European Radiant Mind Course

This course is taught in English

Dates

Workshop 1: July 8 - 11, 2010
Workshop 2: November 25 - 28, 2010
Workshop 3: March 6 - 9, 2011

Click Here to Apply for the Course on the ZIST Website

Structure of the 9 Month Course:

This course is designed to maximize the benefits of your time and energy. It is based on a very comprehensive set of transformational tools. They are carefully design to work synergistically and accommodate the preferred learning style of all participants.

• Opening workshop
• Mid-course workshop
• Completing workshop
• Working with the Sounds True Radiant Mind course material (book and set of 7 CDs)
• 50 specially designed experiential explorations
• Designing (or enhancing) a contemplative practice
• Koan practice
• Guided contemplations
• Twelve (30 minute) individual coaching sessions with a mentor
• A teleconference call every two or three weeks in groups of 10 - 12 other course participants, facilitated by Peter Fenner or a Radiant Mind coach.

Workshops

In the opening workshop you will:

• Create a sense of community with other participants and develop a common focus.
• Be introduced to the structure of the course and the work you’ll do over the next 9 months.
• Be introduced to the experience of unconditioned awareness.
• Gain a direct experience of the flavor of this work.

In the mid-course and completing workshops you will…

• Deepen your understanding of nondual presence.
• Continue to gain skills in resting in unconditioned awareness and sharing this with others.
• Learn how to dissolve subtle intellectual constructions about the nondual state.
• Learn how to create an accepting, non-judgmental space around strong emotions.

In the completing workshop you will…

• Refine your skills in using speech and silence to bring this experience to others.
• Be given opportunities to facilitate this work.
• Fully enjoy the paradoxical dimensions of Radiant Mind.

Readings and audio resources

You will be working with the Sounds True Radiant Mind course material. These consist of a book and set of 7 CDs. This material will be complemented with some additional practices. You will work with a particular theme each two to three weeks. The study materials are transformational in their own right. They directly open up new possibilities for living fully in the moment and give you new ways for accessing unconditioned awareness. They also give you a set of reference materials through which you can refresh your experience of unconditioned awareness.

Guided meditations

The audio CDs also include 6 guided meditations. These meditations let you sit back and be transported into profound states of nondual awareness.

Explorations

Every two or three weeks you will also receive a set of experiential contemplations and inquiries. Altogether there are 50 explorations. The exercises are varied. Some are designed to deepen your understanding of your conditioning; your desires, needs, preferences, and so on. Other exercises recondition you conditioned mind, in order to make it more pliable and less fixated. Another set directly lead you into the unconditioned mind by dissolving your fixations. Some exercises are completed by yourself, and others with course participants, partners, colleagues and friends.

Contemplative practice

This course attracts people with varying degrees of experience in meditation or contemplation, from beginners through to teachers of meditation. If you are new to contemplation, this dimension of the course will we help you design a contemplative practice—one that suits your lifestyle and commitments. If you’re an experienced meditator we will help you to refine, enhance or reinvigorate your practice, so that it leads more directly to the experience of the unconditioned mind. If you wish we can also support you in exploring how you can share your meditative experience with others. The practice we introduce is very simple and doesn’t conflict with other practices.

In this practice you also explore the experience of «shared meditation» with a partner on the phone. This can be a very powerful experience. We also introduce some adaptations to the basic practice that help you to deconstruct each other’s identification with the thinking process. The practice of contemplation continues throughout the course.

Nondual inquiry

A major focus in the course will be the use of nondual inquiry and deconstructive dialogue. These are forms of inquiry that lead us from structured to an unstructured state of consciousness. We can ask questions like “What is this?”, “Where am I?”, “Am I moving forwards or backwards?”, “Am I moving at all?”, “Is there something special I should be doing?”, “Who am I?” These questions are like koans. You will gain skills in using these and many other keys that unlock the conceptual mind, and take you into unconditioned awareness.

Individual sessions

Every two or three weeks you will have a private 30 minute session with your Radiant Mind mentor. In these sessions you receive personal coaching in the life issues you are dealing with, and in the practices of the course. The individual sessions give you opportunities to work with concerns of a more personal nature. In some of these calls we also do some role playing in order for you to gain skills in sharing or facilitating this work with others.

Conference calls

Every two or three weeks you will also participate in a conference call with other members of your learning group. The instructor will also participate in these calls. The conference calls are made through a toll-free hub using the highest quality telephony available. In these calls you:

• Continue the work we opened up in the workshops.
• Clarify questions and queries that arise in the experiential exercises.
• Create a shared and nourishing contemplative environment.
• Experience the unconditioned mind in a globally dispersed setting.
• Give you opportunities to explore nondual deconstruction.

Small group meetings

In some courses, participants come together in person or by phone (or Skype) every three weeks or so. These meetings are very fruitful and are up to the initiative of the people involved. In these meetings people share their experiences and work together in creating the nondual field of awareness. We can provide guideline for how to conduct these meetings.

The power of engagement

All of these opportunities and resources are offered to each participant. It is up to each person to discover what supports and inspires them, and how they can engage wholeheartedly in a practice that works for them. Participants who find ways to really engage with each other and with the material in the course receive benefits which keep deepening and expanding throughout the 9 months. The themes explored in the course include:

• The nature of unconditioned awareness—and how to recognize the purity, depth and duration of this state.
• How the development of radiant mind is integrated with the commitments in our daily life.
• Recognizing and dissolving the obstacles to experiencing radiant presence.
• Identifying and transcending our conscious and unconscious sources of suffering.
• The practices of noninterference and natural release-doorways to the state of effortless contemplation.
• Achieving deep relaxation and serenity by learning how to reduce the quantity of our thoughts.
• Learning how to be complete with the past and maintain a state of completion, no matter what we are doing.
• Discovering desirelessness as an effortless state and guide for living in the world.
• Seeing how unconditioned awareness lets us engage the world fearlessly, beyond defensiveness or aggression.
• Nondual communication as a path to openness - discovering pure listening and pure speaking.
• Working with a range of methods for deconstructing fixations.
• Broadening the river of life: learning how to work with very intense emotions.
• Guided meditations for integrating the transcendent state into every aspect of our life.
• Discovering the healing power of unconditional bliss.
• Achieving competence in deconstructive dialogue— the conversations which see through the reality of our beliefs and interpretation into the pristine state of awareness itself.
• Using “checking questions” to purify the final conceptual residues that can block complete access to unconditioned awareness.
• Learning how to dance and enjoy the paradoxes of the nondual state.

Application

To apply, please visit the course listing on the ZIST website.  If we have any questions about your application, we will arrange a telephone interview. You are also welcome to contact us to answer any questions and give you more precise details.

Fees

1795 EUR (plus room & board at ZIST Penzberg)

Can be paid in installments of 895, 450 and 450 euro.

Location

ZIST Penzberg is located near Munich, Germany.  Here is the link to the Google Map. Please do not contact ZIST directly for course information.

Contact Us

For more information please email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) with a phone number and a good time to call you.