Omega Institute, NY, USA
Thangka Art Retreat Week 2026The Aftercare: Pictures and Meditations
Annual Tibetan Art Drawing & Painting Retreat Week
Mandala of the Five Wisdom Buddhas
The week was focused on drawing/painting the special Mandala of the Five Wisdom Buddhas (the Five Buddha Families), and so all the accompanying lectures and meditations were focused on that, too. Students chose whether to create their mandala with the Buddhas in it, or by representing their symbols.
The five energies within ourselves, with its wisdom aspect and its neurotic tendencies
This week we also delved into the psychological aspect of the five energies connected to the five Buddhas. Students learned to identify and utilize five basic personal styles or energies based on this ancient Tibetan Buddhist practice of the Buddha Families.
According to the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, each of us has one or two dominant energies, but these can shift and change over time, and we can manifest different energies in different areas of our lives. Each of the five energies has its unique wisdom, but also its neurotic tendencies. By learning to recognize which energies we possess (and which are present in those around us) we can learn to relax and appreciate our natural traits and those of others, and we can move away from our neuroses toward the wisdom-aspects of our character.
Each of the five wisdom energies is associated with particular ways of perceiving and interacting with the world and also with particular colors, elements, senses, seasons, and times of day. In this week we identified which energies are active in our lives, and how we can work with them in any situation to improve self-awareness, communication, and creative expression.
SAVE THE DATE: Next year’s retreat at Omega Institute will be from July 2-9, 2027 (during Arts Week!)
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Meditations – to listen to and/or download
At the bottom of this page, you will find the meditations that were guided by Carmen during this retreat.
You can listen to or download these for your own use.
Pictures – to view and/or download
Below are the photos, taken by Carmen and some the students.
You can click through them and download them (depending on your device: use your mouse or finger and tap/double-click or use the right mouse button).
When posting these pics on social media, I would greatly appreciate it if you mentioned my name and website: @CarmenMensink tibetanbuddhistart.com @TibetanBuddhistArt @SchoolForTibetanBuddhistArt
Meditations that were offered during this retreat
May they help you grow on your spiritual path 🙏🏼
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