Courses
The Insight Yoga training program has drawn together renowned teachers in their fields to bring together a heart centered, well rounded program that will allow each participant to enjoy a daily home practice for the body, heart and mind through yogic, Buddhist and psychological teachings and practices. It is also a 700+ hour Yoga Alliance endorsed training that will allow many yoga teachers to bring these themes together in their teaching style. At the Insight Yoga Institute we offer Level I and Level II courses and each participant may sign up for one or more teachers but must commit to the teachers’ Level I and Level II courses.
For example; if you want to study with Sarah Powers and John Welwood only, you would have to sign up in advance for both teacher’s Level I and Level II courses.
If you are interested in certification, you will be required to take all the Level I and Level II courses with the entire faculty. This can be accomplished in 2 to 6 years. (The program repeats every two years so that you have 3 opportunities to complete all of the courses). After six years Insight Yoga Institute will not continue to honor your hours toward certification. In other words, you must complete the program within six years (Level I and Level II) in order to receive an Insight Yoga certification.
In addition to the course curriculum, each participant will have monthly readings, writings, and be offered a mentor that they can be in contact with each month to track their development. Throughout the years, each participant will be responsible for staying in contact with their mentor through email and phone privates which will involve direct payment to the mentor. Graduates of the full program will be invited to become mentors to the incoming students.
Each course will include a two hour yoga session per day to support a body based understanding of the wisdom teachings.
See the descriptions of each instructor’s course below. Alphabetical by instructor.
Lama Tsultrim Allione
Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism
Level I Course:
Lama Tsultrim will offer a general overview of the Mahayana path through practice, dharma talks and discussion. We will explore many fundamental themes including the Four Immeasureables, the Six Paramitas, the opening of the compassionate heart, and the nature of mind itself. We will work with the classic mind trainings (lojong), the practice of compassionate giving and receiving (tonglen), and the emptiness teachings of Prajña Paramita and the sky-like mind.
Level II course:
Building on the level I course, Lama Tsultrim will weave together the overview of Mahayana with Vajrayana through practice, dharma talks and discussion. We will explore the Dzogchen aspect of nature of mind teachings in more depth while focusing on an experiential 5-step process that can help you meet and release what the Tibetans call ‘demons’—the longings, fears, obsessions, illnesses and attachments we battle every day. We will learn how our inner and outer demons can be seen, nurtured, and transformed into allies. Through this process, we can foster compassion and love in place of fear and animosity. We will also explore a short Green Tara visualization practice.
Theravadin Buddhism
with Thanissara
Level I Course:
The Four Foundations of Mindfulness
“Mindfulness, monks, I say is always useful – it is desirable everywhere, like salt which enhances the flavour of all curries, or a versatile prime minister who accomplishes all the tasks of state.” (S 46.53)
In the Satipatthana Sutta (the foundation text on mindfulness), mindfulness is called ‘ekayana magga’, traditionally translated as ‘the direct path’, but also translated as ‘the path to unification or oneness’. Mindfulness is popular as a secular discipline in the context of health, therapeutic process and even business. While mindfulness enables reduction of stress and increased functionality in daily life, it is also a central practice for the realization of nibbana. (Nibbana is the Pali translation of Sanskrit Nirvana, a term for ‘the deathless’ which has the taste of freedom and peace.) So what is mindfulness? How can it enhance well being and increased skill in negotiating daily life as well as insight into the most subtle aspect of the Buddha’s teaching?
During the program we will look at this essential tool of all spiritual work via its four classical dimensions:
1. Exploring the body / both inner experience of body and outer perceptions around body.
2. Exploring feeling / the connection between feeling and emotion & working with emotion
3. Exploring the mind / what is mind and how do we experience it?
4. Exploring the reality of experience / factors of awakening, hindrance, form and emptiness
The Four Noble Truths
“It is because of not understanding and not penetrating the Four Noble Truths that you and I have roamed and wandered for so long through the endless cycles of samsara.” (S 56.21)
As mindfulness increases we become more aware of suffering. The Buddha used the presence of suffering/dis-ease/dukkha as the starting point and central feature of his teaching. He was known as “The Doctor of the World” (Bhesaja-guru) since he focused upon the practicalities of healing this fundamental spiritual/psychological disease. In doing so he cast the explanation of his primary insight into this universal human problem in the form of a classical (ayurvedic) medical diagnosis:
a) The symptom: ”There is the experience of dissatisfaction.”
b) The cause: ”Self-centered and sensory craving; compulsive desires; the primary confusion of self that seeks to become something or wishes not to exist.”
c) The prognosis: ”It is curable; contentment, happiness and peace are possible.”
d) The treatment: “ethics, collectedness (concentration) and understanding in accordance with reality (wisdom).”
We will explore the 4 foundations and the 4 truths and how they weave together throughout the course. Our exploration will include explanations, guided meditations, practice sessions, use of chanting to support gathering of body, mind and heart energies and discussion.
Kittisaro
Level II Course:
This course will involve deepening and extending the teachings and practices that were explored in Level I. We begin, however, by reflecting on the Triple Jewel, the three sources of inspiration that the Buddha offered as trustworthy refuges for those interested in awakening. Without cultivating confidence or trust in these essential qualities, we have trouble finding the energy to persevere with the difficulties encountered on the Path. Have we explored where we place our trust?
In terms of the Four Noble Truths: we will develop and explore the balance of samadhi (concentration supported by the 5 jhana factors) and vipassana (investigation and insight). In particular we look at how meditation practice enables a letting go of self-centered grasping and the realization of Nibbana, that which is truly peaceful.
In terms of the Four Foundations of Mindfulness: we will develop the role of insight meditation, particularly as it applies to mindfulness of the body and the investigation of the power of emotions in shaping our world. For example, when our letting go is really disguised aversion, we need to meet that tendency with a patient willingness to be in contact with our experience. Form and emptiness are not found in different places. Wisdom and compassion manifest in this one mind. This non dual perspective will inform practices that help us to maintain emotional balance in the midst of life’s ever changing appearances.
In this program we contemplate the integration of these teachings into everyday life, and also reflect how they relate to other spiritual disciplines, such as hatha yoga in particular.
Stephen and Martine Batchelor
Secular Dharma
What is distinctive about the Buddha’s teaching that sets it apart from
mainstream Indian religious tradition? Through exploring this question, we
will try and recover the radical, non-mystical core of Siddhattha Gotama’s
vision. By discarding metaphysical beliefs, we will envisage a thoroughly
secular Buddhism, which is focused entirely on responding to the suffering
of this world.
Scott Blossom with Chandra Easton Yoga, Ayurveda, Chinese Medicine
The Alchemical Body:
Yoga, Ayurveda and Chinese Systems of Transformation
Yoga, Ayurveda, and Traditional Chinese Medicine are practical sciences devoted to the same purpose: cultivating multi-dimensional health and spiritual insight. Central to each of these approaches is the understanding of the life force, known as prana or chi, that interconnects and sustains our lives. Physician sages and mystics articulated how the life-force circulates in the energy pathways of the body and how those energies influence the mind. They have given us exquisite tools for inquiring into the subtle and often hidden aspects of our being. They have also presented imagery and theories that, at face value, can seem incongruous.
Joining IYI for a practical and philosophical exploration of the profound similarities these traditions share is Scott Blossom who is a licensed practitioner of Traditional Chinese Medicine and a nationally recognized expert on Yoga and Ayurveda. Chandra Easton, a longtime Buddhist practitioner, translator, and yoga teacher will guide the yoga classes, exploring how our life force (prana) is enhanced and refined through our physical sensitivity, rhythmic breath, and focused mind. Visit www.shunyatayoga.com to learn more about Scott and Chandra.
Zoketsu Norman Fischer
Zen Buddhism Level I and II
Level I
As a school of Mahayana Buddhism, Zen is concerned with the development of wisdom and compassion and the application of wisdom and compassion “on the ground,” that is, in daily living. The basic practice of zazen (Zen meditation) and the application of zazen as mindfulness in ordinary activity are the main approaches Zen uses to transform our lives, so that there is no gap between life and practice: practice is life and life is practice.
In Zen, as in Mahayana Buddhism in general, wisdom specifically means seeing the empty dream-like nature of all that is, which enables us to become free of our normal weighty and cumbersome view of self that constantly trips us up. Based on this emptiness view, compassion appears as a warm feeling for others, as well as practical action to benefit others: warm heart, warm hand, but without sentimentality and with compassion burn-out.
In Level I we will focus on these basic teachings as well as on the practice of zazen. Each day will include significant periods of silent meditation (walking and sitting) in the Zen style, as well as teachings from the tradition on wisdom and compassion, centered around the five paramitas (five perfections). We will also study Dogen Zenji’s famous text “Tenzokyokan” (“Instructions to the Cook”) in which he speaks practically and directly about the application of the teachings to the tasks of everyday life.
Level II
In this course we will begin with reviewing and solidifying the teachings and practices of Level I. We will then introduce the unique Zen practice of non-discursive questioning, popularly known as “koan practice.” There are many ways to approach this practice. In some traditions, short Zen stories are applied as meditation objects. Frequent meetings with a teacher in retreat to test koan insight are an important part of the process. The method we will use is different. Based on the Soto Zen style of working with koans, we will learn meditation techniques for working with a question. We will practice and discuss Dogen’s technique of “genjo-koan” (the koan arising in the present moment), and learn how to apply it to life issues as they arise. While we will consider a few classical Zen koans, our purpose will be to come to understand and be able to apply the basic method of questioning to clarify our own life koans.
Paul and Suzee Grilley
30 hour Yoga Anatomy Training
Yoga Anatomy: the Joints
To analyze why a yoga student can or cannot do a posture we must learn to look past the surface of the body to see it as a moving skeleton. Learning to identify which joints are involved in a Yoga posture and determining their ranges of motion is essential if we are to understand why every person practices poses differently.
The human body can be analyzed as fourteen different moving segments. All yoga poses are simple combinations of these fourteen segments. This course offers hours of guided practice identifying these segments in ourselves and our classmates.
These anatomical principles apply to all Yoga postures – no matter the style.
The Fourteen Segments are:
Six Movements of the Scapula
Six Movements of the Humerus
Four Movements of the Ulna
Two Movements of the Radius
Four Movements of the Wrist
Four Movements of the Fingers
Six Movements of the Cervical
Six Movements of the Thorax
Six Movements of the Lumbar
Six Movements of the Pelvis
Six Movements of the Femur
Four Movements of the Tibia
Four Movements of the Ankle
Four Movements of the Toes
Key Concepts:
Tension and Compression
Axis and Extremity
Proportion and Orientation
Yoga Anatomy: The Muscles
After learning to analyze the 14 segments of the body we move on to explore how muscles move these segments and how they are affected by postures. There are over 600 muscles in the body but by focusing on the four segments of the thighs and the six segments of the torso we will learn most of what is important for a yogi to know. These muscles are involved in nearly every yoga pose and the most important to understand. Once a student grasps how these core muscles work it is a simple matter to understand all the muscles of the body.
Key Concepts:
Four quadrants of the Hips and Thighs
Six Segments of the Torso
Muscles only contract
Joint Space Closure
Muscles and Tendons
Shortening, lengthening and stable contractions
Level II Subtle Anatomy: Chakras and Meridians
Chi is the energy that animates the body, Meridians are the channels in which Chi flows, and Chakras are spiritual centers in the brain and spine that control the flow of Chi. The fundamental premise of Hatha Yoga, Tantra Yoga and Taoism is that these energies need to be brought under the Yogi’s control if the mind is to be calmed and the Self revealed. This workshop will outline the basic anatomy of these energy systems and their effect on the mind, body and emotions. We will explore techniques used to affect Chi and the Chakras. Both ancient and modern authors will be referred to with special emphasis on the Yogic theory of the three bodies of experience: physical, astral, and causal.
Key concepts:
Chakras
Meridians
Chi
Physical Body
Astral Body
Causal Body
Connective tissue and meridians
Yoga asanas and the meridians
Breath and Chi
Mind, emotions and the chakras
Chakra Meditation
Seeds of Karma
Purification
Awakening
Emancipation
Gregory Kramer Insight Dialogue
Insight Dialogue: A direct experience of the Relational Dharma
We work and live in relationship. Our personality and our brains take form in relationship, and our stickiest problems are with other people. We long for community and intimacy just as we long for freedom from hunger and ignorance. And yet our meditation practice, that exquisite kernel of our spiritual lives, is mostly a solitary affair.
At this retreat we will meditate with each other. Not side by side and separate, but fully engaged and truly meditating. We will cultivate mindfulness, calm concentration, inquiry, energy, and other meditative qualities, interweaving Insight Dialogue, silent meditation, and lovingkindness. This is a chance to engage firsthand with the relational foundation of our humanity, where selflessness and relationship are, finally, not in conflict.
Sarah Powers
INSIGHT YOGA TEACHER TRAINING INTENSIVE Level I and level II
AN INDEPTH EXPLORATION OF YIN/YANG YOGA AND MINDFULNESS MEDITATION
Course Description
This course is intended to deepen one’s understanding of the experiential, philosophical and practical application of yoga and meditation. It is intended for those with at least 3 years of practice or more. It is also strongly recommended that you have a dedication to the yogic path and are currently teaching.
This intensive will deepen one’s ability to teach both a receptive Yin style and an active flow or Yang style of yoga with an interest in promoting a conducive inner environment for meditation. Please come with a basic understanding of the practices, and a strong interest in committing to the further exploration of both yoga and meditation.
Asana
The physical discipline of Hatha yoga centers on the harmonious embodiment of postures. How we practice these postures (our state of mind) is as important as which asana we choose and how we orchestrate them. Sarah will explore and refine your understanding of how to bring these passive and active yogic shapes alive within you. This course will focus on the combination of inner (breath, energy channels and mind training) and outer (cohesion within the bones and muscles) alignment, as well as the use of touch to assist yoga practitioners in finding an integral aliveness within yoga postures. The main emphasis in the yang yoga section will be to discover how to use hands-on adjustments to bring a greater awareness to the stable part of the pose, allowing the rest of the body to discover where there may be enhanced capacity for movement.
In this training we will explore:
Yin Yoga- how, why and when to practice this style safely and effectively
Organ health and Yoga practice (sequences for the kidneys, liver, etc.)
Balancing the Yin style with a Yang practice to support structural strength and stability
Proper physical alignment in active postures
The primary focus of ujjayi breath in asana: length, depth and direction
Mindfulness in asana.
Sequencing of postures for various levels, from the beginner to the intermediate.
How to assist those with injuries
The use of touch and hands-on adjustments
Skillful verbal communication
The teacher/student relationship
Committing to a personal practice.
Philosophy
Subtle body anatomy according to Yogic and Chinese philosophy
Meridian theory and Chinese Medicine
Buddhist Psychology and emotional maturity
Pranayama
Pranayama is the expansion of the life force through breath regulation. It is the profound practice of circulating and redistributing prana in both the physical and subtle body through various breathing and visualization practices.
Overview of Pranayama practices:
Kumbhaka (breath retention), Nadi Shodhana (alternate nostril breathing), Kapalabhati (breath of fire)
Mindfulness Meditation
The essence of a committed yoga practice is meditative focus and awareness. Developing and sustaining a formal meditation practice can be a continual source of insight, rejuvenation and compassion. It is a practice that can reveal and disempower our destructive, fragmented aspects while potentially revealing our essential nature. Meditation can also deepen one’s awareness and acceptance of oneself and of the world, deepening one’s openness and wakefulness. As teachers, this groundedness and inner peace allows others to feel safe and inspired to deepen their own inner journey. We will discuss and practice the techniques of Buddhist Mindfulness meditation (Sati Patthana–The Four Foundations of Mindfulness), with an emphasis on how to share these practices with others.
Each day will include 2 hours on Yin Yoga, 2 hours on Yang Yoga, and 2 hours on Mindfulness Meditation
Required reading
1. Insight Yoga by Sarah Powers
2. Yin Yoga by Paul Grilley
3. Mindfulness in Plain English by Bhante Gunaratana
Suggested listening and viewing
Sarah Powers Yin Yoga (audiotape), Insight Yoga and Yin & Vinyasa Yoga (DVDs). Anatomy for Yoga and Yin Yoga by Paul Grilley (Dvds)
Patricia Sullivan
Yoga Training Level I and II
Course Description for Patricia Sullivan’s Intensives
The intention in these courses (year I and II) is to bring a deeper commitment to one’s daily practice, to integrate the details of anatomy, postural alignment, philosophy and meditation into an ability to explore and continually evolve one’s practice, and to develop an eye for how to help students find their own unique way to practice using the knowledge and skills presented.
Both the Yoga and Buddhist traditions recognize that the ability to experience the true nature of things and find freedom from suffering is intrinsic and reachable, and we will explore and compare the practices available within each.
In both, the practices of inward-turning and self discovery are paired with an outward re-turn to wise and compassionate action in everyday life and relationships.
In Course I, Year I, we will explore asana, pranayama, philosophy and meditation with the objective of deepening your personal experience of the profound sense of physical, mental and emotional health and groundedness which arise from these practices. We will also begin to develop skills in offering these practices to others.
Course II, Year II will be directed toward deepening your personal practice, as well as further developing skills in offering these practices to others.
Asana
Applying anatomical understanding, both physical and subtle, while incorporating the lessons about attitude and intention from the philosophical teachings, the exploration of asana becomes a grounded foundation for the more subtle practices of pranayama and meditation, which require steadiness of concentration and persistent dedication.
Philosophy
Selected sutras from The Yoga Sutra of Patanjali will be discussed, along with core fundamental teachings from Buddhism.
Exploring the relationship of your Ayurvedic constitution to the 5 elements and thus the chakras, giving you wisdom and skillful choices regarding your practices and your lifestyle.
An overview of Ayurvedic principles will also be presented as they relate to yoga and meditation practices.
Pranayama
Depending on the maturity of the students, practices may include ujjayi, nadi shodhana, viloma (interrupted breathing), and exploring pauses between in and out, and out and in breaths.
When the practices of pranayama become refined to the extent that the internal and external influences of the breath are calmed,
the impulses which obscure the illuminative (sattvic) nature of mind disappear, although temporarily at first. Also, the mind is said to become fit for concentration.
Meditation
The meditation will be supported and informed partly through exploration of Vipassana style mindfulness techniques, and also through the study of the Zen precepts as expressions of an understanding of dependent co-arising, or interdependence. The precepts serve as guidelines for transforming deeply ingrained reactive tendencies into wise and compassionate action in our relationship with ourselves and with the world around us. The practice of Zazen will be explored, as distinct from Vipassana style meditation. The steadiness, rigorous honesty, and kindness we discover within ourselves during meditation also become a model and inspiration for students, and all those we come into contact with.
The following realms of study will be included in these courses:
*asana: active and restorative; how to vary according to individual needs; learn to initiate movement from inner perspectives, that is, bone and organ awareness, and energetic awareness; cultivate unbroken mindfulness to access the healing potential of practicing asana.
*sequencing of poses, themes – energising, calming, well-rounded - within a series of poses, sequencing verbal queues to lead students into and out of poses.
*use of touch for: receiving information from your student; heightening of student’s awarenesss; stabilization and structural correction; support; sacred aspects of touch
*alignment: multi level functions of awareness to detail; anatomical understanding to enhance structural competency; how to communicate alignment to the ordinary student
*use of props: to support alignment; create effective support for restorative poses; prevention of injury; support in cases of injury.
*restorative poses – physiological changes supporting physical, psychological and spiritual healing and evolution.
*Pranayama – purpose; reclining and sitting pranayamas; simple kriyas
*Meditation – sitting, walking (zen style kinhin walking)
*Philosophy – Yoga Sutras; Zen Precepts for the development of the boddhisattva way; Yoga and Buddhist traditions explored and compared.
*Chanting as a tool for retaining teachings: Chanting of Sanskrit Alphabet and Selected Yoga Sutras; Prajnaparamita Heart Sutra
Required Reading
1. Yoga Sutra of Patanjali, by Chip Hartranft
2. Waking Up to What You Do: A Zen Practice for Meeting Every Situation with Intelligence and Compassion, by Diane Eshin Rizzetto
3. Prakriti: Your Ayurvedic Constitution, by Dr. Robert Svoboda
For Further Study
The Yoga Sutra of Patanjali, by Georg Feurstein
The Essence of Yoga: Reflections of the Yoga Sutra of Patanjali, by Bernard Bouanchaud
Anatomy of Movement, by Blandine Calais-Germain
The Yoga of Breath, by Richard Rosen
Pranayama: Beyond the Fundamentals, by Richard Rosen
Jennifer Welwood
Psycho-spiritual Inquiry Level I and II
The great 14th century yogi Longchenpa, in his songs of realization, declared:
Awakened mind is self-knowing awareness equal to space.
Naturally lucid and unwavering, the spacious expanse of utter lucidity
Is not created but is spontaneously present.
Spontaneously present–not occurring, not originating, and not finite–
It does not come from anywhere, nor does it go anywhere at all.
This vast expanse, unwavering, indescribable, and equal to space,
Is timelessly and innately present in all beings.
Within primordial basic space, there is simply realization or its lack.
Longchenpa’s words reflect the Buddhist teaching that we all have an enlightened nature that is intrinsic and indestructible, and that the only difference between enlightened beings and ourselves is that in us, this nature has become covered over by obscurations. The essence of the spiritual journey is thus twofold: on the one hand, it involves learning to recognize, access, and abide in our intrinsic nature; and on the other hand, it involves learning to meet, penetrate, and unwind the obscurations that keep us from directly knowing and experiencing that nature. Learning to recognize our intrinsic nature is the process of realization, and learning to unwind what keeps us from experiencing it at each moment of life is the process of transformation.
While it is relatively easy to glimpse our intrinsic nature during practice sessions, retreats, or moments of transcendence, our greatest challenge is to embody it in our daily living–to live from the truth of who we are rather than occasionally experiencing it. This is evolutionary work that requires particular understandings and methods.
In this part of the training we will integrate deep spiritual and psychological work in the service of engaging this twofold journey, which begins with our human predicament and unfolds toward our human possibility. We will explore the ways that we have become caught in habitual patterns that separate us from our nature as innate open wakefulness, and we will work with the mechanisms of identification and avoidance that lock us into those patterns. We will learn how to open to and become present with the underlying feelings, vulnerabilities, and ontological emptiness at the core of our patterns, and we will discover in that meeting the doorway to both our psychological wholeness and our spiritual evolution.
What ushers us through this doorway is cultivating our capacity for presence– for meeting our experience just as it is, with open wakefulness, and without judgment, aversion, agenda, manipulation, or conceptual elaboration. When we bring presence to bear on what is most real in us–our own essential nature–then that presence is like sunlight suffusing a closed bud, allowing our experience of our essential nature to begin to open. And when we bring presence to bear on what is most conditioned in us–our habitual patterns and tendencies–then that presence is like sunlight dissolving mist in the sky, allowing our patterns to begin to disperse. By integrating psychological and spiritual work in the service of returning presence to wherever it has been lost, we utilize the potential synergy of this union. Working with our unresolved psychological material becomes a vehicle for unfolding our deeper being, and unfolding our deeper being comes down to earth, and can truly manifest in our lives.
Our format will include teaching and discussion, psychological inquiry and process work, spiritual practice, and the profound and sacred work of cultivating the subtle body, which is the bridge that allows our essential nature to manifest in time and space, in this body and in this life. As the subtle body awakens, we develop the energetic basis for becoming an essential person. Then, rather than living our life as the conditioned person who has temporary experiences of our essential nature, we begin to live our life as a personal embodiment and expression of our essential nature. This is the only basis for true happiness, fulfillment, and meaning in a human life, and the only basis for being of true service to others.
In our first year together, we will develop the core understandings, practices, and methods of this body of integrated psychospiritual work. In our second year together we will deepen and expand our exploration, in accordance with the needs and capacities of participants.
John Welwood Psycho-Spiritual Inquiry Level I and II
The Body as a Field of Presence: Level I
Integrating Psychological, Spiritual, and Embodiment Work
Most people in our culture suffer some level of disembodiment, where the mind is disconnected from the body, the earth, the heart, the belly, and the field of open, expansive awareness. This intensive retreat will address this problem through helping you inhabit yourself, your awareness, and the stream of your experiencing in a more fully embodied way.
The lived body is like a plant reaching toward the sun: It naturally wants to move in the direction of greater freedom, openness, and expansiveness. Because the body always abides in the here and now, it is our most accessible gateway to presence.
In this retreat you will learn to enter into this “wisdom body” through the medium of sensation, feeling, and awareness. Grounding in the belly and heart, you will learn to open up to feeling and emotion, track the flow of where and how you are, and unpack conditioned patterns that block access to the body as a field of presence.
This retreat is largely devoted to experiential work: embodiment exercises, psychospiritual inquiry, and meditation practices that cultivate embodied presence and awareness. There will also be talks and discussions.
THE HEALING POWER OF UNCONDITIONAL PRESENCE Level II
Inhabiting Yourself, Your Body, and Your Emotional Experience
All psychological problems are ultimately spiritual issues- symptoms of disconnection from our capacity to be present with our experience. Conventional psychotherapy rarely teaches people how to directly inhabit their immediate experience with mindfulness and awareness. And spiritual practices often bypass or transcend the wounds and complex experiences that are part of the human condition, without transforming them. But when we bring psychological and spiritual work together, both approaches can complement and enhance one another, increasing the growth potentials in each. Then every experience turns out to contain its own intelligence and every emotional issue or difficulty provides its own kind of spiritual opportunity, as a way to connect with oneself more deeply.
The most important capacity for this kind of work is unconditional presence – the ability to remain open and freely inquire into our bodily felt experience, just as it is, without bias, agenda, or manipulation of any kind. This quality of presence allows a precise tracking of the experiential process, enabling it to unfold naturally in the direction of freedom, truth, and deeper being. As we learn to inhabit the flow of our felt experience, we begin to settle more deeply into the body and heal the inner divisions at the root of all psychological problems. Then the “feeling body” begins to open out into the “wisdom body.”
This workshop will give special emphasis to exploring the body as a gateway to presence. The format includes talks, psychospiritual work, body awareness practice, and some meditation.