This course is for anyone who’s ever felt frustrated by not knowing what to do when challenging emotions surface – either on the meditation cushion, or in the midst of daily life. In this 7-week course we’ll delve into a number of juicy meditation practices that cultivate loving states of consciousness, and then we’ll use them to facilitate inner transformation.
In the Therevada Buddhist meditation tradition, there are a set of practices known as the Brahma Viharas through which we can train our brains to generate various flavours of loving awareness such as metta (friendliness), karuna (compassion), and mudita (rejoicing). In this course, we will learn and practice these meditations, with an emphasis on the development of loving oneself first as a foundation for effectively loving others.
Through mindfulness practice we learn that there is not any single unified thing called the self. What we discover is that our inner world is multi-faceted, made of many strands, many voices. Interestingly, something similar has been discovered in forms of Western emotional healing work. The Western inner work practices of Focusing and Inner Parts Dialogue begin from mindfulness of a felt sense, and then move into a caring inner dialogue that facilitates emotional transformation and integration. The Brahma Viharas and these Western techniques make natural companions, yet, they are rarely taught in an integrated way.
NOTE: Meditation can complement but is not a substitute for professional psychological and medical health care. There are risks in any psychological or spiritual method. Those risks increase for people who are experiencing significant distress or dysfunction. Please be aware of these risks and ask about them if you are unsure. Please know that, should you need it, it is your responsibility to seek appropriate support for your mental health from a licenced mental health professional.
