Vitoria, Brasil | Sept 14-20, 2026
Way of Water:
Daśamahāvidyā Retreat
The Daśamahāvidyā are a collection of Ten Wisdom Goddesses or Dakinīs found in Indian Tantra.
They are a grouping of powerful female transformational energies of awakened consciousness. Each dakinī is a fully enlightened deity and therefore able to guide the practitioner beyond the mire of their karmic mind, energy and body into the sublime experience of liberation while living.
All ten are different enlightened “flavors” or expressions of Essence Nature, and therefore have different mantras and practices. If you learned about the Mahāvidyās before coming to retreat you may have found yourself instinctively drawn to one. For example, in modern yoga circles there is great interest in the Mahāvidyā named Kali. However, we must ensure that the Mahāvidya “chooses us” and that She is the most efficient path to realization for us.
We don’t want to make the mistake of choosing our personal Wisdom Goddess that will guide our spiritual process from our own impure state of karmic ignorance. For this reason, you will take part in an ancient ceremony during which you will enter directly into the Sacred Mandala of the Ten Wisdom Goddesses. Once the mandala has been brought into our experience you will be chosen by the appropriate dakinī through a special oracular procedure.
WHAT YOU WILL LEARN
The first days of the retreat will be spent learning about celestial beings of pure non-karmic form in general and the Ten Wisdom Dakinīs in specific, and how working with them is one of the most enjoyable and efficient means of liberation. We will explore the bhava of surrender and opening of the Heart that occurs when performing devotional practice with the Ten Wisdom Dakinīs. Then, with an open Heart-Mind we will perform the “ceremony of choosing”, and each student will ritually formalize their relationship with their specific dakinī. You will receive formal initiation into the practice and mantra (the dakinī’s energy body) of your dakinī.
*Note: For those students who have completed The Way of Water – Level I, you may opt to bring your travel pūjā kit with you to begin performing personal puja with your dakinī immediately after the dakinī chooses you.
DAILY CLASS SCHEDULE
8:00 – 12:00 Teachings
12:00 – 14:00 Lunch
14:00 – 17:30 Teachings
ACCOMMODATIONS & LOCAL TRANSPORTATION
You will need to organize your own accommodation, transportation and meals during the retreat. Please check out the resources below to help plan your stay.
DATES & LOCATION
Sept 14 - 20, 2026
Vitoria, Brasil
The retreat takes place at A CHAKRA.
COURSE FEE
$960 USD*
*At checkout, use the full name, e-mail, and mailing address of the person registering for the retreat. (Payment details do not have to match.)
For 20% off teaching fees, enroll in 3 or more In-Person Retreats from the 2025-2026 schedule.
20% off Retreat PackageAbout the Teacher
Dharma Bodhi (Kol Martens)
Dharma Bodhi began practicing yoga at seven years of age. In his teens he moved into practices of Chan Buddhism and Daoism received through his Chinese martial arts teachers in New York. After completing his chiropractic degree he studied in an Oral-Practice Tradition of Non-Dual Śaiva Tantra, taking initiation into one of the Daśnami Orders of practice from India. In 1996 he complete ācārya training under his Śaiva gurus. This training emphasized traditional Kundalinī Hatha Yoga and a progressive system of Meditation, along supportive studies in ritual/pūjā and yoga texts. Since graduating as a Śaiva ācārya, he took refuge with a great master of Bönpo Dzogchen meditation, and studied with him by taking multiple trips per year to his monastery in India for a period of 8 years. He studies both Dzogchen meditation & yoga (trul khor), and Dzogchen preliminary and advanced texts. Both his Śaiva and Dzogchen masters gave him the task of teaching these systems stripped of the unnecessary aspects of the cultures and languages they are found in. His Dzogchen master also gave him the task of translating two Tibetan texts. One of which is finished and the other is in process. He now lives with his wife, Sahaja Dakinī, and their two children in rural Maine, USA. He is developing a practice hermitage in the wilderness of Maine and a European teaching center on the border of Italy and Switzerland.inī, dedicate their time to raising their family, personal practice and teaching the Oral-Practice Tradition of the Mahāsiddhas to small groups of students.
