CLASSES

Happiness: The Yoga of Positive Psychology
An 8 Week Course on ways to achieve greater happiness in your life.
Starts Saturday, October 3rd, 2:00-3:45pm.
Please register for this course through Wild Lotus Yoga.

Would you like to enjoy greater happiness in your life? In the last decade growing numbers of positive psychology researchers at universities around the world have been exploring human wellness in a new way -- by researching human flourishing. Collectively, they have identified a variety of practices which can be personalized and combined into a kind of happiness yoga or life practice. This is good news, as research shows that up to 40% of our happiness potential goes untapped but can be realized with informed practice and play! Not only are such practices good for one's subjective sense of well being, but greater happiness appears to lead to better health, better relationships, higher income, greater creativity, and greater longevity. 

In this course we will explore a variety of practices which can enable us to enjoy greater happiness in our lives - including consciously shifting activity patterns in new directions; cognitive reframing strategies; shifting focus; reflection; meditation; discovering flow; working with strengths; and more. Some of the practices we will explore will be innovative while others will stem from ancient wisdom traditions. Throughout the course, participants will be invited to participate in discussions, reflections, readings, journaling, and practices -- and to use a buddy system in order to help keep your happiness yoga life practice on track. Please join us - we'd be delighted to see you there!

Note: Positive psychology is a branch of psychology dedicated to making normal life more fulfilling by studying strengths, perspectives, and practices which contribute to human flourishing and happiness. While this course should not be taken as a substitute for mental health care, it may be a helpful complement to it.

Cost: $150 -- or Early Bird Special $135 if pre-paid by September 29th. Please register for this course through Wild Lotus Yoga.

Circle of Light
Spiritually Centered Living & Leaving a Legacy of Light
Currently meeting on Sundays, 1:00~3:15pm. Advanced confirmation requested.
Please email if interested.

Meetings

This circle is open (via weekly reservation) to meditation students and friends interested in spiritually centered living and leaving a legacy of light (discussed below). These sessions combine theory and practice and aim to help participants bring greater awareness, compassion, and skillfulness into daily life, explicitly working for the benefit of all. We are currently using Lama Surya Das's book Buddha Is As Buddha Does as a springboard for our inquiry and practice. Format varies.

SPIRITUALLY CENTERED LIVING

Spiritually Centered Living means bringing more awareness, wisdom, and compassion to shine through, illuminate, and enrich your daily life. All too often, we can fall prey to the habit of centering our lives in egoic grasping and using spirituality as a peripheral tool of the ego or as a band-aid to soothe us when our ego projects don't work out. This is not an optimal application of wisdom! We can improve our lives by shifting our identification from egoic grasping to mindful beneficence right in the midst of our daily lives.

LEAVING A LEGACY OF LIGHT

"Prayer and meditation are not enough. 
It takes action to make the world a better place."
- Tenzin Gyatso (Dalai Lama)

Leaving a Legacy of Light means making the world a better place for the benefit of all. We are often initially attracted to meditation/spirituality because it reduces our own stress. Over time, we may find ourselves increasingly attracted to practicing for the benefit of others. We may leave legacies that participate in a spectrum of possibilities which range from (for example)

* the short term glow inspired by a kind word to
* the enduring illumination of a liberating teaching to
* the epic radiance of a beneficent institution.

Not only are such practices a great gift to others, but a profound source of meaning and joy for those practicing! Circle of Light members have participated in a number of opportunities for compassion in action, including offering aid (material goods, volunteer hours, and/or monetary donations) to organizations such as:

Habitat for Humanity
Animal Rescue New Orleans
Unity of Greater New Orleans
Louisiana Himalaya Association
New Orleans Food & Farm Network

This group is dedicated to exploring and implementing spiritually centered living and leaving a legacy of light, and we are currently exploring the Buddhist paramitas (transformational practices of the Bodhisattva) as a profound path of spiritual growth and integration.

Meditation Sessions
Some Sundays 1-3pm. Advanced confirmation requested.
Please email if interested.

Meetings

This circle is open (via weekly reservation) to meditation students and friends with experience in tranquility, insight, and non-dual meditations. Newcomers to these forms of meditation should check in with me for orientation prior to coming. The meeting format usually includes:

1) Introductions
2) A talk or discussion on meditative practices and/or wisdom
3) A brief, guided, pre-meditation stretch
4) Guided sitting meditation (circa 30-45 minutes)
5) A brief, guided, post-meditation stretch
6) Community sharing; Q&A

Sessions are held at my home in an intimate meditation room. It is not necessary to bring cushions with you. I have 8 kapok zabuton / zafu / support-cushion sets that are available for participant use. I also have two Gomdens and four padded folding chairs. However, if you have a sitting support that you prefer (such as a meditation bench, a Gomden, a buckwheat hull zafu, etc.), please feel free to bring it along.

Purpose

The purpose of this community is to support individuals who are interested in reducing stress, increasing happiness, and engendering meaningful personal growth, including:

* intrapersonal growth (via practices such as yoga and meditation) and/or
* interpersonal growth (via practices such as compassionate communication) and/or
* transpersonal growth (via practices such as recognition of nondual awareness).

Our Mahasati Sangha (Mindfulness Community) aims at providing a peaceful and friendly environment for teaching, learning, practice, and community. We hope to be instrumental in engendering increasingly healthy patterns of consciousness and action that lead to greater clarity, insight, good will, compassionate action, outer effectiveness and inner well being. "Mahasati" is an ancient Pali word that means "Great Mindfulness" and is comprised of the roots "maha" (meaning "great") and "sati" (meaning "mindfulness"). Mahasati is a word that refers to (a) the kind of liberated consciousness experienced by "enlightened" persons in many meditative wisdom traditions, and (b) the pure awareness we all already have which, when recognized, is the key to enlightenment in many traditions. This awareness is effortlessly self-transparent, spacious, equanimous, free of resistance or fixation, and luminously beneficent. It sees reality clearly and is characterized by spontaneously arising responses of loving kindness for all, compassion for the suffering, sympathetic joy for the happy, and equanimity in all situations.

The Art and Practice of Meditation
Stress Reduction, Personal Growth, and Life Enhancement
An Intensive Course with Hans Gruenig
Email to inquire about future workshops / practice sessions / individual coaching.

In this popular course, Hans will introduce participants to an integrated array of life enhancing meditation techniques that can be used for increasing one's abilities to...

******* reduce stress and transform difficult emotions;
******* appreciate life's pleasures more fully;
******* focus, relax, and perform under pressure;
******* find inner peace even when things are not going as desired;
******* improve your immune system and overall health;
******* enjoy the benefits of greater self-knowledge and personal growth.

The practices that we will explore in this course are grounded in personal and collective experience, ancient wisdom traditions, and the exciting ongoing dialogue between the communities of Buddhism, yoga, modern psychology, and medical science. Approaches will include:

The teachings will be progressive, with each class providing building blocks for what follows. Each class will include a flow of illuminating discourse, gentle stretching, guided practice, and deep relaxation. In order to get the best results, participants will be encouraged to practice wholeheartedly during the time between weekly meetings, including:

******* meditating daily with (or without) a provided guided meditation CD;
******* reading related materials for inspiration and instruction;
******* online discussion and support;
******* engaging in discovery exercises;
******* supporting one another creatively.

Tuition for this course is roughly $10 per hour of instruction and covers instruction, Hans's guided meditation CD, online discourse notes, and email support throughout.

Communicating with Compassion
for Deeper Understanding, Friendship & Love
Email to inquire about future workshops / practice sessions / individual coaching.

Are there times when you wish you were better able discuss and resolve difficulties with your partner, friends, roommates, parents, children, or co-workers? Would you like to inspire more compassion in others or yourself? Would you like to be able to get what you need from others in a way that you won't later regret? If so, you may wish to attend this workshop.

In this workshop Hans will be introducing Marshall Rosenberg's model for compassionate communication known as Nonviolent Communication (NVC). Hans has found this model to have great integrity and effectiveness in navigating challenging communication situations. NVC skills can assist you in:

* creating and maintaining greater connection with others;
* dealing with major blocks to communication such as demands, diagnoses and blaming;
* expressing your feelings without attacking;
* minimizing the likelihood of eliciting defensive reactions from others;
* making clear requests;
* receiving critical and hostile messages without taking them personally;
* getting you what you need in ways that you won't later regret.

NVC is a clear and effective model for communicating in a way that is cooperative, conscious, and compassionate. NVC skills may prove useful with your family, friends, students, subordinates, supervisors, co-workers, clients, and your own internal dialogues.

Photo from a meditation workshop led by Hans Gruenig and Sean Johnson (2001).