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Earth as Refuge, Earth as Teacher: Cultivating Resilience, Regeneration and Realization

Live Online Course

With Mark Coleman

April 22nd, 2025 - May 13th, 2025

Reconnect to the wisdom of the natural world with Mark Coleman, founder of "Awake in the Wild"

The Buddha and countless mystics, teachers and meditators have gone for refuge to the beauty and wisdom of the natural world.

Being outdoors with a mindful receptive attention is a profound support for beautiful qualities of peace, spaciousness, love, connection and wisdom to emerge.

In this unique 4-part series, Mark Coleman – who has been exploring meditation in nature for the past 30 years – will share some key principles, practices and wisdom teachings that will help you be able to take your meditation and contemplative practice into the natural world.

Given the often stressful and challenging times we are living in, this program will guide you to establish an embodied meditation practice in nature, which has now been well researched as an essential support for both your mental health and emotional well-being.

Together, in a supportive community, we will explore how the rhythms of nature can nourish our hearts, steady our minds, and support us along the way.

Earth as Refuge, Earth as Teacher: Cultivating Resilience, Regeneration and Realization - Mark Coleman

Join Mark on this month-long journey to:

  • Discover how a natural, relaxed, effortless awareness is available anywhere, anytime
  • Learn practices to restore and regenerate your sense of connection with yourself, others, and the Earth
  • Cultivate the power and agency to transform your state of mind in any moment through inclining your attention
  • Gain a visceral sense of your deep connection with all of life, and an ability to draw on nature’s wisdom
  • Practice aligning with the natural cycles of change and transformation, fostering a deeper sense of renewal

Module 1: Natural Awareness

Earth as Refuge, Earth as Teacher - Natural Awareness

So often, meditating indoors with the strength of our busy thinking mind, can be for many quite challenging.

In our first week together, we will explore the effortless quality of mindfulness that is so accessible outdoors, Natural Awareness.

Meditating outdoors invites you into a natural, relaxed, sensory quality of attention that can be both effortless and highly attuned to the flow of experience around you.

Module 2: Inclining Our Attention

Earth as Refuge, Earth as Teacher - Inclining Our Attention

The mind has an in-built negativity bias where we tend to overly focus on what’s wrong or what’s problematic.

In our second session, we will discover the simple but powerful practice of inclining one’s attention to taking in the beauty and goodness that is always here, especially in nature.

This class will support your innate agency to direct attention to what is wholesome and supportive for well-being.

Module 3: Attuning to Our Elemental Nature

Earth as Refuge, Earth as Teacher - Attuning to Our Elemental Nature

We are not separate from nature; we are nature.

In our third week together, we will practice attuning to our elemental nature, which allows us to sense our place in the web of life and supports us in feeling connected and intimately part of the earth, not just living ‘on it’.

Orienting in this way helps to counteract the sense of isolation and cuts through the delusion of the sense of a separate self.

Module 4: Regenerative Resilience

Earth as Refuge, Earth as Teacher - Regenerative Resilience

The truth of impermanence is expressed in every living thing.

Everything in nature is singing the nature of reality, that all experience is forever changing and evolving.

In our last week together, we’ll look to nature as our teacher in navigating change with wisdom and grace. Attuning to this in this class is not only profound but also alerts us to the regenerative resilience of nature that we can discover within ourselves.

Praise for Mark's Teachings

Mark Coleman Teaching

“Marks deep wisdom, teachings, and loving presence have been transformative to my life.
I am deeply grateful for his dedication to teaching and his profound ability to transmit the experience of compassionate mindful awareness”

“Mark has a very open, humorous mannerism that allows one to feel accepted, understood, and at ease straight away. He uses beautiful poetry regularly to put into words what is sometimes difficult to express. Meditating on these varied themes, especially within a natural setting, is an excellent way to attune to our own inner nature, which are one. I would highly recommend his retreats and meditation practices. They will give you another powerful tool for your mental wellness toolbox that you can take with you long after the courses are finished.”

“Mark is a gifted teacher whose kindness and wisdom make this retreat truly special. Being in his presence is a wonderful gift in itself as he lives what he teaches in every moment. Mark’s knowledge of literature and ability to quote poems are a wonderful addition.”

Live Online Course Details

Live Interactive Sessions

Mark will lead our weekly Tuesday sessions. Each session will include an insightful dharma talk, guided group practice, and an open forum for students to ask questions and receive support. You are encouraged to join each session while sitting outdoors, or to sit with nature in view, by a window, garden or balcony.

Community Connections

Your journey will be in community with other practitioners around the world via our interactive course platform. As you move through each module, course guides will facilitate discussions, answer questions, and provide resources and support. Every Tuesday, you will come together with other participants in real time to practice together and share your experiences.

Daily Nature Meditations

Each week, Mark will offer a new embodiment meditation to help students continue developing the themes and techniques learned that week. These are to be practiced outside in nature for 20 minutes daily, whenever opportunity or weather allows.

Mark Coleman

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: Tuesday, Apr 22, 2025 9:00 am PDT / 12:00 pm EDT / 5:00 pm BST / 6:00 pm CEST (90 mins)

Module 2: Tuesday, Apr 29, 2025 9:00 am PDT / 12:00 pm EDT / 5:00 pm BST / 6:00 pm CEST (90 mins)

Module 3: Tuesday, May 6, 2025 9:00 am PDT / 12:00 pm EDT / 5:00 pm BST / 6:00 pm CEST (90 mins)

Module 4: Tuesday, May 13, 2025 9:00 am PDT / 12:00 pm EDT / 5:00 pm BST / 6:00 pm CEST (90 mins)

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

About Mark Coleman

Mark Coleman Profile Photo

Mark Coleman is an inner and outer explorer, who has devotedly studied mindfulness meditation practices for three decades. He is passionate about sharing the power of meditation and has taught mindfulness workshops and meditation retreats in six continents for the past twenty years. Mark is a senior meditation teacher at Spirit Rock Meditation Center and has taught there since 2000. Mark holds a MA in Clinical Psychology and draws on his extensive experience in working with people as a therapist and coach.

Through the Mindfulness Training Institute Mark leads Professional Mindfulness Teacher Trainings in the US and UK annually.  Mark likes to share the fruits of meditation to wider audiences and founded The Mindfulness Institute, where he has brought mindfulness training programs to companies and the nonprofit sector across North America and Europe. Mark is a trainer for the Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute, developed at Google and teaches on their teacher trainings.

Mark is an unabashed nature lover and, through his organization Awake in the Wild, he shares his passion for integrating meditation and nature. He leads wilderness meditation retreats from Alaska to Peru, taking people on inner and outdoor adventures. Through Awake in the Wild, Mark also leads year-long meditation-in-nature teacher trainings in the US.

Mark is the author of From Suffering to Peace: The True Promise of Mindfulness (2019), Make Peace with Your Mind: How Mindfulness and Compassion Can Help Free You from the Inner Critic (2016) and Awake in the Wild: Mindfulness in Nature as a Path of Self-Discovery (2006).

Mark lives in Marin County, CA and enjoys spending his free time hiking, biking and kayaking. Click here to learn more about Mark Coleman.