Level 3 modules

This module is focused on building inner strength and resilience which come from understanding how your emotions work and having a feeling for what we could call your ‘emotional spine’. In the same way that our physical body is built around, and held up by the spine, so our emotions are built around an emotional backbone or spine. Your ‘emotional spine’ is the calm, clear, balanced state you experience every time you meditate, and you can exercise and strengthen it just as you can strengthen your physical body.

Topics covered include:

• The four streams of meditation
• Our three bodies – mental, emotional and physical and how they work together
• Training your instincts
• Your mind as a sense organ
• Head, heart and gut – the focal points of all inner sensations and emotions
• A structure for understanding and training your emotions
• Recognising the luminous nature of the mind and consciousness

This module explores the deepening levels of meditation in detail, and demonstrates how the absorptions move from focusing on an object to levels of consciousness that are infinite.

These states are described precisely and in detail, not as mystical ideas but as experiences that anyone who is prepared to practise can open up to. They lead to an understanding of consciousness completely different from the way we generally understand it, and some Western philosophers are beginning to explore these ideas.

Simultaneously it is useful to examine what gets in the way of living a balanced life, and so this module helps you become aware of how you get ‘stuck’ in certain emotions and thoughts and how to free yourself from them. You’ll learn how to recognise healthy and unhealthy states of mind and how they relate to the everyday psychological disturbances and stresses which are part of contemporary life.

Topics covered include:

• How the mind can focus and open
• Recognising the deepening states of absorption
• How the conscious and subconscious minds work together
• The infinite states of mind
• Getting caught in the waves of emotions
• The stages of emotional waves
• How to free yourself from becoming stuck in emotional waves

Western psychology has increasingly found the Buddhist training in mindfulness to be very effective in reducing stress, enhancing emotional intelligence, increasing self-awareness and learning how to handle painful thoughts and feelings.

Mindfulness is the practice of bringing the skills of meditation into daily life so you can keep your cool in the heat of the moment. It enables you to evaluate situations wisely and make clearer decisions so you are not driven by the habitual thoughts and emotions that usually run our lives.

Meditation insight is a unique way of training yourself to understand how we perceive the world around us. It provides the tools to distinguish between your inner and outer lives so you can relate clearly and openly with people you share your life with and the world around you.

Topics covered include:

• Exploration of the four levels of mindfulness and how this can be applied – being mindful of your body, sensations, emotions and thoughts
• Insight meditation and the steps to seeing clearly
• The differences between meditation, mindfulness and awareness
• Mindfulness and the Three C Technique™

The modules on ethics explore how our values, either conscious or unconscious, determine the kinds of decisions we make and the way we live our lives. As children, we incorporated the values of our families and culture, either as assumptions or as rules. In this module you have the opportunity to examine how values affect us and how to develop values that enable you to act skillfully, effectively and kindly.

The understanding and experience you gain through the practice of meditation provides a new perspective on ethics, because you can experience firsthand how your emotions and states of mind affect your actions. Rather than confusing ethics that are based on rules, with values, which are what you care about, you can experience for yourself the basis of all values, which is the relationship we have with our bodies and how we move our bodies through the world.

Topics covered include:

• Ideas and meditations for valuing our lives and bodies
• Exploring how our bodies value every sensation immediately and automatically and how to use meditation to make decisions on this basis
• Guiding principles for living including earning a living to support your life rather than living to work
• Making decisions and acting with a cool head and warm heart
• An introduction to the different aspects and meanings of love

This module is focused on building inner strength and resilience which come from understanding how your emotions work and having a feeling for what we could call your ‘emotional spine’. In the same way that our physical body is built around, and held up by the spine, so our emotions are built around an emotional backbone or spine. Your ‘emotional spine’ is the calm, clear, balanced state you experience every time you meditate, and you can exercise and strengthen it just as you can strengthen your physical body.

Topics covered include:

• The meaning of Tantra
• Learning how to observe your instincts
• The relationship between self and shadow and how this affects all relationships
• The difference between repressing, containing and transforming emotions
• Understanding the difference between healthy and unhealthy emotions
• The source of emotional conflict
• Reason, love and will
• Learning how to create and sustain a blissful state in your body

This module explores the markers of a calm, concentrated state, and the depth of this state. You will also learn how to recognise the different states of mind we all experience and how emotions are very different from sensations. It examines how to fine-tune your meditation practice and so strengthen your ability to hold emotional balance under all the circumstances of daily life.

Topics covered include:

• The moving mind, the still mind and the foundation of your mind
• Fine tuning your meditation and the markers of a calm mind
• Why does your mind wander? Opening up to all your states of mind
• The difference between emotions (mental states) and feelings (sensations)
• The experience of peace and the ability to still your mind at will
• Building the resources to maintain a calm state in difficult circumstances and maintain happiness and mental health

Schedule / Book online

In this course the knowledge and structure of our inner experience are derived from the rich and deep meditation tradition. You are introduced to the ideas, maps of the human mind and emotions, and structures of this tradition, and the practical experiences on which they are all based. You will also discover how these ideas can be linked with our own culture and learn the Western philosophical and psychological ideas that form our experience.

Topics covered include:

• An introduction to the nature of our minds and how to go beyond thoughts to experience the open, spacious foundation of consciousness
• Explanation of the different emotional roots of our behaviour
• How our sense of identity is created and why our reactions are so habitual
• Using meditation as a resource for experiencing and perceiving directly, without the stories and memories that usually accompany our experience

This module explores how psychological research is confirming that meditation, mindfulness and a good ethical base are important ingredients for wellbeing and a meaningful life. It outlines the two principles that form the foundation for an ethical structure and links this to the four levels of mindfulness and effective decision-making.

Topics covered include:

• Principles for dealing skillfully with current and everyday situations
• The two propositions on which everything in this module is based
• The different aspects of love in both our own culture and the meditation tradition
• Essential qualities for living a happy life
• Decisions and actions: where they begin, how they rest on our values, and the effects they have
• The interdependence of all forms of life and developing a global view