Way of the Consciousness Explorer – Meditation School

Next 7-week course:
Jan 2 – Feb 13, 2019

TIME: Wednesday afternoons, 1:15 – 3:15pm
LOCATION: Hoame Meditation Studio
430 Adelaide St West, Toronto
COST: $450 + HST

Suitable for all levels.
Limit of 20 people.

Registration here (you’ll have to scroll to the actual date)

Course includes: Seven 2-hour classes; weekly reading, sitting and moving assignments; Meditation Workbook; Guided Meditation mp3s

Photographic print by Nick Simpson

COURSE SCHEDULE

Green room at Hoame Meditation Studio

Week 1 – Concentration and Stability
Week 2 – Patterns of Thinking and Feeling I; Friendliness
Week 3 – Patterns of Thinking and Feeling II; Compassion
Week 4 – Sound, Sight, and the Present Moment; Positive View
Week 5 – Body, Stability and Change; Positive Ideals
Week 6 – Acceptance and Awareness; Joy
Week 7 – Practice and Life; Interconnection

COURSE OVERVIEW and OBJECTIVES

Explorers will learn:

  • how to develop insight into the components of thinking and feeling
  • how to regulate emotions and release stuck patterns
  • how to decrease empathic overwhelm and increase healthy compassion
  • how to find comfort and appreciation in the different sense modes
  • how to build up equanimity, acceptance, and composure
  • how to simplify and stabilize the mind with concentration and relaxation
  • how to implement different positivity practices and views
  • how to think critically about the benefits, the hype, and the reality of meditative transformation
  • how to pace your meditation practice and start to regulate your nervous system
here there be ferns

Course objectives are to give participants a solid understanding of the dynamics of the meditative mind, and to ensure that by the end of the course they are established in their own customized practice, which they can then use as a departure point for personal growth, self-regulation, and / or existential adventuring.

Like my mentor Shinzen Young, in my teaching I move between the practical and grounded on the one hand, and the transcendent and mystical on the other. Our lives unfold between these two scales. Any presentation of meditation that doesn’t address both these dimensions is incomplete. Also, there should be jokes.

Jeff

NOTE: Meditation can complement, but is not a substitute for professional psychological and medical health care. There are risks in any psychological or contemplative method. Those risks increase for people who are experiencing significant distress or dysfunction. If you are currently seeing a mental health professional, discuss with them whether or not meditation is appropriate for your situation. 

TESTIMONIALS

“Jeff Warren is an exceptional teacher. He explains difficult, intangible subjects with razor clarity. His enthusiasm is contagious and never wanes – not for his subject or for his students, all of whom he treats with warmth, empathy and professionalism.”
– Roy Baskind, neurologist

“Meditation practice is life changing and first introductions should not be taken lightly. I am so grateful to have had Jeff Warren as a teacher and through him a connection to Shinzen Young. I came to meditation later in life- something I wanted to explore, but I was cynical. I come from “science stuff” – biology, psychology etc., skeptical of things “spiritual”, belief systems and organized practice. Jeff teaches his own and Shinzen’s work with tremendous intelligence, sensitivity, depth and humility. What you receive is no less than the distilled essence of deep religious/ spiritual practice minus dogma that has the rigor and depth to match the best of science. You are given a range of tools to first break down and then expand moment-to-moment experience and consciousness that move with you from sitting practice to enrich every aspect of life itself. What a gift!”  – Tony Cohn, psychiatrist

“Jeff is a gifted teacher – articulate, insightful – with positive energy, caring, and a wonderful infectious curiosity that flows through to all his student.  I recommend his class to anyone who has the slightest inclination to explore their inner life more deeply and who desires to live this all-to-brief existence more fully.  He offers a real service to humanity – to being more fully human, to living more meaningfully.”
Michael K., teacher

More testimonials here.

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Being human takes practice.

Get short reflections on meditation, mind, and the baffle-wonder-challenge of somehow existing. Includes three videos on how to kick-start your meditation practice, and several badly-timed jokes.