5 Elements Training Program Syllabus

 

Healing the World, Healing Ourselves: A Five Elements Training Program with Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche

 

Introduction

Welcome to a profound journey of transformation. Over three years, under the guidance of Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, we invite you to explore the living power of the Five Elements—Earth, Water, Fire, Air, and Space—and to rediscover the deep harmony that connects us to the natural world and to our own true essence. This training will teach you how to bring the healing and balancing power of the elements not only into your own life, but also into your relationships with others and the natural world.

Successful completion of the full three-year certification program will give you the tools and skills to share:

  • How to recognize elemental imbalances in one’s body, emotions and nature
  • Tools for restoring balance to the elements and the physical world through:
    • Offerings
    • Mudras (sacred hand gestures)
    • Mantras
  • Simple, powerful ways to retrieve elemental essences by being and resting in nature
  • Finding our own inner refuge through connecting to sacred stillness, silence and spaciousness
  • Retrieving lost or damaged life force and elemental energies by connecting with one’s inner refuge
  • The Nine Breaths of Purification
  • The five External Tsa Lung Exercises.

The Three-Year Training Program

Year One: Reconnecting with the Physical Elements
 In the first year, we focus on the physical qualities of each element—their roles in the environment, in our bodies, how they support one another, and how they can grow unbalanced. Through prayers, mantra, meditation, mudras, and offerings, we will learn to connect intimately with the living world, restoring harmony not only externally but within ourselves.

These practices will also be applied inwardly, to your own body: retrieving lost essences, restoring balance, and nurturing physical health. This first year is very hands-on, encouraging you to pay close attention to your body with love and care—exploring diet, sleep, movement, and breathing practices as ways to connect to the natural world. You will learn to enhance your physical relationship with each element and to feel grounded in your body in a deeply practical, embodied way.

Year Two: Deepening Your Relationship with the Living Elements1
The second year invites us to experience the elements as living, sacred beings—elemental goddesses whose wisdom and power can heal deep places of suffering and injury in us and in the world. Through visualization, transformation, mantra, and breath, we will learn to retrieve lost qualities, reclaim energy, personal power, and reconnect with spirit.

This year also emphasizes the subtle influence of the elements on mental and emotional landscapes. We will explore how thoughts and feelings are shaped by these energies, and how to restore balance, clarity, and emotional freedom, cultivating harmony within ourselves and in our interactions with the world.

Year Three: Awakening the Wisdom of the Elements Within
In the final year, Rinpoche will guide us toward understanding the wisdom of the five elements as pure, innate energies that can be accessed through the practice of inner refuge. Drawn from the ancient Tibetan practice of soul retrieval, we will discover ways to connect to the true source of healing and wellness that exists within us all.

From deep within our own spirit we will bring healing to every level of the elements in ourselves, and learn to nourish and renew them in relationships, community, and the world around us. This is a journey of awakening our natural ability to restore balance, vitality, and joy, both within and beyond ourselves.

This 3-year training program invites you to come home to yourself—body, mind, and spirit—and carry that healing presence into the world. As you restore balance within, you become a source of transformation for all around you.

 

This three-year training includes:

  • Three in-person retreats at Serenity Ridge Center: 
      • April 14–19, 2026 | April 20–25, 2027 | April 4–9, 2028
  • Seven online teaching sessions with Rinpoche each year (Dates to be announced).
  • Seven guided practice / discussion sessions each year with guides personally selected by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche
  • Journal assignments to track realizations and personal growth as you work with the elements.
  • Small group practice sessions to deepen your experience and integration
  • Printed and electronic support materials
  • Downloadable online video and audio recordings
  • Registration in LigminchaLearning.com courses included as part of this program: Meditation Breath & Movement, Five Elements, and The True Source of Healing, dates to be announced
  • A written and practice-oriented examination at the conclusion of the third year.

 

This structure ensures a rich, immersive experience—combining in-depth teachings, guided practice, reflection, and personal integration—so you can fully embody the wisdom of the Five Elements.

 

Certification

Students successfully completing the program and examination will receive a certificate of completion and may share the practices of year one and three with others.

 

Attendance Requirements

  • Attendance at the three in-person trainings at Serenity Ridge are required to receive a certificate of completion.
  • The live practice and teaching sessions on zoom may be viewed live or via recordings, but live attendance is strongly encouraged.

Costs

  • The fee for the training program is as follows:
    • Year 1, April 2026: $2,185
    • Year 2, April 2027: $2,185
    • Year 3, April 2028: $2,185
    • Additional fee for accommodations. 
    • Payment plans are available
  • Not included in the fee:
    • Travel to Serenity Ridge
    • Fee for accommodations at Serenity Ridge
    • Required reading: Healing with Form, Energy and Light and The True Source of Healing, Awakening the Sacred Body

The practices of year two are specifically intended to deepen the practice of the student, and are not included in any authorization granted by this program. Students who receive a certificate of completion may share the practices in their community as service work, workshops, retreats and special events, not within Ligmincha (which requires additional authorization). Authorization does not extend to teaching others to teach these practices.

Register for Year 1

Program Details

Year One: Reconnecting with the Physical Elements

Our first year explores the outer forms of the elements and their influence on physical, emotional, and mental wellbeing. This foundation is the basis for our entering into lively, dynamic relationships to and with the world to support a deeper understanding of the inner, more subtle aspects to come in years two and three. During this first retreat and the 2026 online programs, Rinpoche will teach on:

  • Practices to restore, renew and strengthen the elements in the  daily life:
    • A simple, effective ritual for connecting to the powers of nature and each of the elements
    • Grounding, Forest Bathing, and other nature based contemplative practices.
    • Understanding the elements through plants
    • Mantra of the combined elements, the essence mantras of each element, and the mudras of the five elements. Offerings to acknowledge and connect to Elemental beings
    • External Tsa Lung exercises
  • How we directly experience the five elements with our senses in the outer world and in our bodies.
  • How to work with the Nine Breaths of Purification and the Five Tsa Lung Exercises to balance the energies of the body, energy, winds, and mind
  • How imbalances in the elements manifest in the environment, in our bodies and energy, and how the elements relate to one another
  • How to relate to the elements as living beings in nature.
  • How the elements influence biological processes within the body
Year Two: Deepening Your Relationship with the Living Elements

Year 2 is focused on deepening our personal connection to the elements by retrieving lost or damaged elemental essences, balancing the energies of the five elements in the whole of our being, and learning to relate to the living qualities of each element as living goddesses (Tibetan: Khandro). The practices in this second year are not a part of the practices students will be authorized to share with others, but they will give the strength, knowledge and support needed to share other practices in meaningful and beneficial ways. This year is dedicated to deepening our personal relationship with the elements.

The April in-person retreat will focus on the complete practice of retrieving the essences of the elements with the help and support of the Khandro. Our online sessions will focus on cultivating individual relationships with each of the five elemental goddesses.

In this year we will focus on:

  • Self-transformation and healing of the body with the elemental goddesses
  • Healing of the energy and organs with the elemental goddesses
  • Retrieval of lost elemental essences through the power of the goddesses
  • Transformation of the mind through the nectar of the goddesses
Year Three: Awakening the Wisdom of the Elements Within

Our third year takes us deep into the inner refuge, the source of stillness, silence and spaciousness that lies in the heart of all beings and is our true, enlightened nature. Using Rinpoche’s book The True Source of Healing as our guide, we will learn to reconnect with and cultivate the positive qualities of the five elements from within ourselves  We will learn ways to find deep places of rest and inner awareness, connect to the vitality of the five elements as innate inner wisdoms, and transform our pain identities  (habitual structures of suffering that are built from stories, emotions, and mental patterns) into sources of positive transformation and change.

In year 3 we will:

  • Rest in the inner refuge of stillness, silence and spaciousness
  • Retrieve and balance in the elements through the power of the inner refuge
  • Use the power of inner refuge to drive transformation in our lives at every level
  • Be guided on how to share the practices with one another, and practice sharing them
  • Learn about the five wisdoms as the purest expression of the elements, and their role in spiritual awakening.

 

Course Materials

Books and Online Courses*:

Year 1: 

Healing with Form, Energy and Light – pp. 1 – 57

Awakening the Sacred Body – Entire Book

Meditation Breath & Movement online course at LigminchaLearning.com, from June 26 – July 26

Year 2: 

Healing with Form Energy and Light: pp. 60 – 109

Five Elements online course at LigminchaLearning.com (Dates to be announced)

Year 3: 

Healing with Form Energy and Light: pp. 110 – 136

The True Source of Healing – Entire Book

The True Source of Healing online course at LigminchaLearning.com, dates to be announced

 

*Registration for the online courses through LigminchaLearning.com are included in the program cost