WELCOME TO THE COMMUNITY SITE FOR
THE BUDDHIST IMMERSION + MINDFULNESS TEACHER TRAINING
Below you will find the video teachings, curriculum and readings from our combined program
IMMERSION VIDEOS
Each week you will find 2 new videos approximately half hour long that introduce Buddhism tip to tail
VIDEO 13: LOJONG PART I
VIDEO 14: LOJONG PART II
VIDEO 15: LOJONG PART III
VIDEO 16: LOJONG PART IV
VIDEO 17: LOVING-KINDNESS
VIDEO 19: SYMPATHETIC JOY AND EQUANIMITY
VIDEO 18: COMPASSION
VIDEO 20: TANTRA
ALL IMMERSION VIDEOS AND TEACHER TRAINING RECORDINGS ARE AVAILABLE UNTIL THE END OF 2024
IMMERSION READINGS:
VIDEO 1: Excerpts from Indestructible Truth by Reginald Ray and Start Here Now by Susan Piver
VIDEO 2: Shakyamuni Buddha from Kagyu Office
VIDEO 3: Is Everything Suffering by Thich Nhat Hanh and The Four Noble Truths resource guide
VIDEO 4: The Noble Eightfold Path by Walpola Sri Rahula
VIDEO 5: The Dharma of Right Livelihood by Maia Zenyu Duerr and Right Speech from the Insight Meditation Center
VIDEO 6: Article on One Mind Dharma and an excerpt from Bhante Henepola Gunaratana’s The Four Foundations of Mindfulness in Plain English
VIDEO 7: The Painful Reality of Samsara by Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche
VIDEO 8: Identity and Selflessness in Buddhism: No Self or True Self? by Jack Kornfield
VIDEO 9: No Time to Lose and Signs of Spiritual Progress both by Pema Chödrön
VIDEO 10: Buddha-nature by Sharon Salzberg, Everybody has Buddha-nature by Tara Brach
VIDEO 11: THE HEART SUTRA, plus excerpts from Reggie Ray's Indestructible Truth and Dza Kilung Rinpoche's The Relaxed Mind
VIDEO 12: Excerpt from Reggie Ray's Indestructible Truth also here is an image of the Wheel of Life mentioned in the talk
VIDEOS 13-16: For people who want to go digital, I recommend reading Judy Lief's commentary on the slogans here. For those who are more analog, I recommend following along in either Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche's book Training the Mind and Cultivating Loving-Kindness or Traleg Rinpoche's The Practice of Lojong.
VIDEO 17: Why Loving-Kindness Takes Time and Cultivate Goodness by Sharon Salzberg
VIDEO 18: The Power of Unbearable Compassion by His Holiness the Karmapa
VIDEO 19: Sympathetic Joy by Sharon Salzberg and Equanimity by Gil Fronsdal
VIDEO 20: What is Tantra? by Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche
Click here for the Guided Meditations folder
MINDFULNESS TEACHER TRAINING CURRICULUM
Below you will find the full curriculum for our time together alongside associated readings, to be completed after each session
Session I - What is Meditation Anyway?
September 20th, 10-11:30am EST
Building on the initial immersion videos, we will take an around the world look at the various traditions and styles of meditation, what we mean when we say “mindfulness,” where it comes from and how we will practice it. There will be time to get to know one another and setting group commitments to one another in terms of how we would like to work together.
Reading (readings are to be completed after the live session): Points of Posture: Sonima / Samye Ling
Session II - Posture Clinic
September 27th, 10-11:30am EST
Shamatha can be broken out into body, breath and mind. This session we focus on the somatic experience, in particular the science behind the body scan, the traditional points of posture one can touch on when guiding people into practice and then each participant will have a chance to guide the group in executing that body scan (yes we’re diving deep quick, but you will be great).
Reading: Ways of Working with the Breath: Lions Roar / Sonima / Sutra
Session III - Ways of Working with the Breath
October 4th, 10-11:30am EST
Mindfulness of the breath is not just one thing! Here we move into talking about the second aspect of shamatha, the breath, and review a number of ways we can guide students to consider the breath, as well as how to talk about it and work with common misconceptions (like you have to manipulate the breath - not true!). Half the group will have the chance to practice leading the full mindfulness practice.
Reading: How to Hold the Mind in Meditation: Psychology Today / Sonima / Headspace
Session IV - Gentleness and Discipline - Ways of Working with the Mind
October 11th, 10-11:30am EST
After body and breath we will discuss how to hold the mind with gentleness and discipline. So many new meditators beat themselves up, thinking they are failing if they can’t stay with the breath. How can we best support them as they gradually relax into the practice, working with them to reduce judgment and shame? The second half of the group will have the chance to practice leading the full mindfulness practice.
Reading: This chart on the types of thoughts that arise alongside this post On Being a Teacher by Susan Piver and a piece I wrote a million years ago on Do’s and Don’t’s of Becoming a Meditation Teacher
Session V - How to Structure Talks
October 18th, 10-11:30am EST
Well you can’t really just sit down and start telling people what to do with their body, right? You have to introduce the practice, explain why we do it, and share about its benefits. In this session we learn about how to structure talks from a traditional Buddhist framework. We will have lots of time to experiment and ask questions during this session.
Reading: Compendium of mindfulness and race, trans-awareness readings here and here
Session VI - Looking at our Power, Positionality and Unconscious Bias
October 25th, 10-11:30am EST
When we begin teaching we may not always be aware of the way we come across and our own lens through which we view the world. Here we will engage in an open exploration and exercises around how to hold space for people who do not look like us or share our background. The breakout time will allow for half the group to lead their very short dharma talk.
Reading: Catch up!
Session VII - Fielding Questions
November 1st, 10-11:30am EST
There is an old Zen saying, “After the ecstasy, the laundry.” Similarly, after leading meditation, there often should be time for Q&A. How do we hold space for and normalize people’s experience? How can we be thoughtful in drawing out the meaning behind long-winded, not clear questions? What to do if we don’t actually know the answer? All will be revealed. The breakout time will allow for the second half of the group to lead their very short dharma talk.
Reading: Meditation on Money and Examining Our Relationship to Money
Session VIII - Relationship to Money
November 8th, 10-11:30am EST
Everyone has their own relationship to money. Some of us have a healthy relationship, others…not so much. If we are going to walk the line of being meditation teachers and even (gasp) charging for our time and training, we need to be very clear around our motivation, our poverty mentality, our habitual ways of thinking about money and finances. We will map the three yanas of Buddhism onto how we can consider our relationship with money. The breakout time will allow half the group to lead shamatha once more.
Reading: This very short blog post by Seth Godin, this round up of the “10 Commandments of Marketing” via his books and this excerpt from Tribes
Session IX - Authentic Networking and Branding
November 15th, 10-11:30am EST
What does it mean to launch a business as a meditation teacher from a place of authenticity? In this session we will work together to consider everything from building a website to a newsletter to how we want to show up with integrity on social media and who we may want to be in partnership with. The breakout time will allow the second half of the group to lead shamatha once more.
Session X - Building a Livelihood
November 22nd, 10-11:30am EST
In our final session we let the rubber hit the road and map out where we want to go from here. How can we support one another and hold one another accountable for our growth moving forward? Please bring all unanswered questions to this session so we can discuss!