This 5-week workshop engages our intentional thought processes to pattern optimal levels of concentration, capacity for attention, and ability to shift perspective. Through guided practice, and group lectures attendees will learn the following:
- Traditional methods of closed-focus practice from visual (re)attention (candle light, visualization) to intentional social center activation (METTA/loving kindness).
- The physiological mechanisms engaged through extended closed-focus practice.
- Techniques to incorporate closed-focus practices into day to day life.
As our capacity for attention strengthens so too does our capacity to regulate and choose the responses we have. In traditional and modern mindfulness we can categorize the practices in two fields: open focus and closed focus. Closed focus practices allow us to train our attention to refocus and attend to one particular thing. While seemingly simple, closed focus practice is an advanced meditation that includes intensive study of our own experiences. This course also includes collaboration with peers and requires daily personal practice to be able to properly share in our collective experience. We recommend you schedule and commit 30 – 60 minutes a day to allow for experiential growth and active sharing with the community.
This 5-week program consists of in person and virtual group classes that accompany a workbook and home-practice designed for three dimensional phenomenology. The two in-person sessions (week 1 and 5) focus on a collective experiential commitment. The synchronous virtual sessions are designed for pair and group work that progressively deepens our understanding of the intersection of east and west. Along with time as a group your instructor will reach out to you (through text or email) daily to help you through the home practice and support your personal learning. There is no workbook for this program however there is a daily offering of morning sadhana via Zoom.
The Embodied Learning School 