Way of the Consciousness Explorer

Way of the Consciousness Explorer is a recurring 7 WEEK course that happens in downtown Toronto, exact location TBA. Cost is $450, course materials included.  The current course is full and the last many have filled up.  Please contact to be put on the waiting list for future courses.

There is no more thrilling activity than the intelligent exploration and refinement of consciousness. Course features a mix of guided meditation, discussion, and weekly meditation-in-action homework assignments designed to introduce existential tomfoolery into the lives of participants.

About two-thirds of the classes are loosely based on the Basic Mindfulness System of Buddhist teacher and scholar Shinzen Young. As he has taught me, I will endeavour to teach you, only with less math, less skill, and significantly more hair. Seven classes over seven weeks. Suitable for beginners who want to learn the basics, and for more experienced practitioners who want to expand their meditation repertoire.

Techniques include:

• developing insight into the components of thinking and feeling
• regulating emotions and releasing stuck patterns
• learning to decrease empathic overwhelm and increase healthy compassion
• finding comfort and appreciation in the different sense modes
• building up equanimity, acceptance, and nondual-flavoured composure
• simplifying the mind with concentration and relaxation
• exploring stability and grounding vs energetic flow and change
• testing different positivity practices and views

COURSE SCHEDULE – Sept 2016 (currently full)

Sept 14 – Simplicity and Rest; Absorption
Sept 21 – Thinking and Space; Friendliness
Sept 28 – Emotions and Catharsis; Compassion
Oct 5  – Sound, Sight, and the Present Moment; Positive View
Oct 12 – Body, Stability and Change; Positive Ideals
Oct 19 – Acceptance and Awareness; Joy
Oct 26 – Practice and Life; Gratitude and Interconnection

TESTIMONIALS

“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 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 spectacular teacher. He is connected, brilliant, impassioned, funny and self-effacing. He overflows with enthusiasm for the subject matter. He listens intently to each person’s experiences in a real human way. Jeff’s mix of self-care and science is perfect for the skeptical minded cynic. His class has helped me recognize my internal voice, what I once considered reality. I am able to manage anxiety, not by avoiding it but by acknowledging it and allowing it to be. I am a more conscious, more self-aware person in a way that I didn’t even know was possible; the words used to mean something else. I feel more open to life’s vacillations. I feel the world, my body, my mind, more vividly, as a more unified troika.” – Matt Beam, writer and photographer

“I feel very lucky to have met Jeff Warren and to have taken his classes. He’s a smart, compassionate, learned guy. He’s all mind without pedantry, all spirit without flakiness. I went to his first class thinking, “Okay, this won’t work, but it’s a night out,” Right away, however, his intelligence and experience and eloquence – his persona – won me over. I tried meditating in my twenties and again in my forties. It didn’t take…wrong teachers, wrong approach. And then I started suffering chronic back pain and couldn’t get relief. I’d given up hope. I was depressed. Now I’m optimistic. I’m still in pain; I just don’t suffer the way I did. Which is not to say that I’m a very good or even a very dedicated meditator…not yet, anyway. But my perspective has shifted. Who knew?” –Barbara Gowdy, writer

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