Skymind : The Radical Path of Open Awareness

Tibetan Buddhist wisdom meets modern life in this powerful guide that teaches you to face inner obstacles with courage, embrace all of life’s experiences, and live with clarity and boundless awareness—even amid constant ups and downs.

Amid life’s relentless challenges, uncertainties, and endless striving, how do we find a sense of ease, clarity, and connection? Skymind offers a way to step back from life’s constant push and pull and discover the spaciousness and wholeness that has always been within you. Inspired by the revolutionary teachings of Machig Labdrön, an 11th-century Tibetan yogini who pioneered a radical approach to inner freedom, this book introduces Skymind meditation—a practice that helps you cultivate clarity, compassion, and resilience by resting in the sky-like nature of your mind.

Through simple exercises, contemplations, and Machig’s powerful verses, you’ll be guided to meet life’s challenges with courage and radical acceptance. These teachings invite you to embrace every part of your experience—even the emotions and thoughts you’d rather avoid—and discover the freedom that comes from including everything in your awareness. Whether you are new to meditation or a seasoned practitioner, Skymind offers profound insights and practical tools to help you live with authenticity, ease, and a heart as vast as the sky.

Pieter Oosthuizen’s journey arcs from the wild edges of apartheid-era Johannesburg to the heart of contemplative practice. He teaches internationally on meditation, Vajrayana Buddhism, and the non-dual nature of reality. As a boy, he roamed the veld with a slingshot; by nineteen, he was an intelligence officer in the Angolan War. Afterward, he slung on a backpack and wandered East to life-shifting encounters in the Himalayan foothills and with the Dalai Lama in India. Back in South Africa, he met Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche—the first of many esteemed Tibetan Buddhist teachers. After earning his law degree, he again crossed oceans to Colorado in the US where he served in leadership roles at Naropa University in Boulder and Tara Mandala Retreat Center. These days, he also directs the Feeding Your Demons Institute. Across his roles, he continues to ask the question at the core of Skymind: How can we meet this moment with compassionate presence and embodied courage? Pieter lives on the sunny slopes of the Rocky Mountains near Boulder, Colorado, with his wife and frequent co-teacher Charlotte Rotterdam, and their two sons. 

Charlotte Z. Rotterdam is a Buddhist teacher, contemplative educator, and writer. Raised in New York City, Charlotte’s early fascination with life’s big questions led her to study philosophy and religion, eventually receiving a master’s in theological studies from Harvard Divinity School. She is a senior teacher (Dorje Lopön) and lineage holder at Tara Mandala, authorized by Lama Tsultrim Allione. She has been fortunate to study with Lama Tharchin Rinpoche, Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche, Lama Wangdu Rinpoche, Orgyen Khakhyab Lingpa Rinpoche, among others. She teaches internationally on meditation, compassion, and a variety of Vajrayana Buddhist practices, often together with her husband, Pieter Oosthuizen. Charlotte is faculty at Naropa University where she also directs the Center for the Advancement of Contemplative Education and co-developed and teaches the Mindful Compassion Training. She has published essays in Mandala, Lion’s Roar, and Buddhadharma. Inspired by the simple joys of everyday life and the subtle beauty of the world, Charlotte delights in sharing the insights of the Buddhist tradition so that they may be accessible and transformative in contemporary life.