Five Wisdoms Institute

What people say
As is said in Bali, "We have no art; we do everything as well as possible."

"We are trying to develop some basic understanding of how to see things in their absolute essence, their own innate nature…with regard to painting or poetry or arranging flowers or making films or composing music…They are very important at all levels of perception and in all creative situations."
--Chögyam Trungpa, Dharma Art

"Personally, it was a profound experience. The isolation of each color led to the saturation of each energy. I found this so exhilarating and so freeing. It was everything and much more than I expected."
--Dagmar Nickerson, Visual
Artist

for Artists

In a contemplative approach to expression, art flows naturally from one's being. As Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche has said, art "…springs from a certain state of mind on the part of the artist...we call this the meditative state: an attitude of directness and unselfconsciousness in one's creative work." Five energies work takes this further by tuning into the energy qualities that are part of our emotional, psychological and phenomenal world. Creative expression is a skillful way of fully contacting, focusing and embracing the energies, making them more vivid, and bringing them into our daily life.

Five wisdom energies workshops for artists are designed to:

connect simply and directly with the basic elements of experience: body, emotions, and the environment
open to sense perceptions creating an enlivened relationship to the world
train in spontaneous expression arising from genuine presence
explore many expressive media: visual art, poetry/prose, music/singing, movement, and acting

The training includes:

sitting meditation practice and posture practice *
energy exploration and creative expression
performances and presentations of creative projects

* posture practice is optional if the focus is to explore the energies through the medium of artistic expression