A Lot Going On:
Finding peace in troubled times
A 4-week course with Henry Shukman
August 20, 27, September 3 & 10
Sundays, 10am – 12pm MT
(Course is Online Only. All sessions are recorded if you’re not able to attend live.)
In this course we explore ways to come home to presence right in the middle of hectic times.
A message from Henry:
What is presence? It is simply slowing down, giving ourselves a break, and becoming present — being aware of what is going on right now, at this very moment.
Hearing the sounds of the world. Feeling the pressure in our feet or our seat, the touch of the soft air on our skin, the temperature in our bodies. And being aware of sights. And being able to check in with our own minds, and how we’re doing.
But it’s also something more. It’s one thing to pay attention more clearly and precisely to the contents of experience arising right now. That’s great. But when we find presence, we’re doing that – and more. We’re finding a kind of awareness, a “mindfulness,” that feels like it was already here, just under the surface of things.
“Presence” is always here, just under the turbulent surface of our minds, where thoughts and feelings might be hurrying through. It’s just underneath the surface of experience, like the underlay beneath a rug. Just behind the appearance of life as we commonly know it, there’s a deeper, calmer presence always waiting to be known.
It’s as if we slip beneath the surface of a troubled sea, and find the steadier, calmer waters under the busy surface, where it’s easier to recognize what’s going on, and to recognize a deeper part of ourselves too, one that knows how to navigate life with more grace and ease, and has been waiting for us to remember it. It’s a little like coming home.
This course will offer methods, tools, reminders and practices to help access our innate capacity for presence. And more than that, having reconnected with it, we will explore and investigate what it really is. Where does it end? Where does it come from? What does it have to do with awakening to our true identity?
In this course we will explore:
– Practice methods for getting grounded when experiencing overwhelm or stress
– Tools for coming back to the here and now quickly
– Ways of using presence as a means to calm a fraught nervous system
– Longer guided meditations for exploring presence more deeply
– Investigation of presence as a doorway to nonduality
– The power of poetry to invoke presence
– Koans as a gate to the ease and joy of presence
Course information
Schedule:
Sundays August 20, 27, September 3 & 10, 10am – 12pm MT
For those of you in different time zones, or who can’t make the scheduled meeting times – all Sunday sessions will be recorded, and you will have access to recordings shortly after each event.
Original Love is 100% online, there are no in-person events scheduled this year as of yet.
Course components:
1. Sunday Sessions
Live sessions with Henry and Guest speakers include guided meditations, talks and Q&A.
2. Guided Meditations
Henry will be recording 1 guided meditation per week, and each week, we’ll send out that meditation mid-week. These guided meditations can serve as touchstones in your week, helping you deepen your exploration of the themes in the course.
3. Practice Messages
We’ll be sending out a practice message on weekdays in between Sunday sessions, each containing a highlight from the Sunday session. These serve as inspirations for your daily practice, and you’ll have an opportunity to discuss them on the community forum with other students (optional).
Cost:
4-Week Course: $175
Scholarships
We have a limited number of scholarships available. We don’t want anybody not to be able to take the program because of financial need. If you need financial assistance, please contact Jeremy, the Original Love Program Manager.
If you have any questions about this course, please contact Jeremy. We’re happy to answer any questions and look forward to having you join us!
Teacher
Henry Shukman will be teaching the August 20, 27 and September 10 course sessions, as well as providing the guided meditations for the course. See Henry’s full bio here.
Guest Teacher
Kelly Boys is a mindfulness trainer and author of The Blind Spot Effect. She has created mindfulness programs for UN humanitarians and veterans with PTSD, and directed the first teacher training for Google’s Search Inside Yourself program. She has taught yoga nidra, a form of “non sleep deep rest,” for 15 years. She is the founding advisor for the Simple Habit meditation app and currently works with the Foundation for a Mindful Society helping to grow their Mindful Cities program. Kelly will be teaching the September 3 course session.
FREE 15-MINUTE GUIDED MEDITATION
We're excited to share a new 15-minute guided meditation on sitting with challenging conditions of the mind and heart that Henry has created.
The early Buddhist tradition identifies several states that tend to make it difficult to meditate. But these can be transformed into opportunities for growth. They can come to nourish our practice.
Discover how to transform challenges in meditation in ways that help to break old patterns. Learn to practice acceptance, welcoming, and self-love, by mindfully tending to disruptive thoughts and emotions. By inviting vulnerability, by letting ourselves be the way we are, and even loving the way we are, we can expand our self-acceptance, our self-understanding, and our capacity for love, peace and wonder.
