Skymind - by Charlotte Rotterdam & Pieter Oosthuizen (Paperback)

About the Book

"A contemporary reflection on verses by the 11th-century Tibetan yogini Machig Labdrèon as windows into Buddhist teachings on the nature of mind and the path of awakened compassion in daily life"-- Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

Tibetan Buddhist wisdom meets modern life in this powerful guide that teaches you to face inner obstacles with courage, embrace all of life's experiences, and live with clarity and boundless awareness--even amid constant ups and downs.

Amid life's relentless challenges, uncertainties, and endless striving, how do we find a sense of ease, clarity, and connection? Skymind offers a way to step back from life's constant push and pull and discover the spaciousness and wholeness that has always been within you. Inspired by the revolutionary teachings of Machig Labdrön, an 11th-century Tibetan yogini who pioneered a radical approach to inner freedom, this book introduces Skymind meditation--a practice that helps you cultivate clarity, compassion, and resilience by resting in the sky-like nature of your mind.

Through simple exercises, contemplations, and Machig's powerful verses, you'll be guided to meet life's challenges with courage and radical acceptance. These teachings invite you to embrace every part of your experience--even the emotions and thoughts you'd rather avoid--and discover the freedom that comes from including everything in your awareness. Whether you are new to meditation or a seasoned practitioner, Skymind offers profound insights and practical tools to help you live with authenticity, ease, and a heart as vast as the sky.

Review Quotes

"Skymind is a journey into the essential teachings of Machig Labdrön, the eleventh-century Tibetan woman who founded the Zhijé Chöd, one of the Eight Great Chariots practice lineages. Based on primary sources, the authors brilliantly metabolize these teachings in a way that can deepen our understanding of the very nature of reality. Skymind also offers essential pragmatic insights into daily life and meditation practices that transform our dulled awareness into luminous clarity."
--Lama Tsultrim Allione, founder of Tara Mandala and author of Feeding Your Demons

"Skymind is a radiant invitation to rest in the tender vastness at the heart of who you are. Charlotte and Pieter offer wisdom born of deep, consistent practice and attentive lived experience. Guiding us toward the spacious presence that holds everything, this book is both a quieting refuge and a clear call to awareness."
--Elena Brower, best-selling author of Practice You and Hold Nothing

"Drawing on the secret teachings of Machig Labdrön, Tibet's great wisdom Mother and founder of the Chöd (Severance) lineage, this book offers an uncompromising path to freedom from self-fixation. The profound path of open awareness is an exploration of the luminous, nondual nature of mind--a fundamental, wakeful wholeness that is always already present. This is the radical invitation of Skymind, the vast, luminous, and unconditional awareness that is our true self.
Machig Labdrön's revolutionary approach teaches that true liberation is found not by avoiding our fears but by turning toward and even nurturing what we consider most repulsive or frightening. This is a courageous journey of the awakened heart, calling us to meet our darkest shadows and recognize that wholeness includes everything--joy, suffering, and the totality of being."
--Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo, author of The Heroic Heart and subject of the best-selling biography Cave in the Snow

"Skymind is a spacious invitation into direct experience of the brilliance and joy of our true nature. Accepting this invitation liberates and transforms, opens and releases us from the fear, struggle, and confinement of our conceptual prisons. We live and embody this primordial freedom through compassionate activity in our everyday lives. Highly recommended!"
--Gaylon Ferguson, author of Welcoming Beginner's Mind

"What a precious treasure! Skymind elegantly guides us through the hidden depths of the severance journey, placing the dakini Machig's living wisdom in the palms of our hands. Whether we are longtime pilgrims or brand new to the path, we are empowered to turn toward the demons of our lives with tenderness and skill, opening the luminous vastness underlying everything."
--Judith Simmer-Brown, Professor Emerita of Naropa University and author of Dakini's Warm Breath: The Feminine Principle in Tibetan Buddhism

"Skymind is a treasury of sublime wisdom, transforming power and spacious vision. The writing has the virtue of precision enlivened by clarifying explanations, vivid metaphors, and personal experiences. The authors serve as intimate companions and expert guides through the mental and emotional terrain of ever-subtler layers of ego-clinging, offering at every turn ways to shift toward the realm of pure awareness, radiant compassion, and ever-unfolding beauty and bliss of the universal ocean of being. The narrative arc carries the reader forward with the immediacy and momentum of the storytellers' art. An illuminating book on every level."
--Miranda Shaw, author of Passionate Enlightenment

"Charlotte and Pieter have crafted a wonderful book for beginners and seasoned practitioners alike. That's not easy. A lifetime of practice and study is distilled in these pages. Heartwarming stories, illuminating teachings, and most importantly, guided meditations and exercises that bring everything to life make this a welcome addition in the transmission of dharma to the West."
--Andrew Holecek, author of Reverse Meditation

"Skymind illuminates the wisdom of ancient Tibetan masters with skillful expression that gives readers a clear understanding of their teachings. It is full of insights and offers methods to let go of our mental patterns and open our hearts."
--Anam Thubten, author of No Self, No Problem

"I translate old Tibetan texts just so that talented new teachers will have authentic sources to reference. It is gratifying that Charlotte and Pieter have faithfully taken the words attributed to Machig Labdrön and not only made sense of them but created an entire coherent journey for our times. Reading Skymind, this heartfelt guide to practices based on Machig's teachings, it's hard to imagine anyone who would not be inspired to engage the practice right away."
--Sarah Harding, author of Chöd and Machik's Complete Explanation

"The practice of leaning into the things we usually turn away from characterizes Machig Labdrön's practice of Chöd. The spirit and practice of this essential instruction is indispensable for liberating the mind from confusion and opening the free flow of compassion. The authors of Skymind present the view and methods of this practice in an accessible, insightful, and tender way."
--Elizabeth Mattis Namgyel, author of The Logic of Faith

"Skymind is a gentle and genuine introduction to the wonders of recognizing your natural mind. Chapter by chapter, readers are introduced to practice sequences that make possible the recognition of this mind beyond mind, offering access to the timeless wisdom and unique contemplative style of the One Mother, known as the Lamp from the Tibetan land called Lab (Machig Labdrön). Pieter and Charlotte's eloquence in conveying their deep experiential knowledge provides guidance that is clear and welcoming, especially to those newly entering these pathways."
--Professor Anne C. Klein, Lama Rigzin Drolma, Rice University and Dawn Mountain, author of Heart Essence of the Vast Expanse, Meeting the Great Bliss Queen, and Being Human and a Buddha Too

About the Author

CHARLOTTE ROTTERDAM, MTS, and PIETER OOSTHUIZEN began their Dharmic paths over 25 years ago--Pieter through meeting the Dalai Lama in Dharmsala and later receiving teachings from Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche in South Africa; Charlotte through her graduate studies at Harvard Divinity School. They met while directing Naropa University's School for Extended Studies in the late '90s. As program director, Charlotte invited numerous Buddhist teachers such as Lama Tharchin Rinpoche, Ponlop Rinpoche, Namkha Drimed Rinpoche, John Daido Loori Roshi, and Traleg Rinpoche. They later served as executive codirectors of Tara Mandala, the retreat center founded by Lama Tsultrim Allione, and are now senior teachers in that lineage. In 2016, Charlotte received the title Magyu Lopön from Lama Tsultrim, officially designating her lead teacher and lineage holder of the Mother Lineage at Tara Mandala. They've offered retreats at Tara Mandala and internationally since 2005.