The Wisdom Path: Buddhist and Shamanic Practices for Healing Ourselves and the Earth with Robert Thurman and Isa Gucciardi (In Person and Live Stream)
June 19 – June 21, 2026
Online registration fee: $149 — $360
In-person registration fee: $630 — $1040
In a time of rapid change, uncertainty, and ecological disruption, Spiritual Wisdom offers a path to clarity, resilience, and purpose. This experiential course brings together the profound insight of enlightening practice—mindfulness of everythingness, loving compassion, and open-hearted generosity—with earth-gracing shamanic traditions that honor balance, interdependence, and the living intelligence of the natural world.
Through worldview analysis, guided meditations, shamanic journeying, simple ceremonies, and reflective dialogue, together we will learn to recognize the roots of imbalance and confusion in our lives. We will explore how fragmentation, loss of power, and disconnection can manifest as anxiety, depression, or addictive patterns—and how Buddhist and Shamanic teachings can combine to offer practical pathways toward healing and wholeness.
Together, we will examine how ancient wisdom can illuminate modern challenges: soothe collective anxiety, cultivate inner coherence, connect us better to nature and strengthen our capacity to meet challenges with presence and discernment. This course offers hands-on practice to calm the mind, open the heart, and anchor awareness with the body.
By the end of the course, you will have more tools to navigate uncertainty. This course welcomes both newcomers and experienced practitioners who seek a more integrated, grounded, and compassionate way of being in the world.
In this workshop, you will:
• Learn to recognize the roots of imbalance, confusion, and disconnection in your life
• Apply the Buddha’s teachings in modern, everyday contexts
• Discover shamanic practices to restore balance, heal power loss, and transform trauma-driven patterns
• Explore practical ways to remain centered and grounded amid personal and collective chaos
• Learn to bring these teachings into your personal life, relationships, and community to foster positive change
Note: The style of the upcoming teachings differs from traditional, academic presentation. What is being relayed is not simply information, but an invitation into a living wisdom tradition. At the heart of the retreat experience, is the presence of teachers, and the presence of yourself, as student. This relational emphasis, and your innate capacity to absorb, question, and clarify are your keenest assets in an unfolding, and at times, unpredictable atmosphere of learning.
Faculty
Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D. has spent many years studying Buddhism and shamanism both academically and in the field. Out of her studies, she developed Depth Hypnosis, a spiritual counseling process that combines Buddhism and shamanism with hypnotherapy and transpersonal psychology. She leads trainings in all these areas of study and more at the Foundation of the Sacred Stream, a school for consciousness studies that she founded in Berkeley, CA. She is also the author of three books, Coming to Peace, The New Return to the Great Mother, and Depth Hypnosis.
Robert Thurman is Professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies at Columbia University as well as co-founder and President of Tibet House US and its Menla Retreat & Spa. A world-wide lecturer on Tibetan Buddhism, activist for the plight of the Tibetan people, translator of Buddhist texts, and writer of popular Buddhist books. He recently has been awarded the Padma Shri Award, India’s fourth highest civilian honor for achievement in enriching Indian education and literature. His most recent book is the 300 page graphic novel, Man of Peace: the Illustrated Life Story of the Dalai Lama of Tibet.
Registration
Online attendance registration available via menla.org.
In-person attendance registration available via menla.org.