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Courageous Intimacy:
Awakening Through Connection

On-Demand Course

With Sensei Koshin Paley Ellison

Available Now!

We find ourselves in an age of alienation and loneliness. How can we overcome our delusions around connection, and awaken to our interdependence?

Sensei Koshin Paley Ellison is an author, Zen teacher, Jungian psychotherapist, Certified Chaplaincy Educator, co-founder of the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care, and global thought leader in contemplative care.

Through this 4-part journey with Koshin, we’ll learn embodied practices and nourishing rituals that will help us to work through our fears, embrace non-separating worldview, and cultivate intimacy with our environments and relationships.

This course includes hi-def video teachings from Koshin, Zazen meditations, journaling, and contemplative exercises — all of which will brightly illuminate the path of connection.

This course was previously run live. It is now offered as a self–paced programme that you can work through as your daily life allows.

Participants will gain:

  • A shift from a self-centered to an awakened worldview
  • An experienced understanding of the kleshas: greed, resentment, and delusion
  • The courage and ability to connect through embodied practice

Module 1 — Intimacy: Integrating Oneself in Each Moment

We begin our course by acknowledging and embracing the notion that we are not alone in this world; that we are inextricably bonded to our immediate and global surroundings.

This truth, we’ll learn, is both a gift and responsibility.

We’ll establish our inspirations for opening up, and practice encountering the people in our lives with curiosity and wonder.

Module 2 — Delusions: Training in Compassion

Our second module prepares us to turn towards the three kleshas, or unwholesome mind-states, of greed, resentment, and delusions.

Together we’ll explore how our relationships with ourselves and with others are impacted by the kleshas, and inquire into the purpose these aberrations of the mind may serve.

We’ll learn how we can turn these poisons into medicine.

Module 3 — Receptivity: Practicing Being Awake Together with Fear

In our third module, we’ll ask ourselves: what if everything in our moment-to-moment experience could be our spiritual teacher?

We’ll inquire into the challenge of meeting each moment fresh and new, and learn to foster a 360-degree view of life.

We’ll learn how to cultivate nourishing rituals and conditions that foster a “beginner’s mind.”

Module 4 — Awakening: Allowing the World to Flow With & Through You

Dharma in Times of Heartbreak with Thanissara

Our final module brings together all of the elements discussed in the previous modules: seeing ourselves as not-separate from others; transmuting poisons into medicine; and crafting rituals that allow us to learn from any experience.

We’ll reflect on how we can further integrate these embodied practices into daily life, dispel loneliness through service, and continue to connect beyond our course.

Praise for Koshin's Teachings

“Koshin Paley Ellison’s teachings share the way forward into a path of connection, compassion, and intimacy.”

—His Holiness The Dalai Lama

“Koshin makes the ancient wisdom of Zen feel intuitive for our contemporary minds.”

—Ira Byock, MD

“To meet Koshin is like being embraced by hope.”

—Anthony Edwards

On-Demand Course Details

Pre-Recorded Video Teachings

Each weekly module includes approx. 1 hour of content that includes hi-def video lessons from Koshin, Zazen meditations, and prompts for weekly inquiry. These videos will also be available as downloadable MP3s.

I See You Mara! From Inner Critic to Inner Freedom with Martin Aylward

Recordings of 4 LIVE Interactive Video Q&A Sessions

These are recordings of one-hour-long sessions where participants of the live course discussed their practice experiences, asked Koshin questions, and received his direct, insightful feedback.

Meditation, Daily Life Practices, and Journaling

Experiential Activities

In each module, Koshin offers invitations to observe his teachings in the real world, as well as journaling prompts. These will help us to incorporate Koshin’s teachings, and foster deeper connection and awareness, in our daily lives.

Lifetime Access

Video recordings are permanently available for you to come back to as many times as you like in the future.

About Sensei Koshin Paley Ellison

Sensei Koshin Paley Ellison

Sensei Koshin Paley Ellison, MFA, LMSW, DMIN, is an author, Zen teacher, Jungian psychotherapist, and Certified Chaplaincy Educator. After many years as a chaplain and psychotherapist, Koshin co-founded the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care, which offers contemplative approaches to care through education, personal caregiving, and Zen practice. Today, New York Zen Center’s methodologies are internationally recognized—and have touched the lives of tens of thousands of individuals.

Koshin is a world renowned thought leader in contemplative care. He is the author of Untangled: Walking the Eightfold Path to Clarity, Courage, and Compassion (2022); Wholehearted: Slow Down, Help Out, Wake Up (2019) and the co-editor of Awake at the Bedside: Contemplative Teachings on Palliative and End of Life Care (2016). His work has been featured in the New York Times, PBS, CBS Sunday Morning, Tricycle among other publications. Click here to learn more about Sensei Koshin Paley Ellison.