Registration for the Live version of this course is now closed, however you can still explore the course theme and teachers below.
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A 4-Week Course Featuring the Most Preeminent Mindfulness Teachers of Today
Kindness, compassion, love, and presence - Western society often teaches us that these qualities signify weakness or passivity. In reality, the opposite is true.
As the great poet Naomi Shihab Nye wrote in her poem "Kindness":
“Before you know what kindness really is you must lose things, feel the future dissolve in a moment like salt in a weakened broth. What you held in your hand, what you counted and carefully saved, all this must go so you know how desolate the landscape can be between the regions of kindness [...]
...Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside, you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing. You must wake up with sorrow. You must speak to it till your voice catches the thread of all sorrows and you see the size of the cloth. Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore, only kindness that ties your shoes and sends you out into the day to gaze at bread, only kindness that raises its head from the crowd of the world to say, It is I you have been looking for, and then goes with you everywhere like a shadow or a friend.”
The last several years have thrown many of us off kilter - our daily routines, our relationships, and the way we interact with the world around us have been deeply shaken.
We're tasked with adjusting to a new normal, but meanwhile, we are more polarized and divided than any time in recent history.
It's time to get back to basics, it's time to re-center and remember why we are here.
It's time for us to quiet down, take a breath, and slow the endless scrolling - through to-do lists, emails, social media, and distractions. It's time to rediscover the innate wisdom that already lies within us, that ties our human experiences together. We need to remember how to be kind.
We are thrilled to announce an opportunity to slow down alongside some of the most preeminent teachers of our time - in a new virtual course called The Foundations of Kindness: Rediscovering Our Humanity in a Polarized World.
Beginning on September 20th, this 4-week course weaves timeless teachings with present-day introspection and helps us to re-cultivate our shared sense of humanity and belonging.
Each weekly lesson will feature audio and video teachings, meditations and other practices from our lineup of wisdom leaders: Ram Dass, Jack Kornfield, Sharon Salzberg, Joseph Goldstein, Roshi Joan Halifax and Raghu Markus. In addition to the weekly lessons and meditations, you will be provided weekly contemplation prompts as well as access to weekly LIVE Zoom sessions facilitated by community leaders. This is a great opportunity to connect and ask questions from a supportive group of community members.