12 Hours of Video Teachings

Downloadable Transcripts and MP3s

Glossaries, Summaries, and Recommended Reading Lists

Practice Assignments and Contemplations

Self-Assessment Quizzes

PLUS

Bonus #1: Recordings of Two Q&A Sessions with Pema

Bonus #2: Shamatha Meditation Instructional Video with Hope Martin

Bonus #3: Open Presence Instructional Video with Rebecca Eldridge

Bonus #4: This Moment Is the Perfect Teacher Audio Program 

Bonus #1

Recordings of Two Q&A Sessions with Pema Chödrön

Recordings of two Question & Answer sessions with Pema Chödrön from the interactive version of this online course.

Bonus #2

Shamatha Meditation Instructional Video with Hope Martin

A video instruction on the basic practice of shamatha, or calm abiding meditation. The instructor, Hope Martin, is an experienced meditation practitioner in the Shambhala tradition as well as a teacher of the Alexander Technique—a methodology for helping find greater ease in our bodies. 

Bonus #4

This Moment Is the Perfect Teacher

Ten Buddhist Teachings on Cultivating Inner Strength and Compassion  (Regular Price: $22.95)

Lojong is a powerful Tibetan Buddhist practice created especially for training the mind to work with the challenges of everyday living. It teaches our hearts to soften, reframes our attitude toward difficulty, and allows us to discover a wellspring of inner strength. In this four-hour recorded retreat, Pema Chödrön introduces the lojong teachings and explains how we can apply them to any situation in our life—because, as Pema says, “every moment is an opportunity for awakening.” In addition, Pema also leads a guided tonglen meditation, a practice aimed at developing courage and cultivating compassion for ourselves and others.

Lesson 1: Permanent, Solid, and Separate: An Overview of the “Self"

What are we talking about when we talk about the “self”? In this first lesson, Pema shows us how the illusions of ego trick us into thinking we are singular and unchanging. When we start to understand the way this illusion is constructed, we can glimpse selflessness.

This lesson will help you:

• Understand how the illusions of permanence, singularity, and separateness comprise  a seemingly solid sense of self
•  Experience (via the contemplative exercise) how our sense of self fluctuates in  response to our thoughts
•  Describe the process (the five skandhas) by which our sense of self as being  solid, separate, and permanent is created
•  Explain how studying our fixed sense of self allows us to glimpse selflessness
•  Practice shamatha, or calm abiding meditation

Lesson 2: How to Get Unstuck: Working with the Skandhas

It’s important and necessary to explore how it is that we get hooked, but the real joy comes from learning how we can break the cycle. In this lesson, Pema gives us real-life examples of how the skandhas work and offers time-tested advice on how to interrupt the cycle of suffering.

This lesson will help you:

•   Describe how you experience the skandhas, using an example of a stimulus you encounter
•   Define and give examples of shenpas (your personal triggers)
•   Explain how these personal triggers can be paused or disabled for the     purpose of decreasing negative habitual reactions

Lesson 3: Resting in Open Space: The Eight Kinds of Consciousness

Sometimes life feels like a roiling river, and we’re trapped in the current. What would happen if, even in the midst of the most stressful situation, we could put the brakes on our interpretation and judgment? In this lesson we’ll practice doing just that: pausing. We’ll also explore the eight kinds of consciousness and the six realms—traditional Buddhist teachings that will give context to why the practice of pausing is so important.

This lesson will help you:

•  List and define the eight kinds of consciousness
•  Describe what it means to “look for the gaps”
•  List and describe the six realms, descriptions of our various psychological states
•  Use sense perceptions to introduce a pause or gap in habitual patterns of mind
•  Understand how the defense mechanisms developed by our self, or ego, lead to negative habitual patterns of grasping, aggression, or avoidance—the largest source of personal suffering
•  Practice pausing while out on a walk, to develop familiarity with this technique of noticing the gap

Lesson 4: Understanding Ignorance: Where Suffering Begins

What keeps us from being fully present in our lives? In this lesson we’ll take a closer look at the mechanisms we use to put a barrier between ourselves and the world around us. And we’ll start to see what exists beyond that barrier as the starting ground for everything: basic goodness.

This lesson will help you:

•  Define interdependence and describe samsara, the cycle of suffering
  
•  Describe the two kinds of ignorance
•  List the twelve nidanas, the links in the chain of interdependent co- arising
•  Describe the quality of basic goodness
•  Practice open presence meditation
•  Understand why we should lean into and fully experience the raw emotion of the painful situations of life, rather than avoid them

Lesson 5: Samsara is a Cycle: The Twelve Nidanas

If we begin in a state of timeless awareness, in connection with the dynamic nature of reality, how do we get stuck in the view that reality is fixed and static? In this lesson we’ll go deeper into the twelve nidanas.

This lesson will help you:

•  Deepen your understanding of the twelve nidanas
•  Define nondual timeless awareness
•  Understand how our sense of self, or ego, evolves and functions, according to Buddhist psychological doctrines
•  Practice removing your sense of self from your activities

Lesson 6: Nowness Gives Rise to Bodhichitta: Connecting to Sacred World

We’ve spent much of this course analyzing what gets in our way of being present. In this lesson, we get to take in the view of what happens when we are able to rest in groundlessness and experience reality fully. This is what it means to discover sacred world.

This lesson will help you:

•  Understand the Buddhist concept of dukkha (suffering, discontent, or dissatisfaction)
•  Practice letting go of the reaction you usually have to a certain craving
•  Understand what it means to maintain an awareness of sacred world
•  Introduce practices into your life to help reduce the attachment, emotional reactivity, and suffering that arise from negative habitual patterns

Forgive Your Mistakes

Understand your tendencies and let go of guilt and shame.

Quiet the Inner Critic

Transform habitual self-judgment into unconditional self-acceptance.

Love the “Unloveable”

Hold unwanted thoughts and behaviors with gentleness and curiosity.

Transform Old Habits

Disentangle yourself from negative and harmful behaviors.

Calm Yourself Down

Rest with strong emotions rather than repressing or escalating them.

Discover Your True Nature

Recognize your inherent worthiness and true awakened nature.

Open Presence Instructional Video with Rebecca Eldridge

Bonus #3

A video instruction on open presence meditation, taught by Rebecca Eldridge. This practice helps you connect with reality as it is, without altering it. Rebecca is an experienced meditation practitioner in the Shambhala tradition.