Join us for a series of illustrated talks on three Thursdays on “Cosmology and Visualization in Tibetan Buddhism” with Karunika Stephanie Johnston, author of Symbolizing the Awakened Heart: The Practice of Buddhist Visual Literacy!
- Talk 1: Considering Your World: Cosmology and Visualization in Tibetan Buddhism
Online & Onsite at Nalandabodhi Halifax, Sept. 10, 2:00-3:30 pm AT
(This talk can stand alone or serve as the opening for the other two talks.) - Talk 2: Translating the Buddha’s World into Our Own
Online, Sept. 24, 2:00-3:30 pm AT - Talk 3: Becoming Tara: Embodied Visualization Practice
Online, Oct. 1, 2:00-3:30 pm AT
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TALK 1
Considering Your World: Cosmology and Visualization in Tibetan Buddhism
Onsite at Nalandabodhi Halifax & Online
Thursday, Sept. 10, 2:00-3:30 pm AT / 10:00-11:30 am PT / 7:00-8:30 pm CET
(This talk can stand alone or serve as the opening for the other two talks)
What do you rely on as your world? Who inhabits its universe? Where are you located in that cosmology? How is that same world seen in Tibetan Buddhism? What is its orienting cosmology, and who are its inhabitants? Both perspectives play in the art and visualization practices of Tibetan Buddhism and are intended to affect a personal transformation. Can they?
If this sparks your inquisitive spirit, then join us to explore these themes through different modalities—illustrated presentation, experiential self-inquiry, guided explorations, and q&a-based conversation. Bring your adventurous self kitted out with questions, curiosity, and insight to the multitude of beings and realms—sacred and otherwise—in Tibetan Buddhism.
Everyone is welcome. This may be of interest to vajrayana Buddhist practitioners and or those interested in meaning, representation, and function in Tibetan Buddhist art, or just the curious. Please join us for a journey into the powerful territory of Tibetan Buddhist Cosmology.
Clarify for yourself:
- What the Tibetan Buddhist Universe consists of
- Its overall and various arrangements
- What parts are accessible to whom and why
- Types of inhabitants
- Well-known inhabitants, like deities and dakinis, protectors and spirits, and others
- Their specific functions and qualities
- Where you are in this scheme of things and when
TALK 2: Translating the Buddha’s World into Our Own
Online
Thursday, Sept. 24, 2:00-3:30 pm AT / 10:00-11:30 am PT / 7:00-8:30 pm CET
The second presentation delves into the topic of Buddhist cosmology and visualization practice specifically in relation to ourselves. We’ll draw out our world views—how we locate ourselves in the order of things outwardly and inwardly—and see how those may be inline, overlap with, and or simply have no bearing in the Buddhist worldview. Then, we’ll relate to the form and formless beings of Tibetan Buddhism and their realms to see how or whether we may interact with them and why. Through these explorations we’ll discover how this meeting of worlds is part of our practice and how fundamental it is.
TALK 3: Becoming Tara: Embodied Visualization Practice
Online
Thursday, Oct. 1, 2:00-3:30 pm AT / 10:00-11:30 am PT / 7:00-8:30 pm CET
We’ll end this short exploratory series by becoming Tara, an embodiment of wisdom and its unceasing activity of compassion. Your worlds and the Tibetan Buddhist one are invited to collide, or merge, to reveal the microcosm of embodiment for however short or long that may be. Having considered the Buddhist Universe in relation to ours and vice versa, we’ll experience the results freshly for ourselves as Tara and with the support of a short traditional invocation. There will be plenty of room for play and discussion as we go along.
Investment:
$20 for the first talk alone, or
$55 for the series
(Prices are in Canadian Dollars.)
Language of Instruction: English
Recordings: Talks will be recorded and available to view until the end of the year.
Instructor
The series is led by Karunika Stephanie Johnston, long-time Buddhist practitioner, student, and teacher, museum docent, graphic designer, lover of art (NASCAD alumni), and author of Symbolizing the Awakened Heart: The Practice of Buddhist Visual Literacy.
Stephanie Johnston has been studying and working in art and design since the early 1980’s. She became a Buddhist in 1985 through Vajradhatu, and since 1996, is active primarily through Nalandabodhi and Nitartha Institute—all Tibetan Buddhist-based organizations. She holds degrees in painting, art history, and museum studies with an emphasis on experiential learning through art.
The long-time director of practice instructors for Nalandabodhi, Stephanie is also a senior teacher there and for Nitartha Institute of Higher Buddhist Education. She is a frequent guest teacher and trainer for other Tibetan Buddhist communities and is appreciated for her experiential application of the teachings to the practices of Tibetan Buddhism formally and in everyday life.
Art, Buddhism, and anything putting them into one’s experience are a special fondness for her. In 2013 she pioneered the Buddhist Visual Literacy program for Nitartha Institute’s Creativity and the Arts track. Currently, she is focused on Buddhist art-based learning as a fresh way to explore Buddhism for new and seasoned practitioners alike. Her first book, Symbolizing the Awakened Heart: The Practice of Buddhist Visual Literacy, a hand’s on primer for Buddhist visual literacy, came out in January 2026. An ardent practitioner-student, Stephanie has a passion for supporting personal connection to Buddhism and art through clarity and curiosity. She also loves a good adventure.
Questions?
Contact us at halifax@nalandabodhi.ca.
Address
If you are joining us for the first talk onsite, it will be held in the
Mahasangha space at Karma Changchub Ling (KCCL)
871 Young Avenue, Halifax, Nova Scotia
(Please enter through the Torii gate from Atlantic Street.)
Related and upcoming programs
If this kind of topic in general—using Buddhist art to explore Buddhism and bringing it into our experience—is of interest to you, then you may also be interested in some of these upcoming programs:
Date/Time
Date(s) - Thu., September 10, 2026
2:00 pm - 3:30 pm
Location Nalandabodhi Halifax
