July Vajrayogini Self Initiation
Venerable Angie Muir and Elaine Jackson
July 20, 2025
Vajrayogini Self-Initiation
When: Sunday, July 20, 2025
In Person and Online
10:00am – 3:00pm (PT) with a half-hour lunch break.
Where: Venerable Angie Muir and Elaine Jackson will lead the Vajrayogini Self Initiation in person in the gompa or online via Zoom, feel free to make offerings on your personal altar.
Prerequisites: This practice is restricted to those who have completed a Vajrayogini approximation retreat with fire puja.
Who is Vajrayogini? She is the ultimate flowering of the female energy that lies within all of us, a fully enlightened Buddha, the essence of totality- beyond duality, beyond ego, and fully controlled. Emphasizing wisdom, the yoga method of Vajrayogini trains us to identify with her divine qualities and leads us on the quickest path to enlightenment.
“The Vajrayogini yoga method is extremely powerful. It is just what we need in these degenerate times, with our delusions running rampant and our minds grasping at concretized sense pleasures. Therefore, a method such as this, which has the wisdom to transform delusions, is of the utmost need, especially as it has the profound property of becoming more powerful as delusions becomes stronger.” –Lama Thubten Yeshe
We will be using the text, The Intermediate Practices of Vajrayogini, published by the FPMT. Please download a copy of the text from the FPMT foundation using the link below:
In Person
- Email the office at office@vajrapani.org if you will be joining in person
- Please arrive 30-45 minutes early to park and get situated before the Self-Initiation starts and come an hour early if you would like to help set up the altar
- Vegetarian lunch will be provided at 12:00pm
- Bring your own implements (vajra, bell, and damaru) and text if you are able to
- You are welcome to bring offerings for the altar and tsog. Please arrive half hour before so there is time for you to set them out.
At home, you will need to prepare:
- Implements: vajra, bell, and damaru
- Inner offering
- Vajrayogini sindhura mandala
- Offerings for tsog
The Zoom link will be sent to all students upon registration
About Vajrapani Institute
Vajrapani Institute for Wisdom Culture was one of the first Tibetan Buddhist Retreat Centers in America. Vajrapani aims to provide a friendly and peaceful environment for people of all nationalities to learn, put into practice the teachings of the Buddha, and connect with other Dharma practitioners. Located on 70 acres of secluded land within the redwood forests of the Santa Cruz mountains, Vajrapani Institute has been an immersive space for people of all backgrounds to find and deepen their spiritual practices, with the main goal of bridging the gap between the head and heart of the practice.
Teachers
Born in Scotland, in 1970, she obtained a Bachelors Degree in 1992. Feeling disillusioned with her prospective career path and life ahead of her, she left Scotland and combined travelling with work in Asia for 3 years until in 1995 she felt a calling to go to India to explore meditation and find her life path. Within a few months “I had the incredible fortune due to some previous karma” to discover Tibetan Buddhism, meet her main spiritual teacher Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche (of almost 30 years) and become ordained. Venerable Angie has been a buddhist nun for…
Learn more about Venerable Angie Muir
Elaine Jackson is a founding member of Vajrapani Institute and has been a student of Tibetan Buddhism since 1977. She has studied with many of the greatest Buddhist teachers of our time including His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Lama Thubten Yeshe, Kyabje Zong Rinpoche, Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche and many others too numerous to list. Elaine is known for the warmth and humor with which she teaches. In particular, she loves sharing the wealth of practical insights she has gained from her years of retreat and service within the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. Elaine served as Executive Director of Vajrapani Institute…
Learn more about Elaine Jackson