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A Heart at Ease: The Seven Factors of an Awakened Life

Live Online Course

With Nolitha Tsengiwe

March 22nd, 2026 - April 12th, 2026

Awaken to greater well-being in everyday life – grounded in ancient Buddhist teachings

Life inevitably brings stress, uncertainty, and moments when the heart feels heavy

When we find ourselves caught in cycles of reactivity, suffering, or discontent, the Buddha’s teachings offer us a clear path back to ease – back to the gentle presence we know is possible: The Seven Factors of Awakening.

These seven skillful qualities – Mindfulness, Investigation, Energy, Rapture, Tranquility, Concentration, and Equanimity – work together as a complete framework for liberation, each one supporting and strengthening the others.

When developed with patience and care, these practices become personal treasures that can uplift us from day-to-day struggle and attune us to a more empathic, spacious way of living.

Join Nolitha Tsengiwe – psychologist, conscious leadership coach, and senior Dharma teacher trained in the Ajahn Chah lineage – for this heartfelt exploration of the Seven Factors. Through dharma talks, guided meditations, and reflective exercises, you’ll discover how each factor can be recognized in your own experience and cultivated in everyday life.

This month-long course is not about perfecting yourself or achieving some distant goal. It’s about coming home to the wholeness already present, developing reliable inner resources, and finding the freedom to meet life’s fragility with confidence, compassion, and ease.

Nolitha brings a grounded, embodied approach to these ancient teachings – inviting us to meet ourselves with kindness, to trust the wisdom of our own experience, and to discover the freedom that comes from cultivating a heart at ease.

Join this Live 4-part series with Nolitha to:

  • Learn how to apply the Seven Factors to everyday challenges, including stress, uncertainty, and reactivity
  • Recognize which factors are already strong in your own experience, and which invite further development
  • Discover how the blissful states of joy, energy, and tranquility arise naturally when practice is well supported
  • Experience how concentration matures into the wisdom of equanimity, offering a steady heart
  • Learn tools and practices for cultivating greater well-being, empathy, and inner freedom
  • Create a personal plan for sustaining insight and continuity beyond the course

Module 1 - Beginning Where We Are: Mindfulness and Inquiry in Daily Life

Mindfulness is both the foundation and the balancing force for all the other factors – a quality of presence that allows us to meet experience as it unfolds, without grasping or pushing away.

In our opening session, we’ll explore mindfulness not as a rigid technique, but as a gentle returning to what’s here. Paired with investigation – the quality of interest and curiosity – mindfulness becomes alive and engaged, keeping us connected to the present moment.

Together, we’ll begin where we are, learning to recognize these two foundational factors in our own lives and discovering how they work hand in hand to stabilize the heart and illuminate the path forward.

Module 2 - When Practice Comes Alive: Energy, Calm, and the Joy of Rapture

When mindfulness and investigation grow strong, something shifts. Energy arises naturally – not as force or striving, but as a clarifying aliveness that moves through us.

In this module, we’ll explore how energy becomes the bridge to joy. As practice deepens, we begin to taste rapture – moments of bliss, delight, and gladness that aren’t dependent on external conditions. And as rapture settles, tranquility emerges: a gentle peace that soothes the body and quiets the mind.

Through guided meditations and reflections, we’ll learn to recognize and welcome these uplifting states, discovering how they naturally support each other and create conditions for deeper freedom.

Module 3 - Steady Heart and Mind: Samādhi and the Wisdom of Equanimity

A collected mind is a powerful thing. When the first five factors are present and strong, the mind begins to gather itself naturally into samādhi – a state of ease, stability, and focus.

In our third week together, we’ll explore what it means to have a collected heart, and how this gathering creates the ground for equanimity to arise. Equanimity is not indifference or detachment – it’s a wise balance, a steadiness that allows us to hold all of life with compassion and clarity.

Nolitha will guide us in recognizing how these two factors complete the journey of the seven, offering a kind of wholeness and freedom that’s both subtle and transformative.

Module 4 - Living the Seven Factors: Carrying Practice into Everyday Experience

In a world of uncertainty and change, the seven factors of awakening offer us a reliable refuge – resources we can return to again and again.

In our final session, we’ll weave together all seven factors, exploring how they work as a unified whole in our daily lives. Mindfulness takes us all the way to wisdom, offering a clear path out of suffering and stress. When we tend to these skillful qualities with continuity and care, we discover a sense of completeness – not because everything is perfect, but because we’re no longer at war with what is.

Together, we’ll reflect on how to sustain this practice beyond the course, creating rhythms and intentions that support ongoing freedom, connection, and ease.

Praise for Nolitha's Teaching

“This is the best gift I have ever given myself. In this retreat with you, I tasted the bliss of samadhi. My heart is soaring.”

“I am grateful for the feeling of courage I now have to not run away from suffering, but face the reality of suffering with gentleness and patience.”

“I felt well held and some sense of relief in the grief I carry. The teachings on truth of suffering in life went directly to my heart.“

Live Online Course Details

Live Interactive Sessions

Nolitha will lead our weekly Sunday sessions, to include insightful teachings, meditations, and guided group practice to illuminate each of the Seven Factors – and how to apply them in daily life. Each class will also include time for students to ask questions and receive support from Nolitha.

Relational Mindfulness Inquiry Partners (OPTIONAL)

Students who feel it would be helpful for them are encouraged to pair up with an practice partner for the duration of this 4-week journey. Nolitha will offer guidance in class around how to work together with your partner to explore, share, and bring awareness to each week's learnings.

Daily Life Practices

Each week, Nolitha will offer sitting and walking meditations, self-inquiry questions, and journaling exercises to continue developing the skills learned that week. These are to be practiced for 15-20 minutes daily, or as often as your schedule allows.

Nolitha Tsengiwe

Lifetime Access

All teachings, meditations and Q&A's will be recorded, published and archived on our interactive course platform. Video recordings will be permanently available for you to come back to as many times as you like in the future.

Schedule

Photo - Alarm Clock - Schedule

Dates & Times

Module 1: Sunday, March 22, 2026 8:00 am PDT / 11:00 am EDT / 3:00 pm GMT / 4:00 pm CET (90 mins)

Module 2: Sunday, March 29, 2026 8:00 am PDT / 11:00 am EDT / 4:00 pm BST / 5:00 pm CEST (90 mins)

Module 3: Sunday, April 5, 2026 8:00 am PDT / 11:00 am EDT / 4:00 pm BST / 5:00 pm CEST (90 mins)

Module 4: Sunday, April 12, 2026 8:00 am PDT / 11:00 am EDT / 4:00 pm BST / 5:00 pm CEST (90 mins)

Replays will be posted in the days afterwards for those who cannot attend live.

About Nolitha Tsengiwe

Nolitha Tsengiwe

Nolitha Tsengiwe is a Dharma teacher and board member at Dharmagiri Retreat Center, in South Africa that was founded by Kittisaro and Thanissara. In her first retreat with these beloved teachers she discovered silence as a refuge and has never looked back.

Nolitha has practiced for over 20 years under Kittisaro and Thanissara, who are of Ajahn Chah’s lineage. She completed the Community Dharma leadership program (CDL4) under Spirit Rock and is a graduate of the Insight Meditation Society (IMS) teacher training. She offers social justice workshops using Relational Mindfulness (Insight Dialogue) principles.

Nolitha is a psychologist and is trained in Karuna (Group psychotherapy based on Buddhist principles) and Somatic Experiencing (SE). She has been a leadership development consultant and executive coach for over 20 years. She is a mother and teaches Biodanza (dance originated by Rolando Toro).