Carmen has created a course that is easy to follow, with just the right amount of challenge

The Ashtamangala (8 Auspicious symbols) class was a great experience for me. A detail oriented course with many notes, mantras and meditations. Ms Carmen Mensink is a wonderful teacher and I am always amazed at the information she provides us in each and every module with profound in-depth history, information and insights from revered preachers and monks. What I liked the most was that it was not only a great art class but the reasoning and thought process that was provoked while learning every single symbol.

I loved this course, and am excited to continue exploring ways to create these symbols!

I really enjoyed this course. I loved diving in the meanings of the symbols and reflecting on them. Although the morning meditations were great, drawing is my real meditation. Thank you.

My artwork unfortunately is not finished. I really enjoyed the course as I have always enjoyed all your courses. You give so much information and it is really well structured and very clear. I loved drawing whilst listening to the buddhist lectures you offered us. It is really very enriching and I feel very privileged it has come on my path. Thank you so much Carmen for a beautiful course and I am looking forward to a next one!

Following the course at home was a great experience. Every Friday I was already looking forward to the new module and your tip: “schedule time free” worked great. Every Saturday or Sunday I worked on the mandala for 3 or sometimes even more hours. It was (and still is) besides a beautiful creative process also a beautiful spiritual journey.

Hi Carmen,

I had a great time taking the 8 Auspicious Symbols class. The pacing was great. Thank you for providing the online class, though I hope to take an in person class soon. 🙂

Take care,
Nancy

I LOVED every part of this course from beginning to end. I could spend a whole year going through each of the modules again. Carmen is an excellent teacher and I so appreciated the time and thoughtfulness that went into each lectures. My drawings were not very good, but I was so inspired by the meanings of the symbols that I tried going 3D since I am more used to working with clay. Here is the eternal knot painted and carved on the side of a mug!

Each week I was looking forward to Friday, to be able to start the new lesson again. First delve into the texts and then work out the drawing, great.
Didn’t expect that I would like it that much online, but I did, especially with all the extras.
It was super, thank you.

The course was wonderful. A lot of information and pictures about the symbols. Of every symbol two grids: one for drawing the symbol separate and one for drawing the symbol in a mandala. During ten weeks I have received a big present. Thanks to Carmen for the very clear instructions and for the good care.

The Eight Auspiscious Symbols and meanings were wonderful. The act of drawing becomes the contemplation connecting body and mind. Understanding flows in a way that bypasses conscious endeavour. Teachings flow into the art and it becomes awake.

I liked that the course brought back old and forgotten aspects of myself, like how to slow down and really be in the moment. My expectations were more than met – it was really a great course. I noticed that my drawings became more confident and that the strokes became more fluid with practice. But along with that were deep feelings of calm/support and a sense of strong love. I had to rush at the end because I was away for a week but my wheel still came out fine. I loved the experience.

This was a really great class. I was looking forward every Friday to the new module. I love colored pencil but have not worked with them for many years. It was a great opportunity to get me drawing again. I also really enjoyed all the lectures about the spiritual meaning of the symbols. So sorry I could not finish the mandala by the end of the course but I will hopefully soon get to it! Very inspiring experience! Carmen, thank you so very much! Your class brought a lot of joy!

It has been an amazing journey with this course. What a great way to focus my mind on the joy of thangka drawing during the time of pandemic. Carmen guides us through a step-by-step process to compose each drawing. This is my third online course with Carmen. I highly recommend her online thangka courses.

I loved this course! All of the materials were very useful, the pace was right for me, and I really enjoyed not having to haul my supplies around NYC. Thank you, Carmen! Stay healthy!

Wonderful it couldn’t be better ! A perfect timing where the energy of each symbol matched with my daily experiences in a incredible positive interdependence!
I didn’t have drawing experiences before and to take this course as a retreat naturally brought me to enjoy drawing and relax painting!
Great dynamic of a excellent warm hearted teacher.

This course was so much more than I ever expected, Carmen. Thank you for your guidance and for sharing your energy and enthusiasm. This was a spiritual journey too, and it brought peace and quiet during a time when our world had changed so much and we all struggled to cope with the ‘new normal’.

World-class Thangka artist/teacher, either for online courses or for in-person retreats. She offers a perfect fusion of art instruction with the culture and Dharma that inspires the art. Her inspirational instruction helped me create a 4’X4′ Eight Auspicious Symbols banner for our home.

It was a special experience for me to participate with an online course from Carmen instead of an course on location. The films, information and bonus material that came with it was a pleasant surprise.🌟

It was an enriching experience to learn more about the 8 Auspicious Symbols that gave me a lot of inner peace in a challenging period for me.🙏🏽

I haven’t finished my mandala with the symbols yet, but I have enough information with me to continue and create moments for myself to continue working on this.🌟

Thank you Carmen for all your efforts and your valuable enriching lessons!🙏🏽❤

I have enjoyed this course.
Your great wealth of knowledge and expertise is evident from everything that you offer and show us.
You offer the correct shape of the symbols. But you also give us so many examples to deviate from that (a little) in order to make our own drawing of the symbol that suits ourselves.
Through the reflection and bonuses you give us the opportunity to continue on an inner quest.
It is not just any lesson you give: everything you say, you support it.
I thank you for your involvement, your encouragement and your enthusiasm.
May you continue to accumulate positive energy for the benefit of all beings!

I have really enjoyed this course, especially the weekly presentation of each auspicious symbol. This helped me pace myself so that I felt able to draw and colour the mandala, finishing each week with a real sense of achievement.
The opportunity to share progress with other students spread cross the world via the discussions was a marvellous experience for me.
This course has been a real joy.
Thankyou Carmen

I drew the symbols separately (and one extra!) and put them in the ‘mandala’ order in the picture. I have learned a lot about these symbols and coloring techniques. And I am now sufficiently prepared to start drawing the mandala with the 8 auspicious symbols. It was a mindful period. Thank you so much for this course, the explanations, the meditations, your inspiration and not to forget Tara’s 😸 inspiration. I really enjoyed it 🙏

I really enjoyed this class. It was fun to draw and color the 8 auspicious symbols but it was so inspiring to learn about Tibetan Buddhism and to listen to the dharma talks. Thank you, Carmen!

Dear Carmen, it was a wonderful course. I have not managed to finish all the art works, but I plan to complete them . The meditations, symbolism behind each symbol and reflection was so enriching! This course was much more than I had hoped for and look forward to many more! thank you so much for all the effort you have put in creating these courses for us!

When I enrolled in this course I had little to none experience in drawing. Still I wanted to try it and I do not regret my decision. This course is not just about learning to draw the 8 symbols. It is also about reflecting and meditating on what you are doing, and learning the origins of the symbols. Even when I didn’t complete the drawings I feel that I gained a deep understanding of the symbols by watching and taking notes of the the teachings, lectures and complementary materials. What I enjoyed the most of the course were the lectures, the meditations, learning the mudras os each symbol and drawing the grids for each symbols.

Once again, your teaching not only increased my knowledge and skill, but also touched my heart. I am learning to have confidence in my own creativity with devotion for the dharma as it unfolds on my paper. Thank you.

Drawing the 8 lucky symbols has given me many hours of ‘me time’. I enjoyed it a lot and, as you can see, I still have some time to go to finish my mandala.
🙏🙏Carmen, for your dedication and giving this online opportunity to create this drawing.

This was an amazing course. I loved that I can draw on a smaller size of paper (A4). It was easier to handle. I wasn’t familiar with these symbols, I enjoyed getting to know them.

Loved the course
Was a spiritual journey of growth and deeper understanding
Made me introspect a lot without realising it
Thank you carmen
God bless

Loved the course. I have been creating symbols in different formats, both large and small over these many weeks. Carmen’s persona and teaching methodologies are so finely tuned to, and in sync with, the participants, that the lessons are a pleasure to complete and use creatively.

Dear Carmen
The lessons were really a gift. Not only the drawings but also all your informative topics. It gave me a beautiful overview that the Buddhist teachings and Raja yoga have the similar mindfulness and approaches for transforming our minds.
And I want to say Carmen that you gave us (me) also room to play with the drawings. I am always wondering if it is allowed to play with this kind of art. I discovered that it are beautiful guidelines to start and follow and I also discovered that it is important to follow my own feelings that to be fit into the drawings.
So we can discover our own energies. If we look to our drawings we can ‘read’ and discover a lot of our own minds (and sometimes it confronts 😉).
I have enjoyed every second of this course, and hope to follow more in future. I am also really curious about if you can teach how to páint a thangka in a online course. This is a desire I have for some years 😊.
Carmen I only have complements for you about the quality of your lessons.
Love Gé

Dear Teacher, this course was an incredible experience for me. 9 weeks of deep immersion into Buddhist teachings and meditative drawing. I’ve learned so much and gained confidence in drawing. I left some of my works little bit unfinished, so I can go back to them and enjoy the process again and again. I will be waiting for new courses to come! Thank you for an unforgettable retreat, Carmen! You are a great Master ❤️❤️❤️

The last half year I joined 3 online courses: the Budha face, the Medicine Budha en now the 8 Auspicious Symbols. The classes gave me knowledge, insight, calmth, inspriration and lots of fun. Every week I am looking forward to the next module. I can join the lessons whenever it suits me and Carmen is always very helpfull by helping me to structure my ideas.

I had a lot of pleasure to follow this classe online.
Thank you Carmen to teach us remotely, your teachings are top quality.
I would love to follow a painting class online if we can still not travel.

Here a pic with me & my favourite symbol (;

This is the third class that I’ve taken with Carmen. I think she does a wonderful job-the courses are very well-rounded with general information on the topic, guided meditations, recommended dharma teachings by Carmen and other teachers, and clear materials to work with. Asher courses are much more than just a drawing class! I’ve always wanted to learn to draw and I have found an approach that seems to work for me- people can recognize what I’ve drawn!! Thank-you, Carmen for offering these courses online. I’d love to attend one in person.

I always love Carmen’s class, for any art painting, I believe we need to connect to the object, and Carmen always able help me to connect for each subject by introducing the thangka and the background of each thangka that we are working on.

Loved everything! As always, I have learned so much about the iconography of the symbols. Thank you so much Carmen for your generous teachings! I promise to share the completed drawings with you when I finish my symbols. I plan to use gouache for the coloring.

Dear Carmen..!

I wanted to express my sincere gratitude for the incredible 2-month Thangka Art course. The journey was filled with invaluable knowledge, and I feel truly fortunate to have been a part of it. Looking forward to continuing this amazing path of artistic discovery.

Thank you so much.

This was a wonderful course and Carmen is a skilled, creative and loving teacher. I can’t wait to draw with Carmen again, and hopefully in person one of these days! Thank-you so much Carmen for offering these beautiful classes.

Oh I loved it so much! The history of the symbols, the meditations, and of course, the challenge of drawing the symbols using the grids was so inspiring. I couldn’t WAIT for Fridays to see the new lesson!! Seeing the work of my colleagues was inspiring, and Carmen’s vast knowledge and direction was incalculable. I feel so blessed to have been able to take this course with Carmen and can’t wait for the privilege of taking the next! So blessed

I was so doubtful I could draw these symbols when I started, and then I could! It was a wonderful experience, and I learned so much. The mantras and the meditations all added a further dimension to the drawings themselves and made it feel purposeful. I was able to understand the true nature of mindfulness and just being in the moment when I was drawing. I also found the Colours and Inspirations sections of the lectures fascinating and prompted me to go looking further on the internet. Now seeing everyone’s art in the gallery and the different interpretations I am awestruck at how beautiful they have all turned out.

I absolutely love all the Thangka courses I’ve been taken and this one, with the weekly assignments, was very special. It feels like, as we are learning the wisdom of the Thangka , we are also receiving guidance to walk thru our path. It seem there’s always a way to apply the learnings , in different parts of life.
The timing was perfect. Starting and finishing on a new moon. Very beautiful!
Im still gonna spend time, with my notes of the course, coloring each of them and reflecting on the teachings.
Thank you Carmen for your gentle way of teaching. It’s very loving and easy to comprehend.

See you on the next class!
Aloha🌺

I enjoyed the modules over 10 weeks. I was able to complete more work over an extended period of time. Each week I looked forward to the next module. The weekly assignments helped to stay connected with the other students and Carmen. I would love to do a similar course in the future.

Drawing is still new to me but under Carmen’s guidance I’ve gained confidence and enjoyment.
The class is not only a drawing class but an exciting journey into learning a great deal about Tibetan Buddhism.

Dear Carmen, it was a wonderful course. I have not managed to finish all the art works, but I plan to complete them . The meditations, symbolism behind each symbol and reflection was so enriching! This course was much more than I had hoped for and look forward to many more! thank you so much for all the effort you have put in creating these courses for us!

I did not have any drawing experience before this course. I Tried not to have any expectations other than of myself, to stick with it every week. The pace of one symbol a week was great. Every time I sat down to draw was a meditative experience. Some day I would love to do an on-site class to totally loose myself in the process. I learned a lot about the symbols. Thoroughly enjoyed this experience and plan on taking another one next winter. The perfect journey through the winter months of reflection.

Thank you so much Carmen for (again) this wonderful journey through Tibetan artwork en Buddhism. I enjoyed every step, each week another symbol and another aspect to explore in myself. What is the meaning for me, what can I improve. Some symbols were easy to draw, flowing, others were exciting or I noticed some resistance in myself. And that matched the way I felt about the meaning of the symbols at first. After drawing that changed for some symbols, others have a deeper meaning now.
The teachings, lectures and meditations are very supportive, give a wider perspective of the symbols.
Throughout the course I became more at home in myself, happier and happier.
THANK YOU!

Loved the course. As a lover of eastern esoteric spirituality, Buddhist art has great symbology and of course the 8 auspicious symbols epitomise this. Learning to draw Tibetan artwork is rewarding and somewhat fulfilling. Carmen’s classes are a wonderful route to this learning with a strong foundation in spiritual perspective.

I really look forward to these classes. I found that it is the best way to spend “me” time. I enjoyed how the course was set up with students gaining access to 1 module per week. This way we didn’t feel too overwhelmed by all the work there is to be done. It is always such a pleasure to take a thangka class with Carmen.

Its my 2nd course with Carmen. Loved this course, so rich in detail & a real journey through Buddhist art & teachings. Its clear a lot of love & effort has gone into the preparation of all individual modules. Inspiring and enriching. Thank you for your enthusiasm & generosity, Carmen!

Even though I did not finish by far, I really enjoyed working on the 8 auspicious symbols. It was very interesting to learn in depth on each symbols. What a wonderful way of following a course in Covid times. I will color with gold. silver, grey and 1-2 colors max. To all of you; be well and be happy. Thank you for sharing all your inspiring work and thoughts during the course. With enormous gratitude, I bow to you Carmen.

This course was “thangka healing” for me! I haven’t picked up a pencil in almost 3 decades until last year, starting with Drawing the Buddha Face. An epic self-critic and always behind, I just love these courses because they give such rich insight into the symbolism and even profound teachings. It is a pleasure/pain thing. I held off on registering for The 8 Auspicious Symbols – until I ‘received a symbol’ so to speak. A mention of the symbols in an unlikely circumstance. So I signed up.

The approach worked for me. “Many ‘little’ drawings, frequently” is what I call it. I contacted Carmen in a state of despair after the first symbol – the scarves were my obvious path (read: terror). But there they were again on Symbol 3, and 4, and after I realized it, I was drawing scarves without the enormous mental overlay! A personal breakthrough. Don’t ask me to get creative with them, I still go by the models. But one day…!

I’d say it got me used to “tackling the grid” right at the outset, and going right into drawing. I have a strange sense of time, like it’s infinite or something? This got my “hustle” on! It was exactly what Medicine Buddha ordered.

While I can’t profess confidence, I have a LOT less fear of that looming blank sheet of paper. Much like the Pair of Fishes, I just needed to go deeper into the water to get out of the choppy waves of my mind. And….practice practice practice! 💜🙏

I LOVED every part of this course from beginning to end. I could spend a whole year going through each of the modules again. Carmen is an excellent teacher and I so appreciated the time and thoughtfulness that went into each lectures. My drawings were not very good, but I was so inspired by the meanings of the symbols that I tried going 3D since I am more used to working with clay. Here is a parasol I made by throwing an upside down bowl and then attaching a curtain rod and prayer flags!

I loved this course. I loved the lectures and learning about the meaning of the symbols. The Eternal Knot is a symbol that I feel especially drawn to. I was readying to take my Bodhisattva vow while working on this symbol and it really helped it come alive for me. Thank you Carmen and Tara too

I had no experience of drawing thangkas or Buddhist art, but found the process very eye opening. The symbols, despite looking very complex and striking are quite easy to replicate which inspired me for starting future projects. The lessons were led expertly and were equally enjoyable and informative. I am incredibly grateful for this opportunity, thank you Carmen.

It was an amazing long and beautiful journey to draw the 8 Auspicious Signs. I feel very grateful about this experience and I know it will go on and on inside of me and in the way life unfold.
Thank you so much Carmen Mensink 🙏🏻🌹🌏

This was a wonderful course and surpassed my expectations! I really look forward to doing more work with Carmen. I was concerned about how well an online course would work, but all my fears were put to rest. Carmen gave great feedback and has developed a great way to present her information. Thank you so much!

Dear Carmen,
Thank you so much for putting together this lovely course and for this wonderful, serene space online. It was a very exciting and happy journey for me, these 10 weeks, packed as it was with wisdom, insights and lots of learning, with a dash of humor. Eagerly anticipating your next course. Stay Safe, Stay blessed.

Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu

This was a great course. I enjoyed delving into each symbol. I like the process. Grid to drawing to coloring.

Thank you Carmen for the informative lectures and peaceful meditations.

I do have some drawing experience but found the level of focus and concentration needed for the mandala a challenge! Thank you again for making these courses available for us at home in such a meaningful and caring way. It is an inspiration in many ways!

I have had a wonderful experience with Carmen’s Eight Auspicious Symbols course.