Gratitude, Stories and Testimonials: Tara Dhatu Annual Retreat 2025, Tara Ling, Pirenópolis, Brazil 

 Our May retreat at Tara Ling was phenomenal and masterful. It was one of the most healing, transformative and empowering retreats I have ever attended. And that it was with Tara Dhatu, made it all the more special! I loved that we were a truly diverse, multilingual, loving sangha. I relished the care and interweaving we co-created together during our formal sessions as well as during our breaks and mealtime. In spite of the fact that we did not all speak the same languages, we shared a common language, one of love and dignity and the aspiration to free all beings from suffering and the causes of suffering. I loved entering our morning practices and hearing and witnessing the devotion in song and dance of women from around the world praying and celebrating their freedom in that moment in their own language and being in a space together that would encourage and celebrate that. One favorite moment was dancing three in a row with my Chilean sisters and singing in Spanish our preliminary practices en voz alta (at the top of our lungs!) while our friends around us sang in their own language, Portuguese or English, while we simultaneously and altogether turned the dharma wheel with our dancing hearts. This is a very unique and a one of a kind experience! This language of love and dancing our embodied wisdom, compassion and power is that which unites us!

I especially love it in the Brazilian retreat when Prema opens the session to answer questions. We all learn from each other’s experience in these moments and witnessing Prema find just the right medicine for each woman as she progresses through the retreat is a remarkable and beautiful process to see.

And I had the pleasure of staying at Tara Ling. It felt like a warm hug and an honor to have the opportunity to help hold space for one another as we danced in the inner circle of the mandala and received each woman as she journeyed through the week.

Some of my most favorite moments were touching in with Prema on the land as she gathered wood for the fire, tended to her plants in the plant hospital, watered the flowers, and shared moments of quiet together early in the morning at the breakfast table to touch in about the day and about personal processes. I witnessed myself transform during the week from one with discursive thoughts to finding a rhythm and a role through service in community that sustained me and helped me regain my balance and find steadiness and a flow that I could journey home with.

I deepened relationships with my Portuguese speaking sisters and made new friends from New Zealand and Tanzania while getting to spend time with old friends from Hawaii and Arizona and Texas. I truly enjoyed getting to know the women from Pirenopolis as well and joining them on jaunts to town, to swim in a river, buy a fresh coconut to drink or cook together in their home. Tara is alive and well and so warmly welcomed in Brazil! Thank you Myri for your capacity to create, organize, build and magnetize a community and a home for these precious teachings alongside Prema in Brazil. No words for this mastery but Wow and deep gratitude!

I felt what it is like to have a home for this sangha, its own temple and garden and kitchen and fire pit where offerings can be made and the energy can grow and build and build upon itself. This is a precious gift and a legacy.  And Prema is a masterful teacher and so is Myri Dakini. We were able to dance indoors in front of the altar and outdoors on the sacred land, kissed by the sun and accompanied by the birdsong. We made offerings to the fire, our prayers rising up in the smoke. We recalibrated ourselves, attuned to the rhythm of Her mantra to bring Tara’s love and light back with us and out into the world.

And at Tara Ling I experienced the power of the mandala to heal and transform. I am grateful for it all and words do not do justice to the whirling, healing magic mandala that lives in my heart fed by the cascading waters of Brazil, sustained by the glowing embers of the fire, grounded by dancing upon the earth, kissed by the mantra filled prayer flags sending their prayers out into the world on the wind, and sustained in the open space that we experienced altogether that lives on in my heart as pure love and enduring devotion to Tara, the teachings and to Prema.

May all beings benefit from this whirling, twirling cocreation, women witnessing and empowering each other as we were born from Tara’s mandala again and again. May Tara’s dharma wheel continue to turn throughout all time and space for the benefit of all beings. Sarva Mangalam, and may we have miraculous rebirths!

Love , Hope

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 I am so incredibly grateful for this beautiful retreat. 

The daily practices and teachings were amazing . I loved the balance of teachings and practice and some seated moments and some dance… the morning sequence was powerful and helped me deal with the aches and pains I was feeling because of the higher amount of physical activity. 

And the long break in the afternoon was very helpful to rest before the afternoon and evening sessions. All week I kept thinking that I was reborn in Tara’s pure land, with that beautiful temple and gorgeous environment of Tara Ling, the sublime practices that Prema has developed to guide us to enlightenment, the kindness and inspiration of all the Taras, the care and attention that Myri poured into everything she did, all the new aspects I learned about the Mandala and other dances (including the amazing Elements dance), the opportunity to sing the Praises in Portuguese and English, the profound conversations and laughs I had with the other Taras, helping apply makeup for some Taras as we prepared for the Sunday offering, getting to know the Brazilian Taras better—wow, what amazing women— and of course the precious guidance I received from Prema… I just didn’t want it to end and felt very sad on Saturday knowing that we would all be parting the next day, if only for a while… But celebrating together on Sunday night was soothing to my heart—thank you for that too…

The Pousada was perfect— they were so helpful and kind. The breakfast was so good…Food at the retreat was very good and I appreciated all the efforts that Myri made to make sure everybody got what they needed.

The shop was lovely… 

Also, Juan Carlos and Gleisson were so helpful and lovely to be around. Great drivers and kind human beings

Thank you both for offering us this precious opportunity to connect with each other and with our enlightened potential. I will hold the memories of this retreat in my heart forever. And I am returning home with clarity about my next steps both in the study and practice of dharma and daily activities. 

May we all integrate the insights from this retreat into our lives for the benefit of all. 

With love and gratitude, Anjali