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A New Way of Being:
Intro to Meditation

Live Online Course

With Martin Aylward

April 12th, 2021 - May 9th, 2021

Access the power of meditation through a month of daily practice.

Interested in learning meditation as a complete beginner?

Want to refresh and strengthen your foundational sitting skills?

Ready to develop your own daily meditation practice?

In the mind of the expert there are very few possibilities, in the mind of the beginner, many possibilities.

-Zen master Shunryo Suzuki

This month-long course of daily practice will be led by renowned meditation leader, and founding teacher of Sangha Live, Martin Aylward. Using his 30+ years of meditation practice and extensive teaching experience, he will guide you through meditation basics with clarity, insight, and inspiration.

Regular meditation practice can transform our lives.

We’ve learned this through both modern neuroscience research and centuries of traditional Buddhist inquiry. Meditation can help us to feel less stress, and more peace; to engage more mindfully in our work and personal relationships; and to live our lives more freely, and more fully.

This 4-week course will include 10-15 minute video lessons each day (M-F) and live, group Q&A sessions each Sunday, all led by Martin. During the interactive sessions, Martin will provide individualized support and feedback. Course materials are available indefinitely, so you’ll have the opportunity to revisit them as often as you’d like in the future.

There’s no better time than now to start on the path of awakening — and by the end of this experiential course, you’ll be well on your way.

Week 1: Take Your Seat

Oftentimes, the biggest obstacle to meditation is simply taking our seat to begin. We often think of meditation as an exercise of the mind, but it’s also a visceral experience in our breathing body.

In our first week together, we’ll focus on grounding our attention, the naturalness of awareness, and using breath and body to arrive in the present moment. We learn that a relaxed body is an awakened body.

Martin will provide basic instruction around meditative awareness, supportive posture, the world of the breath, the natural immediacy of experience, and how to begin to relax uninhibited mental activity.

Week 2: Free Your Mind

In week 2 we’ll explore how our attention inevitably gets hijacked and fixated. We’ll learn the skills we need in order to unhook from anxiety and fantasy and reconnect to presence, again and again.

Martin will lead us through investigating desires, defenses and distractions; the meditative process of recognizing, releasing and returning; and the importance of maintaining attention that is kind and gentle.

We don’t have to like what’s happening, but we can welcome and accept whatever arises, just as it is.

Week 3: Open to Experience

As we deepen our practice this week, we’ll attune to the changing nature of experience, by opening up our senses and relaxing into presence. 

Martin will help us to explore how consciousness meets experience, and how we can relate to the world around and within us, without judgment.

We’ll investigate the fluidity of our awareness, abiding as the witnessing presence, the impermanence and constant changing of the world around us, making home in your awareness, welcoming whatever arises, and more.

Week 4: Integrate Your Practice

As we wrap up our course, Martin will help us to integrate our newfound meditative awareness and ease of presence into our day-to-day lives.

Through our practice, we come to understand that meditation is an infinite trajectory in training ourselves to be here, with what’s available in this moment, and in the next. 

In our final week, Martin will introduce us to more advanced techniques including practicing edgeless, all-inclusive awareness, and cultivating the three crucial qualities of Contact, Curiosity and Care. 

Testimonials

"The content is presented with breadth and depth so I can integrate it into my life as living practices, not just concepts and ideas."

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"Martin is a wonderful teacher -- insightful, compassionate, present, engaging. The online setting is still quite powerful."

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"Martin teaches with so much compassion and wisdom, as well as playfulness and joy."

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Live Online Course Details

4 Live Q&A Sessions

Each Sunday, join your coursemates to discuss personal experience and growth, ask questions about the teachings, and receive insightful feedback and guidance from Martin.

20 Short Video Lessons

A new pre-recorded, 10-15 minute video lesson from Martin will be released each day (Monday-Friday) for the duration of the course. These daily recordings will guide you through your progressive home exercises.

Community Forums

Your online meeting spot to connect with your coursemates, post thoughts and questions, and find support.

30 Day Refund Guarantee

If you're unsatisfied with the course for any reason, please contact us within 30 days of purchase for a full refund.

Schedule

Dates

Course launch: 12 Apr (no meeting)
Interactive 1: 18 Apr (LIVE 60 minutes)
Interactive 2: 25 Apr (LIVE 60 minutes)
Interactive 3: 2 May (LIVE 60 minutes)
Interactive 4: 9 May (LIVE 60 minutes)
Note: Interactives will be recorded for those who cannot attend

Times


9am PDT, 12pm EDT, 5pm BST, 6pm CEST
9am PDT, 12pm EDT, 5pm BST, 6pm CEST
9am PDT, 12pm EDT, 5pm BST, 6pm CEST
9am PDT, 12pm EDT, 5pm BST, 6pm CEST

About Martin Aylward

Martin Aylward is the founding teacher of Sangha Live. After spending his early adult years in Asian monasteries and with Himalayan hermits, Martin settled in Southern France with his wife Gail and their 2 children, co-founding the Moulin de Chaves retreat centre where he lives and teaches.

Martin teaches meditation, guides students and leads retreats internationally, emphasising the integration of the deepest wisdom teachings into the midst of the lives we live. He is also a director of the MindfulnessTrainingInstitute.com. Martin’s new book, Awake Where You Are: The Art of Embodied Awareness, will be published in 2021 by Wisdom Publications