Academy Curriculum

Application Process

The Academy training actually begins with the Application Process. In order to fill out the application, applicants need to assess their priorities and perspectives, their limitations and unique abilities. Applicants are asked to reflect on issues and viewpoints which are pivotal to self-awareness. This skill of open, gentle self-reflection is the very quality the trainee will be called upon to cultivate during the three-year training in order to develop confidence in his or her own center-of-gravity or authentic self. Without that center of gravity, the trainee will have difficulty finding and maintaining the internal strength and depth of awareness necessary to completing all facets of the training. Each trainee will have to work through the major emotional and mental blocks which limit openness, love, joy and creativity.

We hope that each applicant will address the application process seriously, giving it all the time, attention, and self-reflection it requires. Approached in that manner, the application process will be the first step of the training, opening the door to the deeper levels of self-inquiry which are the foundations of the Academy training.

Academy Teachers and Staff

All the current Academy graduates have undergone an intensive three-year training with Tenzin Wangyal. They have studied The Three Doors philosophy and practices. They have been individually scrutinized and guided by Tenzin Wangyal through an extremely rigorous and thorough process of self-assessment and transformation. Having witnessed the strengths, life struggles, passions and fears of these first trainees, Tenzin Wangyal has evaluated each person’s ability to transform himself or herself into willing vessels for the dharma of The Three Doors. Tenzin Wangyal believes whole-heartedly in the teachers’ abilities to teach and represent his vision of The Three Doors with purity and authenticity and has said, “These teachers teach with my voice.” He has therefore empowered these graduates to pass these sacred teachings on to others.

Year One of the Training

The training is personally rigorous, sometimes difficult, sometimes joyful. It is an engagement with the trainee’s very depths of hope and fear, a journey into the heart and soul. The practices, the Academy teachers chosen for your training, the arrangement of the physical environment, the staff selected to host you, are all painstakingly considered in order to provide the maximum possible emotional/mental support, expertise, confidentiality, and love to make your training work for you. You will be expected to go as deeply into these essential teachings as you are willing and able to go. The supports which surround you are chosen with one goal in mind: we want you to know you are not alone. There will be Academy teachers, staff, and fellow-trainees who will support, guide, and care for you as you work your way through your shadow-self and the program.

You will begin a process of individual and collective work, sharing and learning. The thrust of learning is self-discovery. For this purpose, the contemplative practices of The Three Doors will be taught in ways they have never been taught to the public. (The practices are Nine Breathings of Purification, Tsa Lung, the Five Warrior Syllables, and the Fivefold Practice of Dawa Gyaltsen.) You will work with the outer, inner and secret aspects of these practices while beginning to master the multiple layers of life force energy and power which these practices invoke. You will also be introduced into the Ultimate Inner Refuge of Stillness, Silence and Spaciousness which will deepen and expand your ability to rest in the purity of your authentic self.

The main focus of Year One is the Body (Tsa Lung and Nine Breathings of Purification). Delving deeply into awareness of channels of energy will enable you to modify and redirect emotions, thoughts and feelings in ways previously not accessible to you. Exploring in small working groups you will receive hands-on guidance and attention from instructors who have begun mastering these practices. The small working groups are designed to support your individual needs for growth and stability. In these intimate, safe settings you can subdue your doubts and transform your demons and shadow elements into light and joy.

The energy channels relate to the major energy centers or chakras in particular ways. You will learn how these centers of life and vitality function to liberate or constrict your love, joy, abundance, and balance. You will become intimately acquainted with the unique constitution of your own channels and energy centers and experience how the chakras function as cosmic principles, effecting your everyday life by molding and sculpting your every response and creating the illusionary appearances of external reality.

You will also be introduced to the Personal Transformation Journal and the assignment of completing Sixty-three Personal Transformations (63Ts) during the three-year training. You will work with a Academy teacher and others using the journaling method and The Three Doors Practices to identify and transform twenty-one aspects of your life in each of these three categories: personal, relational and professional/work. The transformations remove habitual patterns which obscure your natural states of joy, love and all the other unconditional positive qualities of your inherent nature.

Between the two GTRs (Group Training Retreats) each year, you will have two Sessions with your Mentor for individual support and guidance. You will also participate in two Telecommunication Sessions per year. This will help deepen and support your understanding of practices and assist you with your transformative work.

During the second GTR (Group Training Retreat) of Year One, you will begin delving into Sound Healing Practices.

At the end of each year, you will take part in an Evaluation Session geared to guide and support your pathway through the training program.

Commitments for Three Doors Director’s Academy Year-One Training Program

Formal Practice: One hour a day, spending ½ hour of that time abiding or resting in the inner refuge, the other time to be spent engaging the nine breathings or tsa lung practices.

Once a week devote one session of practice to simply abiding in the refuge and then reflecting in the three areas: personal, family, and profession/society and “hosting” your experience.

Informal practice: Recognize pain body, pain speech, or pain mind in daily life and apply the appropriate antidote: stillness, silence, or spaciousness. Do this five times per day. In other words, “Take five pills a day!”

Transformations: Begin engaging and journaling in the areas of your transformations.

Read and reflect upon the book Awakening the Sacred Body.

Retreat: Within the first year, complete a one-week retreat. Each day of the retreat should consist of four  1 ½ hour sessions of practice. The retreat may be done into two parts (but no less than three consecutive days) if that is more practical.

Year Two of the Training

In Year Two, you will deepen your experience of the Sound Healing Practices by exploring the outer, inner and secret Sound of Being (energy levels) which under gird existence. This takes the trainees past the outer manifestation of the Five Warriors Syllables or anything presented publicly thus far on sound, mantra, or vibration healing. You will became more intimately acquainted with the chakra system and see how the sound energy of the chakras plays out in your everyday life.

Your individual and group work will continue. In both the small working groups and the large group you will continue to receive support from the Collective Being or the collectively held refuge space of love, support and acceptance.

You will be introduced to the Mind Practice of The Fivefold Practice of Dawa Gyaltsen. This is the profound practice of integration with the Ultimate Refuge.

You will continue working deeply on your Personal Transformations and engage in two more Telecommunication Sessions and Mentor sessions. You will also begin your Apprenticeship Opportunity or Individual Creative Project (see Academy FAQs for a description of the Individual Creative Projects). The training year ends again with your personal Evaluation Session.

Year Three of the Training

In Year Three you begin blending The Three Doors practices into a tapestry of light that spontaneously supports your true self. Each outer, inner, and secret aspect of the practices presented thus far has been explored and the potentials cultivated. Now is the time for integration into the Great Dance of Life. You will learn to integrate these practices and how to alternate them during formal practice to best achieve balance, grace and wholeness to benefit yourself and others. You will also be taught how to spontaneously manifest the essence of practice at any given moment of your life. In order to realize the complete depth and purpose of these teachings, this is a vital step. This phase of the training empowers the trainee to become a tradition-carrier of these teachings. From here on the practices are in your bones.

You will also learn to take these practices into the world-collective to support clarity, joy, balance, compassion, and open-heartedness in the collective.

During Year Three you will present the fruits of your Individual Creative Project or how you have been bringing the teachings into the world through your Apprentice Opportunity.

Lastly, you will begin to manifest your Leadership. Whether you plan to teach within The Three Doors mandala or create your own way of taking the teachings into the world, this part of the program is indispensable. We will help you improve your teaching style, creativity, and leadership skills and support your confidence in your abilities to gift the world with these teachings in your unique way.

Finally, Tenzin Wangyal will welcome you into the family of tradition-carriers with a gala Certification Ceremony and Celebration, which your family and friends may also attend. Following this process, those certified to teach can do so with the blessings and support of The Three Doors and Tenzin Wangyal. Those trainees who require more support to finish their assignments will be individually mentored and supported until their goals have been achieved.