turbocharges all Tantrik practices and acts like a “motor” to generate, refine and circulate mass quantities of subtle energy necessary for deeper spiritual work. What makes Swami Rudrananda’s Kriya Yoga system unique is its utility as a stand-alone practice as well as being a type of motor that maximizes the potential result of practices such as deity yoga, guru yoga and even dream, sleep and death yogas. The energy imbibed and released during this practice is a great aid in revealing one’s deepest psycho-emotional and spiritual limitations and obstacles as merely virtues under the tension of the ego.
- Mantra – Mantra in essence is powerful packets of vibrational-energy represented by the various seed sounds chanted in Tantrik Yoga. These are handed down through unbroken guru-disciple transmission. These sounds/vibrational seed-powers are the essence of the manifested world. They are also the “bodies” of the enlightened deities and the raw energy display of your own enlightened consciousness. Mantras are used as stand-alone practices and also as “Awareness Spells”. Awareness Spells can be used for specific transformational purposes, protection, healing, awakening of inner virtues, invoking enlightened deities as guides, etc. They also give access to various realms of experience and the enlightened beings populating those realms.
- Meditation – Meditation has numerous progressive methods that make use of a step-by-step approach to discovering one’s Essence-Mind. There also exists in Trika Mahāsiddha Yoga what are called “Direct Meditation” methods that place the properly prepared meditator directly at Source without causation.
- Antinomian Lifestyle - A lifestyle free from the bondage of societal norms, wherein one is free to construct the most appropriate lifestyle conducive to self-liberation in one lifetime which naturally benefits all beings. The reason practitioners of Tantra favor an antinomian lifestyle is not to become a rebel, an anarchist or an inconsiderate hedonist buffoon or lout, but to transform one’s entire life into a direct expression of enlightened Compassion and Wisdom, uplifting humanity at large.
Trikāya System Overview
Independent Cycles of Teachings & Practices
The following cycles are core, stand-alone topics that will supplement your main focus of practice in the 5 Ways.
◉ TANTRIK ENNEAGRAM
◉ SIX REALMS & YOGAS OF THE SIX REALMS
◉ ĀTMAŚAKTI
◉ UNLEASHING THE FORCE OF THE RED BINDU
◉ RUSHEN
◉ YOGAS OF DREAM, SLEEP & DEATH
"Entering the Stream"
This is the traditional way of beginning Dharma practice. Entering the Stream gives a progressive method of learning and practice wherein each step builds upon the previous step, thus creating a solid foundation, overview and understanding of the teachings, practices and path. It is recommended that you first take the Peliminaries of TMY, followed by the Foundations of TMY. Though some students who are more ambitious and have a bit more time on their hands will engage with Preliminaries, Foundations and Kundalinī Hatha Yoga simultaneously, while they prepare to attend the next offering of the Entering the Stream In-Person Retreat, and that’s ok too.
1) Preliminaries of Trikāya
In the Preliminaries you receive the contemplation exercises and view teachings of Trikāya that form the essential basic training of all non-dual schools of dharma practice. These give you the understanding and context for all of the future teachings and practices you will learn in Trikāya.
The Preliminaries and Foundations courses give you a solid base and are required to complete before attending trainings in the 5 Ways.
Preliminaries of Trikāya
In the Preliminary Program Dharma Bodhi introduces you to the core View Teachings of Trikāya.
$150
2) Foundations of Trikāya
This course gives you a 12-part practice that when practiced regularly transforms your mind and lived experience from that of limitation and suffering, to that of innate freedom and creativity. The inner experience and permanent lens of perception created through practicing the Foundations is that of Loving Compassion and Wisdom. Along with this you will develop the aspiration to realize your Nature and the sincere wish that all sentient beings still trapped in confused suffering will be free.
Foundations of Trikāya
The 12 Foundational practices of Trikāya will be covered throughout this course with in-depth instruction & guidance.
$150
3) Entering the Stream (In-Person Retreat)
The Entering the Stream Retreat offers the Foundations Teachings PLUS practitioner typing, group practice, and transmission of 12 Stage View Teachings.
4) Kundalinī Hatha Yoga - Free Intro Course
Kundalinī Hatha Yoga: Recalibrating Elemental Forces provides the physical component of Trikāya foundational work, which will supplement all mental & energetic practices via health, vitality, cultivation of body-awareness, seating the prānā, etc.
Kundalinī
Hatha Yoga - Intro Course
Recalibrating elemental forces - balancing the elements of wind, fire and water in body and mind.
FREE COURSE
The 5 Ways to Realization
Within Trikāya there are 5 complete and unique, yet interrelated paths of practice and teachings. Each of The 5 Ways to Realization are 5 approaches to practice and the path that are capable of taking you from rank beginner in the Dharma to the ultimate experience of your own True Nature – that of Buddhahood.
Choose Your Way:
Select your main Way of Realization. You may freely attend any of the other Ways’ trainings as well in order to support the practice of your main Way, or just out of interest.
Way of Meditation
The Mind is considered the foundation of liberation and bondage. Therefore, in order to be able to fully express enlightenment as a human being through our body, speech and mind, we must make meditation a regular part of our lives.
Human beings have three modes of Enlightened-Expression – body, speech (energy), and mind. On the Mahāsiddha Path of total realization of our True Nature, we must train all three of these modes, not forgetting that the foundation of these is the mind. We can have radiant health, highly developed situational awareness, and even complete awareness of our emotional facilitation, but the mind may still act as a disturbing annoyance, an obstacle to our equanimity, a driver of unconscious compulsive actions/reactions, and interfere with our ability to rest in our True Nature. Becoming established in the practice of both formal and informal meditation is the basis of recognizing our True Nature, and continuing in that realization.
The Way of Meditation has two tracks of study and practice:
Track 1- Progressive (Meditation with Form)
A progressive system of sequential techniques that train familiarity with your mind through focusing on your mind’s ever subtler functions and the experiences they yield - eventually causing your mind to become so subtle that it simply resolves back into its Source – your True Nature. The practices used in training Meditation with Form come from systems of Indo-Tibetan Tantrik Meditation.
Track 2 - Direct (Formless Meditation)
Also known as Direct Realization Meditation, Formless Meditation is the Pathless Path. Rather than a series of progressive techniques of meditation, the meditator plunges directly into the stark nakedness of “reality as it is” in the attempt to relax pre-occupations with the mind’s functions and content in order to awaken, become familiar with, and abide in the mind’s True Nature. The framework for the path of Formless Meditation is primarily the “Wuwei Daoist path of the Daoist Adept” and the “Śambhavopaya Path of Non-Dual Śakta-Śaivism,” which includes meditation instruction, view teachings, light text study, supportive energy exercises to clear wind in the channels, and practice retreats. In the coming years, Formless Meditation training will be offered from the perspective of Dzogchen Meditation as well.
Track 1: Progressive Meditation
(Known as the “Right Branch”)
Offered via:
◉ Level I (In-Person) Retreat: Awakening the Three Centers of Awareness
Learn and practice meditation techniques to awaken the three-centers of being: body, speech & mind. Practitioners can enter the Natural State through each of these “doors”. There are roughly 20 techniques in Level I, from which a specific set of meditation techniques representing the “three doors” (body, speech, mind) will be chosen. At each successive retreat, the set of practices emphasized at this level will rotate, thus giving the student a greater chance to discover the best techniques for them.
Categories of Meditation Techniques Explored:
- Classical Seated Meditations working directly with the awareness & functions of the mind.
- Breath Meditations.
- Chanting/Sounding Meditations.
- Moving Meditations.
- Sensory Meditations.
- Visualization Meditations, etc.
- Open to all students (no pre-requisites)
LIVE ONLINE COURSE
Attaining Buddha Mind: Essential Tantrik Meditations
Starting Jan 25, 2026
View Course◉ Level II (In-Person) Retreat: Establishing Unbroken Equanimity
Here you will practice the core methods of the Indo-Tibetan Meditation traditions, in order to stabilize the experience of the Unbroken Equanimity aspect of your base Awareness. Having glimpses of your True Nature or Nature of your Mind will begin in Level I, and continue to increase throughout your Level II training period. However, these experiences of partial recognition will be fleeting, and if conceptualized in the refractory period afterwards can become serious obstacles to authentic realization of your Nature and the ability to abide in this experience. Therefore, in the progressive path of Meditation with Form, mastering the Level II techniques is essential in order to establish the necessary unbroken equanimity upon which true Buddhahood rests.
Categories of Meditation Techniques Explored:
- Techniques that deepen the uninterrupted experience of the fusion of unbroken focused awareness with the energy of breath.
- Discerning between the essential qualities of Clarity & Luminosity vs. Subtle Concept Formation & Stupor masquerading as Non-Dual Abiding.
- Undermining Reflexive Self-Grasping.
- Advanced Trataka methods of Abiding in the Nature.
- A category of techniques that explores what is known as Vikalpakshaya in Sanskrit; realizing the inherent nature of thought constructs & liberating their impulse to arise.
- The advanced practice of Antar Mouna, moving from semi-nondual technique to direct non-dual expression.
- Introduction to Non-Conceptual Meditation. These instructions will be given at each Level II Retreat (with emphasis on Space, Clarity, and Luminosity, along with Copious Pointing Out Instructions, establishing the basis for further transmission in Level III).
- Open to all students (no-prerequisites)
◉ Progressive Meditation Practitioner Cohort
This Cohort affords you the opportunity to ask the teacher specific follow-up questions related to your practice experience. The Cohorts also enable you to hear the other practitioner’s questions, and to share your experiences with them. In TMY we call this “Horizontal Transmission”, where the students share their insights and knowledge with each other, thus lifting the experience of the whole cohort.
Open to all students (no pre-requisites)
Levels III, IV & V
The last three levels of training in the path of Progressive Meditation gives you advanced teachings, practices, and time in retreat with other advanced practitioners in the Way of Meditation. The material covered gives you all you need to complete the progressive path of Meditation with form.
Due to the advanced and sacred nature of these levels of meditation training, the topics and techniques to be presented will not be described or even listed here, and no recordings will be made during the retreat.
Suffice to say that these levels culminate in the teachings and practices that awaken the Body of Light or Rainbow Body, and are appropriate for those yogins for whom it is their fate to experience the fullest resolution of limiting karmas, and who are prepared to make the commiserate commitment to the practice and lifestyle that this level of practice/path/fruit demands.
Offered via:
◉ Level III Retreat - Stabilizing Spaciousness and Spontaneity
◉ Level IV Retreat - Blazing Sky of Conduct
◉ Level V Retreat - Abiding in Pure Vision of the Great Mandala
*Pre-requisite for Level III, IV and V Retreats: Attendance at Levels III – V is invitation only - based upon the student’s capacity
◉ Advanced Progressive Meditation Practitioner Cohort
The Advanced Practitioner Cohort plays an invaluable role in the final stages of your meditation practice. At this stage you need the subtlest cueing and instruction in order to progress. The questions from your cohort, the exchanges between members and teacher, and between members themselves, can spark huge awakenings in your personal practice and your realization. At this stage of practice, the level of commitment and experience create a unique cohort environment that is in itself an exquisite and essential aspect of realization itself.
Pre-requisite: Attending any Level III, IV, or V Retreat.
(We will announce when the advanced cohort is starting. Until then, please subscribe to our email list for all announcements.)
Track 2: Direct Meditation
(Known as the “Left Branch”)
No pre-requisites are necessary to embark on the Left Branch of the Way of Meditation – Direct Meditation, which is a non-progressive practice and path. Anyone with or without previous meditation experience may attend any retreat in Direct Meditation.
However, it is important to say that if the practitioner self-assesses as being of low or middling capacity, they will more than likely derive greater benefit from following the Right Branch of the Way of Meditation, until they naturally arrive at readiness to benefit from Non-Progressive Meditation without Form, often known as “Non-Conceptual Meditation.”
In the end, both Progressive Meditation and Direct Meditation, lead the sincere practitioner to the Ultimate Fruit of Final Liberation. In the case of the practitioner for whom Meditation without Form is the appropriate Path, they will have a disinclination for cultivating a strong ambition to achieve full Buddhahood/Enlightenment in this lifetime. To some degree, they already have an inner understanding of the inherent self-perfected Nature of “things as they are.”
Offered via:
◉ Direct Meditation (In-Person) Retreats
All Direct Meditation retreats follow the same format and guidelines:
- The retreats begin with a short Dharma talk followed by basic instruction in Non-Conceptual Meditation. Over the remainder of the days, you will meet 2-3 times per day for group practice or perform solo in your hut, tent or nature based on the intent of the specific retreat you are attending.
- Once per day there will be an open question and answer session wherein you may ask about the practice, your experience, and general questions on View, Fruit and Conduct appropriate for this Way of cultivation. At times other than the Q & A sessions, you are encouraged to immerse in contemplative silence (Essential Speech).
- Specifically designated retreats may offer morning sessions of gentle qi gong or Retreat Yoga for 30-60 minutes to aid in keeping your channels open and harmonized. Sometimes there will be discourses on verses from ancient Non-Conceptual Literature in order to deepen your appreciation for the practice and its fruit.
- Open to all students (no-pre-requisites)
◉ Wuwei Dao Meditation Retreat
Both Online & In-Person are offered
These retreats revolve around the practice of Zuo Wang - Daoist non-conceptual meditation. Classic Daoist texts such as Dao de Jing and the Inner Chapters of Chuang Tze, will be read each day for their sagely advice on the practice of Daoism and meditation. The time in between formal sessions of sitting will be spent integrating with normal activities, creating a seamless flow between formal and informal meditation throughout the day and night.
Open to all students (no-pre-requisites)
◉ Vajra Meditation Retreat
Both Online & In-Person are offered
These retreats focus on the Indo-Tibetan streams of non-conceptual direct-realization meditation techniques and pointing out instructions, and their supportive texts and teachings.
Open to all students (no-pre-requisites)
◉ Dao “In-Movement” Retreat
Both Online and In-Person are offered
Daoist Yoga methods using coordinated movement of body and breath to induce harmony of the elements, channels and qi flow. These methods are a support to Daoist Meditation with health & longevity benefits derived from long-term practice.
Open to all students (no-pre-requisites)
◉ Direct Meditation Practitioner Cohort
This practitioner cohort forms a community of practitioners taking the way of the Wuwei Adept of Daoism and/or the Way of the Vajra of Indo-Tibetan Meditation. Cohort meetings are a time to get together and support each other in taking the Way that has no standards, no expectations, or well-defined steps. It’s a melting pot of experiences, ideas, methods and most of all an affirmation of a sense of camaraderie based on a shared inner knowing.
Pre-requisite: Has taken a Direct Meditation retreat either online or in-person (Meets about 1 time / month.)
Way of Mirror Consorts
Relationships may be the “Ultimate Yoga”.
It’s true that for most people, other than the time we spend on earning a living and sleeping, we will spend the greatest amount of our time and energy working to create emotional, mental and spiritual harmony in our love-relationships, including sexuality. Unfortunately, our well-intentioned efforts often yield only temporary results. We never reach the higher level of relating necessary to unlock the Unbroken Reflection and Recognition of our Essential Nature through Sacred Romance. Therefore, practitioners who follow the path of teachings and practices of the Mahāsiddhas (which was originally a non-monastic householder tradition) must learn to transform their usual approach to relationships and sexuality. For them – Sacred Romance – becomes the central and most profound “Way” of them all.
The Way of Mirror Consorts has three phases of learning & practice:
PHASE I - Entering Sacred Romance
PHASE II - Tantrik Consorts
PHASE III - Mirror Consorts
PHASE I: Entering Sacred Romance
- No Prerequisites – Open to All Students
- Singles and Couples may attend
- Basic Principles of Sacred Romance following the Traditional Dharma paths that offer Consort Training in their Curricula.
- Healthy Principles of Communication & Issue Processing
- Tantrik Enneagram of Personality and Communications (offered as an in-person retreat only).
- Relationship Dynamics
- Understanding Human Sexuality from the View of the Dharma of Liberation & the first phase of the path of the “sexual yogas”
- Identifying, Releasing and Healing the Wounds and Conditioning that suppress our potential for liberation
- Releasing our passion for life & the blockages in our emotional and sexual energy.
- What is Good Sex?,…What is it’s Proper Role?...and How to Cultivate it in your Relationship.
Sacred Romance training is offered in two ways:
◉ In-Person Retreats on Sacred Romance
- Open to all students without pre-requisites.
◉ Online Sacred Romance Cohort
- Open to all students without pre-requisites. (about 1 session/month)
PHASE II: Tantrik Consorts
- Invoking the Tantrik Mandala of Deity Consort Relating
- Tantrik Principles of Sacred Romance informing the Practice, (the Path of Ultimate Intimacy)
- Deity Yoga Abhiśekam (deity initiation)
- Practicing Deity Yoga in Dual Cultivation
- Progressive Path of Sexual Yogas (Path of Transformation)
- Direct Realization Sexual Yogas
- Establishing the Unbroken Deity Bhava as the basis of all Tantrik Consort Fruition – Theory and Practice
Tantrik Consort training is offered as:
◉ In-Person Tantrik Consort Retreats
Pre-requisites:
- Must be a TMY initiate
- Couples only (Only couples may enter this level. Should the couple part ways, both people will retain access to the online cohort meetings, but will not be able to qualify and apply for entry to the Mirror Consort Level of Practice without a committed Life-Partner of a number of years.)
◉ Online Tantrik Consort Cohort
Delivering the full system of Tantrik Consort Teachings along with Practice tips. This supplements and enhances the material learned on retreat. Note: Continual Tantrik Consort Cohort attendance is mandatory for both partners in order to remain eligible for later joining the Mirror Consort Cohort. (About 1 session/month.)
Pre-requisite:
- To qualify for the Online Tantrik Consorts Practitioner Cohort, both partners must have attended the In-Person Tantrik Consorts Retreat.
*Optional Auxillary Training for Tantrik Consort Couples – It’s highly recommended to attend the Rudrānanda Kriyā Yoga Retreat, offered in Way of Water – Level 2.
PHASE III: Mirror Consorts
- Training in the Radical View of Sacred Romance, “Re-Visioning” the Views that came before.
- Mirror Consorts Direct Way to Realization – the Sadhanas
- Guidance on the Practices relevant to Stages 8-12 of Sacred Romance/Ultimate Intimacy
- Fruition of Mirror Consort Path & The Rainbow Body
Mirror Consort training is offered as:
◉ Yearly In-Person Retreats of 5+ days in Nature
Pre-requisites:
- Entrance to Mirror Consort training is via Invitation based on achieved competency and therefore relevancy.
- Committed Couples only.
- Completion of Entry Level & Fruition of Tantrik Consorts practice.
◉ Online Mirror Consorts Practitioner Cohort
Pre-requisite:
- Both partners must have attended the In-Person Mirror Consorts Retreat
Way of Fire
“There is No Enlightenment without Enlightenment of the Body.”
--The Lady Yeshe Tsogyel (famous Rainbow Body Master)
TMY’s Way of Fire – Traditional Kundalinī Hatha Yoga - is the sequential path to total realization of the self-perfected state of one’s True Nature that utilizes all three “entry points” of body, energy and mind. Kundalinī Hatha Yoga places special emphasis on developing energy, and its interdependent relationship with the body and mind.
Kundalinī Hatha Yoga was refined and systematized by the first great Mahāsiddha – Matsyendra Nātha, recognized and revered by both Śaivist and Buddhist traditions of Tantrik Yoga.
The Path is sequential. A practitioner may move forward along the Path at their own pace, and decide to abide and integrate at a chosen stage before moving on, or simply remain at a level of attainment that satisfies their needs. For those wishing to unpack the full human potential, the Path terminates in the fruition known as the “Rainbow Body”. This refers to the resolution of the karma of ordinary death through transmogrification of the physical body into the “rainbow light” of the 5 Elements.
This last step of the Path cannot be attained solely through the physico-energetic practices found in the first three phases of the path of Kundalinī Hatha Yoga. Yoga’s ultimate fruit requires you to perform specific meditation practices characteristic of what is termed the “Enhancement Phase” of the path, which comes after mastery of Level III.
TMY’s Kundalinī Hatha Yoga works with…
- your body (deha),
- life-force (prāna),
- channels (nadi),
- energy centers (cakra),
- loci of consciousness and vitality (bindu),
- the 5 elemental lights (pañcatattva)
- mind’s functional capacities (manas-buddhi-ahankara-citi-vimarśa, etc.)
If you are more physically and energetically orientated, the Way of Fire is a good approach to spiritual cultivation for you. As an added benefit, the first two levels of training will help stabilize the realization you attain in any of the other four Ways of practice. Make no mistake - this is not a program in modern postural yoga. Nor is it a form of "Tantra-cized" postural yoga, or “Neo-Tantra.”
This is a thorough, authentic and classical training program in the Yoga of Liberation. Unique in its scope, traditional authenticity, retreat format and duration. If you have ever wondered how the practice of yoga leads to Ultimate Realization, the Way of Fire is for you.
Three Levels of Training:
Level I - Recalibrating Elemental Forces
Offered via:
◉ KHY Level I Retreat (Online or In-person)
Material covered:
- Strengthening and Balancing the 5 Elements
- Cleansing of the Physical and Subtle Channels (Nadis)
- Strengthening Agni – the fire of digestion and detoxification
- The Five Families of Āsana
- Three Core Series of Āsana
- The Inner-Yoga Practice of Purifying the karmas of the 5 Elements (Paśu Tattva Śuddhi)
- Yogic Chanting - developing the four resonant chambers
- View Teachings of Hatha Yoga - including oral transmission and text verses relevant to Level 1
- Preparatory practices for learning Kumbhaka (Energy Storage, Refinement and Awakening) at Level 2 training
- Foundational Breath Practice (Pranayama)
- Basic Physico-energetic locks (Bandha)
- Gestures of hands and eyes that re-channel the vital life force (Mudras)
- Meditation - sensory enhancement and classical mind training
- Awareness Training – there are many aspects of the practice to hold in your awareness while performing the yoga
- Preliminary Mantra
- Includes a free self-guided video series on the TMY website.
- Open to all students (no pre-requisites) - regardless of previous yoga experience and age.
* Note: There is no online Practitioner Cohort for this Level, but you are welcome to continue your training with Ācāryas-in-training who are authorized in KHY Level I.
Level II – Mastery of Kumbhaka
Offered via:
◉ KHY Level II Retreat (In-Person) – 2 weeks
Material covered:
- Intermediate Kumbhaka-Specific Prānāyāma practices
- Secrets of Kumbhaka Retention – practice progression
- Intermediate Āsana - static & mobile
- 5-Part Retreat Yoga Series
- Ritual Empowerments: Śambhunātha, Mā Pranaśakti
- View Teachings - Oral Teachings and Relevant Text Verses
- Intermediate 5 Element Purification (Vīra Tattva Śuddhi)
- Intermediate Mantra
- Creating and Strengthening the Channel System
- Releasing the Energy of the Basic Limiting Desires into the Head Cakras (Kriyā Yoga of Urdhvaretas)
- Intermediate Meditation (Mind Training and Bhavanā)
- Intermediate and Advanced Chanting & Mantra
- The practice of Transference of Consciousness at the time of death (Samuccāra)
- Intermediate Bandha
- Basics of Bodily Alchemy (Primal Ayurveda)
- Teachings of Trika-Kundalinī (with special emphasis on Sva-Kundalinī)
- Foundations of Dream Yoga
- Integrating Knowledge of your Personal Karma (found via Tantrik Astrology) with the practice in order to create character change.
- Pre-requisite: Completion of a Level I online or in-person retreat
◉ Intermediate KHY Practitioner Cohort
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All students who have completed the Level II KHY In-Person Retreat may participate in the online practitioner cohort.
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Meets about 1x/month
Level III – Mahākumbhaka – Awakening the Kundalinī
*Due to the advanced and sacred nature of the material presented in the Level III training, participants must be TMY Initiates and if not, must apply for initiation prior to the retreat by writing to trikapath@gmail.com.
Offered via:
◉ KHY Level III Retreat (In-Person) – 5 weeks
Material covered:
- How to fully bring your Kundalinī through Her 11 “movements” and how to abide in Her 11th in unbroken fashion.
- How to perform the traditional 100-day Mahākumbhaka Retreat
- (*Note - TMY will offer the traditional 100-day Mahākumbhaka Retreat at the Maine or Italian Center every third year)
- Tattva Śuddhi of the Adept
- Teachings of Kula and Loka Kundalinī
- Advanced Āsana
- Mercury-Kriyā Meditation Series
- Śaivist Mahāmudrā Meditation
- Advanced Dream, Sleep and Death Yogas
- Supportive Practices used to Stabilize and Integrate your Sva-Kundalinī
- Sadhanas for expanding to Kula Kundalinī
- Abhishekams of Chamunda & the 7 Chakra Dākinīs & Hanuman.
- There will be a TMY initiation the day before the retreat starts, which will include a Śambhunātha & Bhairava empowerment.
- Prerequisites:
- You must have received initiation in TMY
- You must have completed the Level II Retreat
- Active participation in the Level II Online Practitioner Cohort
◉ Advanced KHY Practitioner Cohort
- After completing the 5-Week Level III training, you qualify to participate in the ongoing Level III Online Practitioner Cohort.
- Meets 1x / every 2 months.
Way of Water
The Way of Water focuses on developing the Devotion, Unconditional Love and Surrender. Way of Water has two main modes of practice that can be combined or performed separately: Tantrik Ritual with Deity Yoga and Kriyā Yoga.
These two techniques of the Way of Water are supported by the practitioner’s cultivation of a rich inner environment and lived experience of virtuous conduct, compassion cultivation, guru yoga.
Multi-Faceted Approach
Way of Water practice combines the components described below into one cohesive path of practice. For example, in the practice of Deity Yoga wherein the practitioner uses elements of Tantrik Ritual, Kriya Yoga, and Guru Yoga, embedded within a matrix of Virtuous Conduct, Devotion, Compassion and cultivation of the Enlightened Bhava of the Deity.
The Main Virtues, Mode of Being & Attainment Cultivated in Way of Water
A Way of Water practitioner is someone who is attracted to developing and expressing the virtues of Love, Devotion, Compassion, Surrender, Humility, Acceptance and Non-Resistance as their main focus. They are Heart-Centered people who wish to practice a path of Beauty. The Way of Water practitioner is not as concerned with “when” they will become enlightened. They are more content to feel the fullness of the practice in each moment without rating their experience. They lack the “edgy” and fiery ambition natural to those practitioners of the Way of Fire and Way of Warrior. Love is its own type of Spiritual-Fire. It quickens realization of the Path and avoids the dangers of over-strenuous effort and pompous spiritual pride. The Way of Water practitioner walks the path of beauty and humility.
In summation, the Way of Water is the Way of Love & Devotion. Life is lived as a Compassionate Intent, and this is its own reward.
THE MAIN COMPONENTS OF THE WAY OF WATER:
1) Tantrik Ritual:
Learning and performing Puja (water based ritual) and Homa or Yajña (fire based ritual) for your deity, and for performing compassionate actions such as giving blessings of long life, removing obstacles to the path or blessing a new home, etc.
2) Deity Yoga:
Outer, Inner and Secret modes of unification with your Deity’s Essence, thus awakening you to your own enlightened condition.
3) Kriya Yoga:
Working in the subtle energy system of nadis, cakras, and bindus in order to transform all karmic conditioning and limitation of body, speech and mind. This then allows for the possibility to act spontaneously and express your enlightened Personality Display.
4) Virtuous Conduct and Bhava Cultivation:
Learning to rest in the bhava of Devotion, Compassion & Surrender. This transforms all of one’s actions into virtuous conduct beneficial to all. This is accomplished via Kriya Yoga practice and invoking and abiding in the enlightened mandala of your deity as the central focus of Deity Yoga.
5) Guru Yoga:
Realizing one’s Nature in the Polished Mirror of the Guru’s Essence. Outer, Inner, and Secret modes of unification with one’s own Nature catalyzed by the Guru’s Awakened State of Being through transmission.
The Way of Water has two mutually complimentary tracks of study and practice. You can choose to train in one track or both, as you wish:
◉ Track I - Tantrik Ritual & Deity Yoga
◉ Track II - Kriyā Yoga
TRACK I
WAY OF WATER - Tantrik Ritual (Sanskrit = Pūjā)
What is Pūjā?
In Level One of the Way of Water, you will learn the ancient Tantrik practice of Pūjā. Pūjā is the Sanskrit word for ritual or ceremony, and is also defined as “worship”. However, the English word “worship” may be misleading here because Trika Mahāsiddha Yoga does not have in its View Teachings any “Supreme God or divinity” who is the Creator, or who is superior to our own Essence, that we bow down to, or upon whom we are dependent for our “salvation”/liberation.
How does it work?
Rather, in the performance of esotericized Tantrik Pūjā, the practitioner brings forth the deity from their own continuum of consciousness-energy and into our world of form and desire, thus manifesting their power and wisdom in the various receptacle components of the ritual – the vase of water, the fire, the yantra, the mercury linga, the śrī cakra, the painting, the statue, etc. This gives the practitioner a focal point upon which to concentrate in order to more effectively contact and engage with the formless subtle body of the deity. Through the art and science of Pūjā the unmanifest is made temporarily manifest for our benefit. This is what makes pūjā so effective for awakening our inherent, but dormant capacity for unlimited Compassion, Wisdom and Self-Realization.
Pūjā Invokes the Pure Mandala
As ignorant beings we inhabit a world of mental-emotional pain and suffering. Beings who have become spiritually realized inhabit and generate a mandala (a world) beyond the effects of karma – a mandala or world of what is termed “Pure Vision” in Nondual Dharma. In the practice of pūjā we learn how to invoke the realized mandala of various forms of enlightened beings, how to bring it into our reality so that we can occupy such sublime realms in our moment-to-moment experience. Eventually we gain the realization that the mandala is generated by our own Essence Nature and that there is an indestructible link between ourselves and all of reality which we can now influence through our practice of pūjā. In this way we realize part of our Nature to be a dynamic connector or conduit for the seen and unseen, the temporal and that which is beyond time.
Pūjā is a Form of Dynamic Meditation.
Tantrik Pūjā is also a very efficient, beautiful and enjoyable way to attain fusion of the three centers of body, speech and mind, allowing the discursive mind and emotions to stop, so that we can relax into our True Nature. This makes Pūjā a meditation practice focused on the speech/energy & action/body aspects of our human nature, instead of merely using the mind alone as in the usual practice of meditation. In this way it is a unique form of meditation practice akin to Hatha Yoga and Warrior training that emphasizes devotion to Essence, and the union with, and expression of that sublime state through a dynamic practice. Also, because pūjā is a non-strenuous practice and it is so enjoyable, we look forward to our practice with great inspiration, delight and devotion - three key factors for success in sadhanas.
BEGINNER PŪJĀ
At the end of Beginner Pūjā training the student will be able to masterfully perform the 16 offering pūjā of a deity, an Ātmā Pūjā and chant the liturgy and prayers involved in most Tantrik Pūjās.
1) Review of 16 Upacaras (standard offerings). This step will cover learning how to set up a proper basic 16 (or less) offering ritual and will teach proper offering techniques. mantras, etc.
2) Preliminaries. Ceremonies have certain preliminaries, which must be observed before the main body of the ritual proceeds.
3) Purification Ceremony. Purification of the space, the ritual instruments, offerings, the person performing the ritual, etc., must be completed to ensure the ritual will be efficacious.
4) Dhyana Ślokas: Learning to invoke the deities and gurus through their descriptive contemplation verses. These will include: Forms of Śiva (Bhairava, Mahākala, Śambhunātha, etc.) Guru Paramapara, Bhairavi, Ganeśa, Durga, Sarasvati, Hanuman, Kali, Lakshmi, Camunda…)
5) Pūjā practice. Putting #'s 1-4 all together now to practice the art of basic pūjā.
6) Atma Pūjā. Tantrik ritual of invoking the apparent individual self-form, the kshetrajña, as a pure and perfect emanation of the One Essence. An essential practice for Tantrik Yogins along with Agni Hotra taught in the Intermediate Pūjā course.
7) Universal Prayers. A collection of prayers used regularly in the rituals, such as the category of peace prayers, etc.
8) Stotras & Suktam. These are a category of longer prayers chanted in the rituals.
INTERMEDIATE PŪJĀ
1) Abhishekhams & Practice. Practicing the ritual empowerment of a deity. This procedure is crucial to the practice of Deity Yoga, Tantrik Ritual and the Way of Water (Abhishekams of the Gateway Deities include: Ganesha, Sarasvati, Durga, Śambhunatha & Hanuman).
2) Agni-Hotra. The daily practice for yogins to attune themselves to the cosmic cycles and open their spiritual Heart-Center. A core practice of the advanced levels of the Way of Fire when combined with Kriya Yoga (learned in Way of Water – Level II).
3) General Homa. The structure and procedure of a standard fire ceremony.
4) Navagraha Homa. Fire sacrifices to the 9 Planets to raise your awareness of your limiting karmic patterns. Through making ritual fire offerings combined with mantra and pure motive you can alleviate your karmic load and create lasting character change.
5) Vastu Homa. An important ceremony for consecration of any building, especially your home and practice place. It removes discursive energies and creates a flow of harmonious prānā throughout. This enhances the creativity, longevity, relationship harmony, safety and security of all inhabitants and guests.
6) Ayushya Homa. A ceremonial fire sacrifice that confers longevity through balancing the doshas' root causes as Tejas, Ojas and Prānā, and also clearing karmic obstacles to health and longevity. (*Note: we will also learn the standard Full Moon Healing Ritual as practiced monthly in the TMY online community.)
7) Gaya Śraddha. This is an important ceremony on the Tantrik ritual calendar. Performed every Fall season, offerings are made for all beings in the world who died from some type of tragedy such as fire, drowning, landslide, starvation, suffocation, murder, war, terrorist attacks, etc. In ancient times it was considered crucial to perform these types of rituals regularly to give an opportunity for liberation for those who may be in a state of torment after death. Performed regularly this ceremony is said to reduce the pressure of beings incarnating into the hell realms, which reduces their influence here on earth and in our minds.
ADVANCED PŪJĀ
1) Dharma Partner Ritual. Finding a non-biased partner who is on the path, and who is able to reflect our limitations for us to see and correct is like a rare gem. In this ceremony we formalize a “life-long” commitment to each other’s realization “no matter what”. This ceremony is modeled after the Dharma Partnership ceremony enacted by Śrī Rama with Hanuman, his main devotee and friend.
2) Funeral for a Yogin. When the end comes we need to have our body and spirit handled in a way that is in accord with the way we lived, our View, our Practice and our Path. Performing this Yogin’s Funeral is a tremendous aid to the yogin in the after-death states. It gives strength, guidance, and the confidence to transition without faltering into a new higher rebirth or into total realization.
3) Exorcism Rituals. Ritual Exorcism can be understood as a form of spiritual hygiene. They are highly effective in re-establishing an unobstructed experience in the practitioner's life. Dharma Bodhi has used them in his practice as a health care practitioner and for students that have experienced temporary influence or partial possession through mistakes in conduct, etc.
4) Narayana Bali. This ceremony is important in a number of applications. For students of the Dharma it is used to rectify prānā disturbances in our life, mind and body caused by being born with all of the planets on one side of the astrological birth chart/earth.
5) Elaborate Rahu Appeasement Ritual. Yogins pay more attention to the placement of Rahu in their astrological birth chart than to most of the other malefic planets, because Rahu represents those karmas that we cannot see (think "Treasury of Worms"). In fact, when we are expressing Rahu’s negative karmic patterns of influence in our lives, we most often think that we are actually doing well, going in the right direction. Such is the deluding power of Rahu. This ceremony is a powerful way to raise our awareness of these hidden patterns and release or transform them.
TRACK I
WAY OF WATER – Deity Yoga & The Daśamahāvidyās
Deity Yoga shifts attention to the entry points of mind and energy as expressed in the practices of Kriya Yoga, Deity Yoga (specifically the Daśamahāvidyās or Ten Wisdom Dakinīs), and the Heart of Devotion.
Devotion is an essential component of human realization and the path of practice itself. Cultivating the Heart of Devotion quickens all spiritual processes through accelerating the bhava of “surrender”, wherein we release the attachment to our “self-story”. Through the practice of Deity Yoga we discover our capacity as the inner energy (sambhogakāya) of the channels, cakras, bindus, lights, sounds and rays. We come to realize that we are fundamentally the same enlightened energies as the deities, dakinīs and Light-Body Mahāsiddhas.
The Daśamahāvidyā Retreat
Entering the Sacred Mandala of Blessings from the 10 Wisdom Dakinīs
The Daśamahāvidyas are a collection of Ten Wisdom Goddesses or Dakinīs of the more recent Indian Tantrik tradition. They are a grouping of powerful female transformational energies of awakened consciousness. Each dakinī is a fully enlightened deity and therefore able to guide the practitioner beyond the mire of their karmic mind, energy and body into the sublime experience of liberation while living.
All ten are different enlightened “flavors” of the One Essence Nature, having different mantras and practices. If you learned about the Mahāvidyās before coming to retreat you may have found yourself instinctively drawn to one or more Mahāvidyas. However, to ensure that the Mahāvidya “chooses us” and is the most efficient path to realization for us, so that we don’t make the mistake of choosing from our own presently impure state of karmic ignorance, Dharma Bodhi and Sahajadakinī will perform an ancient ceremony during which we will enter the Pure and Sacred Mandala of the Ten Wisdom Dakinīs. Once the mandala has been brought into our experience the student will be chosen by the appropriate dakinī through a special oracular procedure.
The first days of retreat will be spent learning about celestial beings of pure non-karmic form in general and the Ten Wisdom Dakinīs in specific, and how working with them is one of the most enjoyable and efficient means of liberation. We will explore the bhava of surrender and opening of the Heart that occurs when performing devotional practice with the Ten Wisdom Dakinīs. Once our Heart-Mind has been ripened we will perform the “ceremony of choosing”, and each student will formalize their relationship with their specific dakinī.
You will receive formal initiation into the practice and mantra (the dakinī’s energy body) of your dakinī, along with continuing the general classes related to them as a group.
*Note: For those who have completed Beginner Tantrik Puja, you may opt to bring your travel pūjā kit with you to begin performing personal puja with your newly acquired dakinī immediately after the dakinī chooses you.
Swami Rudrānanda
TRACK II
Kriyā Yoga Intensive
Rudi’s Kriya Yoga: Esoteric Science of Mastering our Subtle Energies
Kriya Yoga puts you into direct engagement with your subtle body’s channels, cakras, bindus, winds, elements, etc. In the practice of Tantrik Yoga nowadays it is more common to learn deity yoga practices without being taught the practices of kriya yoga that are part of the total deity yoga method. The kriya yoga component is like the engine that drives the empowerment of the visualizations and mantras of the deity and manifests their experience in your time/space continuum. Deity Yoga practiced without the Kriya Yoga component relies on sheer willpower and devotion to obtain the desired result. This is an overly strenuous approach that dampens your enthusiasm, joy and pleasure found in the practice of deity yoga, thus resulting in little or no attainment.
Kriya Yoga is also practiced as a stand-alone spiritual technology of liberation. In this mode, the Rudrānanda Kriya Yoga System is an excellent core practice of inner alchemy able to transform all limiting karmas when combined with Pure Motive and the Heart of Devotion to Path and Teacher.
RETREAT
Way of Water: Rudrānanda’s Kriyā Yoga
SEPT 18-21, 2025
VITORIA, BRASIL
JUNE 18-21, 2026
NORTHPORT, MAINE, USA
View Retreat
WAY OF WATER- Completion-Phase Practice Retreats
Śri Vidya- Puja, Teachings, Mantra Transmission & Direct Realization Teachings and Practices.
The Completion Phase Practice Retreats are for the advanced practitioner who has had an unshakeable realization of their True Nature. Essential Guru Yoga is the core of this training. Various methods of contemplation and integration meditation are used to deepen, stabilize and integrate one’s realization. Advanced vidyās such as the Śrī Vidyā practices of the Oral-Practice Tradition and the sexualized puja practice for Mirror Consort couples, will be taught to aid practitioners in being able to abide in the nondual experience of moment-to-moment Natural Presence, even when encountering negative environment and circumstances. Dark Retreats focused on the completion-phase of Deity Yoga are also offered as part of THE WAY OF WATER Completion-Phase Practice Retreats.
Way of Warrior
The practice of traditional martial arts is an authentic path to spiritual realization. TMY’s Way of Warrior offers a long forgotten, but highly effective method of spiritual development for the practitioner looking for a comprehensive daily practice that emphasizes integration training.
The great strength of Warrior Training as your Path is that it gives you immediate feedback on your level of awareness and capacity - there’s no fooling yourself. Attainment in the practice is obvious to you and others in the group, whereas practitioners in the meditation based systems struggle to know whether their attainment is mere wishful thinking or authentically established.
If you would enjoy a dynamic way of practicing spirituality utilizing body, energy and mind that never becomes dull or boring – try the Way of Warrior.
Way of the Warrior is offered via two types of In-Person Retreats:
◉ Foundations of Warriorship Retreats
◉ Specific Warrior-Tradition Retreats
Foundations of Warriorship Retreat
This retreat introduces the practitioner to the basic View and Practice of Warriorship. Mastery is not the goal in the Foundations Retreat. Here you learn the basic components that create a comprehensive system of warrior training, developing the body, mind and energy.
You will train in:
◉ STAV
The traditional martial art of the Norse. It is a system of breathing, stance and movement practice integrating a wide range of short and long, bladed and concussive weapons including the short staff, short & long spear, various axes, short sword, double-handed long sword, walking stick, deer antler (tein), and bow/arrows. It teaches a set of 5 strategies or classes that relate to your unique mental-emotional-spiritual dispositions and ways of being in battle and in the world. All students learn the rune posture breathing form, weapons, techniques and principle strategies for each of the 5 basic modes of being. After solo practice you will pair up with partners to expand your awareness by drilling attack and defense sequences demonstrating your understanding of the 5 principle strategies. STAV is much more comprehensive than a martial art alone, and students will train in its healing and oracle methods as part of the well-rounded approach of the spiritual warrior. Stav trains the weapon Range of combat.
◉ COMBAT CATCH WRESTLING
European system of combat grappling. Emphasis is on the standing grappling – hand-fighting and standing submission holds. In combat, it is not wise to choose to fight on the ground, as is the goal in modern sport grappling, when you can finish an opponent standing. However, basic ground positional combat is reviewed in case you end up on the floor. Training in Combat Catch that takes place on the mat demands a flexible and basically strong body in order to prevent injury. Therefore, the ground fighting aspect is optional. Combat Catch trains the closest range of combat.
◉ CHINESE BOXING
Predominantly the Hakka styles of Gong Fu. This a category of Chinese martial arts developed by the Hakka people of ancient China. Their arts are extremely practical with zero “fluff”. You will train in the Hakka styles of gong fu known as Dragon’s Magical Hands, White Eyebrow, and Southern Mantis. You will also learn supplemental aspects of certain Chinese martial arts. Taken together, these arts will be used in training to strike with the hands, elbows, feet, knees, shoulders, hips and head.
◉ WARRIOR'S NON-CONCEPTUAL MEDITATION
This is meditation without any form. It trains you to be in a condition of pure alert openness, without expectation or thinking, in order to learn to respond to life in general and high-energy situations such as combat, in an appropriate way that lacks contrivance or conditioned tension.
◉ WARRIOR'S VIEW TEACHINGS
A set of teachings and principles that guide the practitioner’s development of enlightened mind and conduct. This is oral tradition and text. We will use the Dao De jing, the Elder Edda and other texts.
◉ TRADITIONAL BODY CONDITIONING
Strengthening and hardening the thorax, and tendons and bones of the fingers, hands, and forearms using a variety of solo and partner exercises and apparatus such as various shapes and sizes of sand bags, rollers, wooden striking dummies, etc. You will also learn to prepare and apply topical herbal medicines before and after practice to prevent injury.
◉ MARTIAL AND SPIRITUAL HEALTH EXERCISES
There are specific exercise sets that warriors use to cultivate health and spirituality. You will learn the basics of some of these in the Foundations of Warriorship Retreat.
RETREAT
Way of Warrior
OCT 22-26, 2025
NORTHPORT, MAINE, USA
MAY 6-10, 2026
PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
View RetreatSpecific Warrior-Tradition Retreats
These retreats will focus on one aspect of warriorship. It could be a focus on one martial art in particular. For example, a deep dive in Dragon’s Magical Hands system of Gong Fu wherein the entire day is structured around all of the various training modalities relevant to the Dragon style’s unique way of hand trapping, short-power striking, spinal power issuing, etc. Or it could be a focus on the breath, health and healing practices, or meditation practices of warrior tradition. For example, the retreat could be solely focused on learning the rare and secretive art of Shaolin Ba Gua, which is a method for circulating the qi through all of the meridians and developing incredible power in your strikes and overall vitality, which also confers great longevity as a side-benefit (Master woo, who taught me this form, lived to 115 vital years of age!). The Way of Warrior student-body may also request topics for these Tradition-Focused Retreats based on group interest.
LIVE ONLINE COURSE
Principles and Practice of Ancient Nordic Warriorship
Starting Jan 24, 2026
View CourseWay of Warrior Practitioner Cohort
After completing a Way of Warrior Retreat you gain access to the online cohort. This will be a time for refining questions about the practices/techniques/application. It will also serve as a way for Dharma Bodhi to teach material that could not be covered during the in-person retreats due to time constraints. You will have an opportunity for ongoing learning and refinement through regular participation in the cohort classes. (Meets 1x/month)
Pre-requisite: You have taken a Way of Warrior Retreat or are actively training in the martial arts.
The Way of Warrior Apprenticeship Program
Dharma Bodhi is looking for TMY martial artists, novice to advanced, that would like to master the arts taught in Way of Warrior and preserve them for the benefit of future generations of warriors. In the Way of Warrior Retreats it is not possible to transmit entire systems of martial arts. Therefore, Dharma is opening a special branch of Way of Warrior to anyone wishing to master any of the systems listed below:
◉ Dragon’s Magical Hands system of Gong Fu
- Dharma first learned a hybrid of this system with Pak Mei Gong Fu (the famous White Eyebrow system from the “Kill Bill” movies) from his 3 Chinatown New York City masters. His main master was Sifu Yip, Wing Hong who learned from Sifu Cho Sam.
- Sifu Cho Sam learned his Gong Fu from Lam Yew Guai – the head of Dragon style and from the head of Pak Mei named Cheung Lai Chun in Guandong, China. Sifu Cho Sam was a debt-collector and used his gong fu on a regular basis, giving a sense of real world practicality to his art. At that time, it was common for some masters of Dragon to also train in Pak Mei as the Head of Dragon style in Guandong was the cousin of Cheung Lai Chun. Two of Dharma’s NYC masters learned directly from the head of the Dragon lineage – Lam,Yew Guai. They were Lau Hong Sifu and Ho Lai Sifu (both deceased).
- After graduating as a teacher of Dragon in NYC, Sifu Yip sent him to learn Dragon style from the Head Teacher and lineage holder for Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand (Robert Chan or Chan Cheung Sifu). Sifu Chan was the last inner disciple of Grandmaster Lam Yew Guai.
- In your training you will learn the forms (the technique and movement compendium of Dragon style taught in pre-set sequences of shadow boxing), combat applications, body conditioning, power generation, qi gong exercises for spiritual development and power & speed generation, some weapons, etc.
- Training will be through:
- Dragon style specific Way of Warrior Retreats
- One-to-one training at Dharma’s house
- In-person retreats with other warriors training to become teachers of Dragon style
- An online cohort only available to the Dragon style teachers-in-training.
◉ Märtens STAV – Ancient Norse Martial Art
- Dharma trained with Ivar Hafskjold of Drummen, Norway for 5 years, culminating in an adoption ceremony that also included Ivar’s 3 other apprentices.
- Dharma was authorized by Ivar as the Jarl Class representative for Hafskjold STAV, which Dharma then re-named as Märtens STAV at Ivar’s request to illustrate that each person develops their own understanding and way of practicing STAV after the standard training is received and mastered.
- STAV is much more than a martial art. It is better described as the principles and practices of an indigenous culture that came out of the ancient Norse philosophy/religion. It was the common way of life during the pre, peri, and post Viking eras, and survived in very rural areas or in family lineages to the present. The main areas of focus for Dharma in his STAV training were in the martial, healing and oracular methods, all situated in the context of the Runic Lore and Norse Mythology.
- As an apprentice you will learn:
- The martial tradition of STAV with special emphasis on short staff and walking stick, though all STAV weapons will be taught.
- The 5 breathing practices
- The 6 healing methods
- Oracle methods
- Training will be through:
- STAV specific Way of Warrior Retreats
- One-to-one training at Dharma’s house
- In-person retreats with other warriors training to become teachers of STAV
- An online cohort only available to the Dragon style teachers-in-training.
◉ Shaolin Ba Gua
- Though this system shares the name of another famous system of Chinese Internal Martial Arts, Shaolin Ba Gua shares next to no similarities with the more famous system of the same name.
- Dharma requested to be instructed by a famous Shaolin Master living in Brooklyn, New York since the early 1950’s. His name was Woo, Chai Meng. For 10 years Dharma travelled from his home in Australia to Master Woo’s project apartment on Boerum Street in Brooklyn to request to be accepted as a Shaolin disciple. He was rejected for 9 years and then accepted on his 10th visit. When he came back the following year to begin his training, Dharma was told that he will not teach him Shaolin Gong Fu, rather Master Woo said he would teach him a very secret martial art consisting of 8 sequences of movements combine with special breathing that promised to turn his body into “liquid stone” for use in “serious combat”.
- Master Woo learned this system from his Great Aunt “Te Bobo”, who was the highest ranking and most skillful martial artist that Master Woo ever knew. She was actually the instructor of Master Woo’s Shaolin Master at the temple he grew up in after being orphaned before the year 1900.
- Dharma has taken a vow with Master Woo to teach 12 students the entire system of Shaolin Bagua so that this precious treasure does not get lost. During the 2 years he learned this system his body changed drastically as did his health, energy, psychic abilities, healing power, speed and martial power. After he graduated from Master Woo’s training, the master remarked “Dharma, your whole body has changed, you now have a chest!” This was true but also quite humorous as Dharma was born with very narrow shoulders and a concave chest, and these did radically transform over the two years of learning the system.
- Training will be through:
- Shaolin Ba Gua specific Way of Warrior Retreats
- One-to-one training at Dharma’s house
- In-person retreats with other warriors training to become teachers of Shaolin Ba Gua
- An online cohort only available to the Shaolin Ba Gua teachers-in-training.
Dharma Bodhi is currently taking applications for these apprenticeships. Please write to trikapath@gmail.com to apply for apprenticeship
Each of the 5 Ways has two phases of practice.
PHASE 1
The Relative Practice Phase - "The Path of Transformation"
This phase is characterized by a step-by-step approach to the knowledge and practices that ensure the beginner and intermediate level practitioner’s unbroken and stable progress through the spiritual work of discovering, or revealing, the inherent perfection at the core of every human being’s experience.
PHASE 2
The Direct Realization Phase - "Vajra Path"
Training in the Direct Realization Path teaches us how to begin to live in the fruit of ultimate realization. As the name suggests the Direct Realization Path is not progressive, rather its sole focus is on discovering and stabilizing the unbreakable and inherent experience of one’s True Nature.
Independent Cycles of Teachings & Practices
Trikāya also offers Independent Cycles of Teachings as online courses and in-person retreats. These programs do not require any prerequisites. They present core teachings and practices as stand-alone topics and as supplemental to your main focus of practice in the 5 Ways.
Tantrik Enneagram
An Essential Tool for Clear Self-Reflection
The Enneagram is a teaching that helps people see themselves more clearly, that is to see their dark and light sides with crystal clarity. Psychological and spiritual development depends upon this. If growth is your goal, then you must develop the capacity for clear self-reflection.
The Tantrik Enneagram is the most powerful self-guided tool of self-reflection available today because it does not require you to be an adept of meditation to reap its benefits. It only requires your sincerity and honesty. Armed with these two powerful allies the Tantrik Enneagram can show you the hidden aspects of yourself in both light and dark expressions. It brings light to your inner motives for every action, feeling and thought you have, thus allowing you to discover your hidden patterns of behavior. This gives you the power to stop them before they possess you, and therefore enables you to transform those negative patterns that cause mental/emotional suffering.
Tantrik Enneagram was conceived thousands of years ago in Central Asia during a period where esoteric knowledge flourished and was shared all along the Silk Road. Sages observed that the Universe was nothing but an unlimited grand procession that contained cycles within cycles within cycles – from macro to micro. Their revelation was that human beings are “cycles” of energy within the Universe. Tantrik Enneagram is based in the laws of cyclic mathematics as a descriptive language for the Universe and therefore humans as well.
Within these mathematical laws or cycles is the “Cycle of Nine”. These sages discovered that human beings are not at all unique, rather each human being can be understood as being patterned by a particular cycle between one and nine. Identifying which of the nine patterns you exhibit and what drives it can be the single most freeing knowledge you will ever receive.
The knowledge of Tantrik Enneagram can create freedom from the unconscious generation of binding karmas. One of the principles of good psychological and spiritual development is to stop or at least slow down the amount of negative karma, or limiting actions that you generate each day. These limiting expressions of physical actions, feelings and thoughts create your limited world of mental/emotional disharmony and prevent you from living a life free of suffering, a life filled with joy and purpose.
There are many Enneagram books on the market. But typing oneself using a book or an online questionnaire is fraught with error. The Tantrik Enneagram has traditionally been taught orally, and it’s in this environment of oral transmission that the real magic of this technology comes alive. During the training you will come to know your Tantrik Enneagram number and its light and dark expressions. You’ll get a deeper appreciation for your own number’s gifts and challenges by hearing the other participants share about their own number’s patterns. And you’ll be able to ask questions about your number and how to use it for growth.
*The Tantrik Enneagram program is also a pre-requisite for those students wishing to take the Way of Mirror-Consorts.
Six Realms & Yogas of the Six Realms
The ancients discovered that every moment your mind is not relaxing into its own nature, or is distracted from present moment awareness, you are generating one of the Six Realm fixations. Knowing these and learning how to transform them, thus releasing their inherent but dormant virtues, is an important step on the path of full realization. Training in the six realms keeps you from rejecting emotions and the world in general. It gives you the keys to living a fully passionate and creative life in the world without falling asleep to who you are at your core.
Your self-concept is subtle, flexible and tricky. It is constantly seeking to preserve its own existence and distract you from the moment. It does so through your thoughts, emotions and energy signatures. These form the worlds or “realms” that your mind creates and then occupies when you are distracted from the present moment and your abiding essence beneath it.
Similar to the 12 Stage View Teachings, the Six Realms Cycle of Teachings is ubiquitous throughout the Trika Mahāsiddha Yoga system. The theory is covered as integral part of the Awakening the Red Bindu Retreat. A more comprehensive training in the six realms is offered in the Six Realms Yoga Retreat where 6 Realms theory and practice sets form the sole focus of the program.
Topics covered in the Six Realms Yoga Retreat:
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A detailed description of each realm’s characteristic expressions of conduct, speaking style, emotion, thought generation, interests, body morphology, posture and gate.
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Present, Presence, and Real Time - This is a “training within a training”. You’ll learn the critical differences between distraction, present moment awareness, presence and flowing presence through specific exercises that demonstrate each.
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How to identify when you are in a six realm fixation, and how to re-calibrate to the present moment. And beyond this skill, how to actually use the moment of the six realm’s resolution as a doorway to deeper abiding in awareness or presence.
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The range of virtues that are released into your expression upon resolution of the realm fixation.
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The foods/diets and drugs (recreational and medicinal) that maintain realm fixations and are sought after once you become entrenched in one of the realms.
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The Influence and Possession spectrum. How humans slowly slide towards “possession” when not fully inhabiting their lives and what to do to prevent it.
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6 Realms Yoga Cycle of Teachings and Practices – an inner level practice set from these teachings that shows you how to use your body, breath, mental imagery, mantra, kriyā and the evocation of virtuous bhavas to purify your mind-stream, thus releasing deep karmic seeds of the six realms, and making it relatively effortless to remain in present moment awareness.
Ātmaśakti
Nondual Tantrik Yoga of Self-Mastery
The Ātmaśakti Cycle of Dharma Teachings and Practices lays down the essential groundwork of the first stage of the spiritual path – self-mastery. Without self-mastery, it’s impossible to continue into the intermediate and higher stages of the path or life. It is through self-mastery that we finally become free of our own self-generated karmic conditioning. Self-Mastery gives us the best chances for a fulfilling life.
Using the Ātmaśakti technology we can work with our unique karmic limitations in a way that creates resolution in all three expressions of human existence - body (action/conduct), energy (emotions/speech) and mind (thoughts/thinking habits). Each time you perform the Ātmaśakti practices set you cultivate: physical vitality, clarity of mind and purpose, cakra purification, and activation of dormant potentials – especially will-power, creativity, joy and compassion. In a relatively short amount of time you will notice increased progress, a deepening of your spiritual practice and more fortunate circumstances in life. With this solid and stable foundation of self-nourishment everything is possible.
Who will benefit from Ātmaśakti Training?
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People who feel stagnant in their spiritual practice.
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People who want to have a way to touch into that pure bliss and ecstasy of being alive every day.
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People who want to learn about the 10 Dynamic Forces that create a powerfully rich experience of self when balanced, and a destructive experience when imbalanced.
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The seasoned meditator looking to enrich their energies of practice and life.
How is this accomplished?
The Ātmaśakti Cycle of Teachings gives you the Secret, the Key and the Action, the 10 Dynamic Forces, plus the practice set that combines movement, posture, breath, visualization, kriyā, mantra, mudra and sounding to connect you to your creative power.
Importance of the “Self.”
For the last 500 years in India it has become increasingly popular for philosophies such as Vedānta and Buddhism to deny any relevance of a “self”. Indian religions have become far too transcendental, rejecting the world and the self as obstacles. Not so in Nondual Tantrik Yoga which asserts that there are three aspects to the inherent Unity of everything:
The Base of All, the Unlimited Energy, and the Experience of a Self.
The “Self” or Ātmaśakti is therefore an integral aspect of Nondual Unity. It must be understood and integrated into the wider view of the Universal Base and Energy for true creativity, fulfillment, and realization to manifest in your life.
Unleashing the Force of the Red Bindu
Unleashing the Force of the Red Bindu is one of the most important keys to liberation in the modern practice of Dharma. Your emotions, sexuality, willpower, and self-image are the functional components of the Red Bindu, which is located in the pelvic floor area of the subtle body. The supreme power of the universe that pulses through every human being is either being constricted, causing negative karmas and suffering, or this power is being expressed as a display of enlightened virtues. Lack of refinement of the Red Bindu’s energies causes stagnation and lack of progress, spiritual bypassing, or backsliding into adharmic behaviors.
This training is all about the practices. You will be led through solo, partner and group practices in Tantrik Yoga, breath work, sounding, kriyā yoga techniques and conscious movement practices of Hawai’ian shamanism. The beauty of these practices is that they are both diagnostic and therapeutic, and once learned you’ll be able to continue the process of refining the Red Bindu at home. Another key is the guided group discussions that help fuel the internal awakening and integration process as you explore your subconscious and unconscious karmic patterning. Useful insights that come to light for you, also help stimulate the light of realization for others.
So much of our karmic matrix is unable to be accessed via the mind and meditation. The Unleashing the Force of the Red Bindu Retreat uses traditional exercises of movement, breath and energy to get below your mind and into your core karmic matrix for discovery and transformation, healing and release. Balanced spiritual development is only possible when the Red Bindu is fully realized.
Rushen
Rushen Retreat
Rushen is a Tibetan word for a special category of trainings that have two possible results:
1. Recognizing one’s Nature. Rushen training can bring one into direct experience of their nature, and come to know it in contrast to the discursive mind. and…
2. Separating Samsara from Nirvana. Rushen training can clarify the experiential difference between samsara and nirvana.
In so-called “Outer Rushen practice”, practitioners generate a highly charged emotional & energetic environment that dredges up and expresses inhibited and repressed conditioning/karma of the 6 Realms stored in our continuum. These unconscious, subconscious and sometimes conscious karmic patterns are our life. We identify with them so strongly that it prevents us from recognizing our True Nature.
In Rushen retreat the practitioner will perform rounds of generating and expressing their karmic patterns of the 6 Realms to the maximum, reaching temporary exhaustion, and then surrendering into the open space until thoughts intrude and are unable to be easily released. Then another round will begin.
Eventually the practitioner will experience one of the two results described above, recognition of their True Nature or a clear seeing of the difference between samsara and nirvana allowing them to more easily stay free of samsara once they leave retreat. If they recognize their Nature, then they experience a fundamental change in perspective – that of moving from dual to nondual.
This retreat is very strenuous and demands a certain level of fitness and dogged determination to gain its benefits. During retreat, practitioners self-regulate. That is, there is no one forcing them to repeat round after round of practice to reach exhaustion. And each midday there is a Dharma talk given by the ācārya wherein students can ask clarifying questions and share their experience. This is the only time that talking is permitted.
If you feel stuck or plateaued in your path of practice, or simply feel ready to gain glimpses of your True Nature, participating in the Rushen retreat will be beneficial.
Yogas of Dream, Sleep & Death
The Yogas of Dream, Sleep and Death are a little known category of teachings and practices. This cycle of teachings explains the inter-relationships between the states of dream, sleep, waking, death and full realization.
The tradition considers these teachings very precious, and you are encouraged to receive them at least once in your lifetime, if not more. The reason that they are so highly valued is that they can purify your motive spectrum and make it much easier for you to release held fantasies of yourself and life. As you relax into what is truly real you begin to embrace the aspect of your Being that is empty of permanence. This brings quicker results from your practices and a more natural and effortless ability to contact and abide in your true nature.
Dream & Sleep Yogas
It is an unwritten rule in the nondual meditation and yoga traditions that in order for you to attain irreversible realization you must become fully realized in the dream and sleep states, not just in the waking state. To do this is to have completely pierced the limitations of the mind to become “lucid” in totality. This is not an easy practice to master but the benefits are well worth the effort, and after all you have to sleep each night so you might as well be practicing for your liberation rather than just having the “sleep of the dog” as yogins call the unconscious sleep state.
It’s good to note that this retreat does not teach the type of “lucid dreaming” popular with western occultists. The Cycles of Dream and Sleep Yoga that originate in the nondual meditation and yoga traditions of India, Tibet and China are very different practices than the modern practice of “lucid dreaming”, and they yield a very different result, that of full self-realization or enlightenment, not increased powers and spiritual experiences.
Some of the retreat topics from the Cycle of Dream, Sleep Yogas:
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Tantrik Ayurveda’s instructions on how to rectify physical/elemental obstacles to fruitful dream and sleep yoga practice.
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Clear instructions in the outer and inner level practices of both dream and sleep yogas.
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Understanding the categories of dreams & their significance to your practice.
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Clarifying the symbolism of your kundalinī dreams to use as a system of feedback in assessing your kundalini progression through the phases of your journey to enlightenment
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Teachings on the interdependence of the states of dream, sleep and death - how they clarify each other, and how each can be used as a doorway to reveal our true nature.
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Initiation into the dream yoga mantra of the lineage to enhance dream practice.
Death Yoga
Death is considered to be the most important experience in a yogin’s life. It is the one moment when you can permanently recognize your own True Nature and become enlightened, even if you were not able to free yourself completely from samsāra during your lifetime.
After receiving the proper knowledge and being instructed in the practices of dream, sleep and death yogas, you will be able to successfully guide yourself through the process of death into full enlightenment, or at the very least take conscious re-birth into an exalted realm from which you can easily attain full realization after a further period of practice.
This technology was transmitted by the Mahāsiddhas, great female and male yogins, who journeyed beyond death and back in order to offer ordinary beings a way out of the endless cycle of birth – suffering – death – and re-birth. This teaching is extraordinarily profound and is said to be the most valuable of all.
Some of the retreat topics from the Cycle of Death Yogas:
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How to identify each stage of death including the dissolution of the five elements and the display of their concomitant sensory phenomena.
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Understanding how to navigate the after-death states to prevent grasping and its subsequent reincarnation.
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The practice of transferring your consciousness at the moment of death. (uccārana in Sanskrit, phowa in Tibetan)
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Integration Meditation using the remembrance of death.
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Describing the various possible final “destinations” after death.
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Initiation into the Mahāmrtyunjaya Mantra – “The Great Victory over Death” mantra.
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Learn the Brhadaranyaka Upanishad chant for the deceased and for nonattachment.
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How to use these teachings and practices to assist someone in dying, and the best ways to handle the body after death for maximum benefit to the deceased.
TRIKAYA Lineage Tree
Bringing together streams of Non-Dual Dharma Practice Lineages from Daoism, Tibetan Bön, Dzogchen and Trika Śaivism.
