Day 1: Meditation for Attention

Balancing Focus and Relaxation

Buddha’s Brain: The Science of Attention and Mind Training

A Dialogue with Dr. Rick Hanson and Acharya Fleet Maull

• Understand the science of attention and how to train yourself through meditation practice
• Discover how intentional attention can make you more effective in your daily activities
• Learn how to integrate positive and negative states of mind to lead to a better sense of well-being

The Neuroscience of Attention

An Interview with Dr. Amishi Jha

• Explore the relationship between sustaining attention and “mind wandering”— and how they can interact through practice to create more stable attention
• Find out how some of our conceptions on rest might actually be making us more un-rested, and get tips on how to transform those into new modes of rest and relaxation
• Learn about resilience and how it can be achieved through attention training

The Mind Illuminated

A Talk and Guided Mediation with Culadasa

• Learn how sustaining attention generates awareness and why that may be the most important aspect of attention training
• Attitude is the key to creating an enjoyable and routine practice, find out how to establish a positive one
• Follow along in a guided meditation on attention and awareness

Making a Habit of Meditation

A talk by Susan Piver

• Prepare for the obstacles of meditation practice and get the tips you’ll need to overcome them
• Struggling to create a sustainable meditation practice? Start here!

Day 2: Meditation for Insight

Cultivating Self-Awareness and Embodiment

Mindsight: Finding Meaning in Our Internal World

A Dialogue with Dr. Dan Seigal and Acharya Fleet Maull

• Discover your ability to transform your thoughts, feelings, and emotions to lead to a more balanced and fulfilling internal world
• Learn how neuroplasticity may be the answer to rewiring your brain for a happier, healthier life
• Understand the nature of “self” and how to develop mindsight – the ability to perceive the mind

The Waking World: 4E Cognition and the Enacted Self

A Dialogue with Dr. Evan Thompson and Aaron Snyder

• Discover how the merging of western philosophy and science with Asian contemplative traditions have shaped a new way of understanding the reality we live in
• Contemplate some of the flaws in the promotion and presentation of the mindfulness movement in pop culture, learn how to avoid being just a “watcher” or “mindful subject”
• Open to a fuller understanding of the practice and study of meditation

Insight and Identity

A Dialogue with Rev. angel Kyodo williams and Acharya Daniel Hessey

• Discover deeper meanings about the idea of impermanence in meditation practice
• Understand how meditation can transform your relationship with yourself and turn into a fuller sense of embodiment
• Explore how cultivating insight in your personal practice can bridge the gap towards societal transformation

Empowering the Subject: A Buddhist Critique of the Science of Consciousness

A Dialogue with Dr. B. Alan Wallace

and Acharya Daniel Hessey

• Understand that the power to create lasting, unconditional well-being already resides in you and learn how to tap into it
• Learn about radical empirical science, and how to stabilize the mind to turn into an instrument for investigating reality
• Discover how mind and consciousness are more than just byproducts of the brain

Realizing You Are Already Awake in the World

A Talk by Acharya Dan Hessey

• We are quite sure we are a individual self, isolated from our environment. Tune in for a mind twisting introduction to the teachings of “no-self”.

Day 3: Meditation for Resilience

Working with Emotions and Stress

The Science of Stress, Resilience and Happiness

A Dialogue with Dr. Emma Seppälä and Acharya Fleet Maull

• Learn what is driving the culture of stress in our modern age, and how to equip yourself against its negative capacity
• Discover the mind-body connection, and how to relate and listen to your body to build up resistance to stress
• Understand how compassion may be the answer to a fuller emotional life

Embodied Emotions

An Interview with Dr. Erika Rosenberg

• Hear about emotions from a renowned expert. What are they? How do we work with them? How do they become such powerful forces in our lives?
• Learn how to notice emotional triggers before they become all-consuming experiences
• Understand how to train in relating to emotions on the cushion and how to bring that training into your daily life

The Push and Pull of Emotional Life

An Interview with Ven. Thubten Chodron

• Understand your emotions and how they manifest in your body and mind
• Hear what Venerable Chodron thinks is causing stress and the best way to handle it
• Connect Western psychology perspectives and Buddhism to understand the origin of afflictive emotions and how to manage them

Putting Emotions in the Cradle of Loving Kindness

A talk with Acharya Melissa Moore

• Learn how to relate to emotions as energy that can be related to in a number of different ways
• Discover the importance of meditation practice for creating the foundation for working with emotions and breaking the well-worn habits of our emotional patterning

Day 4: Meditation for Self-Compassion

Making Friends with Yourself

Self-Compassion: A Better Way of Relating to Ourselves

A Dialogue with Dr. Kristin Neff and Acharya Fleet Maull

• Discover the antidote to self-criticism and how to carry a more positive disposition with you every day
• Find out what is on the cutting edge of research for self compassion, and how it can impact your life
• Connect the link between self-compassion and compassion and discover how to better relate to yourself and everyone around you

Awakening Through Love

An Interview with Dr. John Makransky

• Discover your innate capacity for love and compassion, and how to hone in your fundamental nature to give and receive love
• Learn what is stopping you from realizing the true nature of self, and how to overcome it
• Relax into a guided meditation on receiving and expanding love beyond our accustomed boundaries

Mindful Compassion

An Interview with Dr. Paul Gilbert 

• Hear how our “old” brain and “new” brain can create negative feedback loops and how mindfulness and self-compassion can help
• Find out how a brain motivated by competitiveness differs from one motivated by compassion
• Learn Dr. Paul Gilbert’s three tips for beginning to cultivate self-compassion

Making Friends with Ourselves

A Talk by Acharya Judith Simmer-Brown

• Learn why its so important to first establish a basis for meditation in kindness to ourselves
• Hear how Dr. Simmer-Brown introduces her students to the practice of self-compassion

Day 5: Meditation for Compassion and Altruism

Opening to Interconnection and Creating Change

Meditation and Enlightened Society

A Culminating Talk by Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche

• Hear why its critical to base one’s practice on the principle of basic goodness
• Learn how meditation is not only a personal path of transformation but a legitimate means for societal transformation

The Science and Practice of Compassion

A Dialogue with Dr. Kelly McGonigal and Acharya Fleet Maull

• Discover how compassion is a trainable skill, and learn how to grow in compassion in a genuine way
• Know the science of compassion in the brain and body, and be able to differentiate the true nature of compassion from how it is sometimes idealized
• Hear how integrating compassion practice has shaped Kelly and her life’s work, and consider how practice can change your life

Altruism and Societal Transformation

A Dialogue with Dr. Matthieu Ricard and Acharya Fleet Maull

• Learn how human evolution may be evidence of a human nature that is built for cooperation and socialization, rather than inherent selfishness
• Explore how altruism can be more than a temporary state – it can be a way of being
• Discover how cultivating altruism can help us face mounting global issues

Cultivating the Seeds of Compassion

A Talk by Acharya Gaylon Ferguson

• Discover the compassion that is already in side of you
• Learn what gets in the way and inhibits us from engaging in a compassionate way