A Path to Presence

The Art of Living

So many of us tumble through our days, weeks, months, and year, endlessly skimming the surface of life. We lean ahead, swept into the momentum of doing, planning, rehashing, evaluating. We’re lost in a world that isn’t quite here.

A Path to Presence is an in-depth journey emphasizing eight foundations of mindfulness-based practice that we carefully develop from week to week. We establish a supportive (and fun!) container as we begin to turn towards ourselves in a new way.

It is an experiential course inviting you to radically reorient towards everyday life, reduce stress, and awaken to greater ease, joy, wisdom, and love. The teachings support you to return to yourself, within community, for eight weeks.

The structure of the course is based on the recognition that we shift gradually. Kind of like a slow cooker recipe. We might have no idea what’s happening at first and may even feel doubtful, but with time and consistent application, we eventually detect a wonderful aroma.  

The course requires a willingness to let go of our preconceived notions regarding meditation, such as what “progress” actually means. There is an invitation to surrender our conditioned views around “meditative states” and recognize that meditation has less to do with our experience while we meditate and everything to do with how practice trains us in what Thich Nhat Hanh called the art of living. 

Innate Presence

We’ve all had fleeting moments of connection, being, or what may feel like an unfiltered aliveness. We are momentarily free from our typical interpretations, preferences, defenses, and struggles. These moments are tastes of something precious and natural within us. There are many words that uniquely refer to this state of consciousness, like presence, being, awareness, love, and more.

We can deepen our relationship with innate presence and discover how it supports every aspect of life—self, relationships, work, and beyond. And while books or podcasts can be helpful, there is something especially powerful that happens when we learn and practice together.

The learning and benefits grow from a “gentle yet steady” commitment to daily practice, mindfulness, self-inquiry, and reflection. This course is open to beginners and dabblers in meditation and/or contemplative practices as well as to experienced practitioners seeking to deepen their practice. All are welcome.

Weekly Sessions

The Tuesday night sessions offer a chance to receive the benefit of guided practice, teachings, and community. Sessions include thirty minutes of guided meditation, small and large group discussion based on a weekly theme, and teachings.

Throughout the course, you'll share what you're learning and experiencing and hear about other participants’ journeys. Part of what makes this course so powerful is the community that grows among everyone in it.

What to Expect

• Weekly live 75-minute sessions

• Half-day retreat

• Clear thematic content, short readings, practices, and instructions for daily use

• Optional private meetings

• High-quality recordings for daily use