The Clinging Mind: How We Let Go to Get Free

How do we move from feeling controlled by our hearts and minds, to being in the driver’s seat of our own experience?

Our hearts and minds are always getting us into trouble, creating entanglement and stress in our lives and relationships. But when we bring high-quality awareness to different aspects of our experience and show up in our lives with awakened presence, we discover how these same hearts and minds can open the path to inner freedom – as well as help us to heal our relationships with ourselves, others, and the world around us.

Join us for the 4-week journey into the depths of the self led by Pascal Auclair. Pascal will guide us in exploring the origins and contents of the self; how to see ourselves more clearly; how to feel ourselves more fully; and how to learn to let it all go. This course is a big, rich, and potent study of human nature; its many traps; and possible paths to freedom.

We welcome everyone to this friendly gathering of meditators and explorers, regardless of your story, gender, or gender expression, the color of your skin, the story of your people, your mother tongue, age, size, sexual orientation, or abilities of your body these days. Whether you’re new to this or have been practicing for a while – everyone is welcome!

Module 1: Pleasure and displeasure

We will explore together during the first week of the course how pleasure and displeasure experienced at the sense doors can lead to misery or vibrancy.

We will be invited to become aware of pleasure when it shows up at one of the sense doors; when we hear or see something we like, when we feel pleasure in the body as we taste or smell something. And we will also look at what is our relationship to displeasure; how we relate to unpleasant ideas or emotions, uncomfortable sensations or situations.

Through meditation practice, reflection and inquiry, we will consider how we cling to (or reject) pleasure or displeasures of the past, present and future. You will be invited to journal about your history with pleasure (and its absence) and pain (and its different manifestations).

Module 2: Views and opinions

In the second week, we will look at how we can get caught in our views and opinions and how they can also create vision, calm, and clarity.

This is when we will dive into the very juicy subject of views and opinions. We will discover how they can lead to rigidity, affliction, confusion, or conflict; how they can also be uplifting and freeing; how they can be held with conviction and care; and how they can lead to freedom.

We will especially look at how clinging to wrong perceptions and false beliefs can lead to distress, hatred, or greed. Through sharing our experiences and discoveries with one another, we will look at how to observe our views and opinions – and learn how to let them go.

Module 3: Rites and rituals, norms, and conditionings

In our third week together, we will investigate the many ways that we have learned (or been conditioned) to relate to society, and – having investigated them deeply with curiosity, care and a developing sense of inner ethic – whether to honor or ditch them.

We will unpack how we cling to rites and rituals – whether cultural, social, or religious. We will explore how we have unconsciously bought into norms that deserve to be questioned. We will also look at how biases and conditionings that we unknowingly inherited from our family and culture are making us miserable or making our relationships dysfunctional.

By cultivating mindfulness and curiosity, we will see how we can wake up from these spells to make conscious ethical choices – and be guided by them with confidence and conviction. This will happen through listening to teachings and giving ourselves field work for the week.

Module 4: Identification with the self

Finally in our fourth week of practice and inquiry, we will question the reality and the limits of this “I” we keep referring to.

We will ask and explore: What are the traps of appropriation and identification with the self; what is the escape; and what joy can be accessed through letting it go without clinging to it? Liberation from the clinging mind cannot be completed without taking a good look at the tendency we have to conceive, perceive, and think of an “I” at the center of every experience.

Together we will practice different techniques to help us disentangle the tangle of identification with the self. We will learn the process of mental noting. We will bring in the four elements (air, fire, earth and water) to help deconstruct our sense of a solid, permanent body that seems to be “I”, “me”, or “mine”. And of course – as the Buddha did – we will use several different techniques to deconstruct the self through meditation.

Praise for Pascal's Teachings

“Pascal is an exceptional teacher. He is able to pierce us with his clarity and his passion. His humour and capacity to explain complex concepts transform us. I am leaving with more confidence and depth towards my practice, enthusiastic about integrating my new skills into my daily life. It’s colossal!”

“This course is transformative. The teacher is very skillful in guiding you along the journey and providing a kind, safe, and non-judgmental space for practice. It is clear the deep work he has done himself is the catalyst for the work he does for others.”

“Pascal helped me to deepen my practice, to re-commit to practicing daily. He helped me re-emerge back into the world in a safe and supportive way. Pascal held such a quiet, safe, funny, wise space.”

Live Online Course Details

Pre-Recorded Video Teachings

Each weekly module will include approx. 1 hour of hi-definition videos from Pascal including rich teachings, meditations, daily life practices, and journaling exercises. These videos will also be available as downloadable MP3s for you to listen to.

4 LIVE & Interactive Q&A Sessions

Each Sunday, we’ll meet live for 1-hour to practice together, discuss our course experiences as a collective, ask Pascal questions, and receive his direct, insightful feedback. Replays will be available within 24 hours of each live session & indefinitely..

Daily Practices and Journaling

Each week, Pascal will offer a recommended meditation, a daily life practice to bring awareness to the theme of the week, and a journaling exercise, all to be practiced daily (or as often as you can) during the month.

Course Buddies

(OPTIONAL) Students are encouraged to pair up for the duration of the 4 weeks to experience the journey together. Course buddies will be encouraged to share their joys, challenges, and insights with each other as they progress through the teachings, exercises, and journaling topics each week.

Schedule

Dates & Times

LIVE Orientation/Course Start:
Monday, May 15, 2023 @ 9am PT / 12pm ET / 5pm BST / 6pm CEST (60 mins)

LIVE Interactive 1:
Sunday, May 21, 2023 @ 9am PT / 12pm ET / 5pm BST / 6pm CEST (60 mins)

LIVE Interactive 2:
Sunday, May 28, 2023 @ 9am PT / 12pm ET / 5pm BST / 6pm CEST (60 mins)

LIVE Interactive 3:
Sunday, June 4, 2023 @ 9am PT / 12pm ET / 5pm BST / 6pm CEST (60 mins)

LIVE Interactive 4/Course End:
Sunday, June 11, 2023 @ 9am PT / 12pm ET / 5pm BST / 6pm CEST (60 mins)

Replays of all live sessions will be available within 24 hours & indefinitely, for those unable to attend.

About Pascal Auclair

Immersed in meditation practice and study since 1997 and trained by Joseph Goldstein and Jack Kornfield, Pascal Auclair is a teacher who brings a blend of playful humor and deep warmth to his teachings. Known for his creative expression and depth of insight, Pascal leads retreats internationally in French and English and is a core teacher at the Insight Meditation Society in the USA and Terre d’Éveil in France. He is also a co-founder of True North Insight in Canada and teaches at the Université du Québec in Montreal. Learn more at pascalauclair.org.

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