Wisdom Flame
Join us...
Saturday Refuge at Blue Forest Shores
You are invited to gather for day-long practice and community retreats in a beautiful setting on the Eastern Shore, 45 minutes from Halifax. Blue Forest is a relatively new wellness and education centre with a private shoreline, offshore islands, hiking trails through the forest, a Mi'kmaw-designed meetings space, medicinal herb garden, and state-of-the-art Finnish sauna situated close to the ocean.
We will arrive at 10:00 am, followed by a circle check-in, meditation practice, and BYO lunch with time for exploring and socializing. In the afternoons there will be a short talk and guided practice, with outdoor options when the weather permits. We will end with a sauna, departing at 4:00 pm. The cost for the day is $70.
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Current retreat dates:
January 11, 25
February 22
March 22
April 26
May 31
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Maximum 10 people per Saturday. Contact us at fydnovascotia@gmail.com to reserve your space.
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Find out more about Blue Forest Shores.
Finding refuge in the mandala of the five wisdoms
November 20-23, 2025
Dorje Denma Ling, Nova Scotia
with Susan Lorraine & friends
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Like a beam of light passing through a prism, our true nature expresses itself as a magical display of colours, emotions, qualities and wisdoms. The mandala is a symbol, an archetype, inviting us to return to the wholeness within separation, and the wisdom within confusion. The mandala invites us into healing, playfulness and joy.
In these times of anxiety, shadows and unraveling, the mandala is a powerful reminder of true refuge. Over four days we will explore the five wisdoms as they are expressed in our own experience, in our communities, and in the natural world. We will develop a shared language for the inner refuge we can rely on when outer refuges fall apart.
We will also call on teachings and practices from Machig Labdrön, the 12-century Tibetan woman known for radically and compassionately inviting everyone and everything into the mandala of awakening. We will practice sky-like meditation and Feeding Your Demons, as inspired by Machig and taught by Lama Tsultrim Allione.
Please join us for a feast of practice and community, as we deepen our shared understanding and experience of refuge.
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Painting by Michele Tanaka, used with permission
Susan Lorraine has been studying Buddhism since 1975, first as a student of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche and since 2016 with Lama Tsultrim Allione and the Tara Mandala community. She was introduced to the five wisdoms at Naropa Institute (now University) in the late 1970s and in a three-month residential retreat in 1985. She has also studied the mandala with Lama Tsultrim in the context of feminine expressions of wisdom, as outlined in her book Wisdom Rising. In 2023 Lama Tsultrim encouraged Susan to begin sharing some of the teachings from her lineage of Machig Labdrön, conferring the title Chögé, or “virtuous dharma teacher.”
More information: fydnovascotia@gmail.com
More on refuge: stories, resources, questions
About us
We are meditation practitioners living in Nova Scotia, a small province on the east coast of Canada that is the ancestral, unceded territory of the Mi'kmaq. Our group is dedicated to uncovering and practicing bodhicitta, the flame of wisdom and compassion, in ourselves and our communities. In the fall of 2017 we began gathering informally to study Buddhist women teachers—to take a closer look at their struggles and breakthroughs, their life examples and teachings. This Women of Wisdom study group was inspired by Lama Tsultrim Allione's 1987 book of the same title. Our exploration became a jumping-off point for exploring our own personal questions, stories, ancestries and spiritual paths. Over time, the group's focus expanded to include multiple ways of wisdom, as well as genders. The WoW study group continues to meet biweekly.
Lama Tsultrim at Herring Cove Park, Nova Scotia, May 2018, prior to leading a Wisdom Rising retreat at Cabot Shores, Cape Breton.
In parallel, some of us have developed an ongoing connection to Tara Mandala, a Buddhist retreat centre in Colorado that is a hub for an international network of practitioners and sanghas under the direction of Lama Tsultrim Allione. Tara Mandala is carrying forward the legacy and spirit of Machik Labdrön, an 11th-12th century Tibetan woman whose teachings and practices continue to be influential in all Tibetan Buddhist lineages.
Lama Tsultrim led retreats in Nova Scotia in 2016 and 2017, and Tara Mandala Lopöns Charlotte Rotterdam and Pieter Oosthuizen led Kapala Training retreats in 2018 and 2019. Most recently, Tulku Osel Dorje, the teacher-in-residence at Tara Mandala, introduced us to a special Green Tara practice in 2023.
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In November 2023, Lama Tsultrim encouraged Susan Lorraine (Szpakowski) to begin sharing some of the Tara Mandala practices with others in Nova Scotia, conferring the title Chögé, Virtuous Teacher of Dharma.