Cultivating Joy and the Heart of Service  
7 Weeks Online Meditation Course

It’s fine to join this course even after it has started!

Sundays with Two Time Slots — Noon and 7pm EDT

May 3rd – June 21st 2020

Overview

This course is for anyone who is interested in beginning and sustaining a meditation practice, and using that as a basis to develop ethical behaviour and happiness in life, generally. You will learn to how to infuse into your life with both mindful awareness, and sincere concern for others. No prior meditation experience is required to participate in the class.

Learning objectives: We will cover cultivating 1) mindfulness and self-awareness, 2) ethics that support integrity, and trustworthiness, 3) sincere friendliness towards ourselves and others as a means to cultivate happiness and healing, 4) relaxation around uncertainty and risk and 5) how to develop a daily seated meditation practice as well as 6) an informal mindfulness practice for your daily walking around life.

There will be lots of space for discussion and questions about meditation practice and trouble-shooting the questions and problems that always come up around starting meditation practice. The daily practice recommendation will be 30 minutes of formal meditation practice five times a week.

About the teacher: My name is Cedric Reeves. I was an entrepreneur for 15 years. Then, about eight years ago I found that I was getting more and more overworked, depressed, anxious, and generally dissatisfied with life. Something had to change. I had been meditating, but just off and on for years. I knew it was powerful if only applied more consistently. So, reduced my business responsibilities drastically, and rededicated myself to meditation: doing meditation retreats, consistent meditation at home, and studying Buddhism and related material. As a result things markedly improved; the depression and anxiety went away.

I have practiced Zen, Vipassana, and Advaita Vedanta, and done over 300 days on meditation retreat. Moreover, I am certified Unified Mindfulness coach. Now, my primary vocation is teaching meditation.

Cost: Free.

The class will be recorded and will be available after the course is done. We’ll meet using the online video-call software Zoom.

We’ll meet online once a week for the seven weeks, and each session will last for 90 mins.

Syllabus

Week 1: Introduction to the class & Loving Kindness and the benefits of establishing a regular practice (May 3rd 2020)
  • What is meditation?
  • How does meditation transform your life? It seems like a lot of work. Is it worth it?
  • Guidance on the seated posture of meditation & importance of meditating in “all four postures”
  • healthy relationships are the foundation for a happy life. Loving kindness (friendliness) is a skill that can be learned which will transform the quality of your relationships and life.
  • Develop a true heart of service
  • How true ethics comes from heartfelt friendliness
  • Practice Homework
    • 30 mins daily of loving kindness meditation plus daily life practice
  • Quick primer on how to practice meditation in daily life while walking, eating, talking, brushing your teeth etc
    • micro-hits
    • background practice
Week 2:  Instruction on basic mindfulness (May 10th)
  • What is mindfulness? What is the difference between meditation and mindfulness?
  • Mindfulness instruction suitable for beginners: the See Hear Feel Technique
  • Mentalizing: an important support for mental health, understanding yourself, and effective cooperation with others and how mindfulness helps with developing mentalization skills
  • Ethics as a foundation for basic mental health, integrity, trustworthiness, and authentic confidence
  • Learn to be present in your daily life
  • Practice Homework
    • 30 minutes of daily meditation practice plus daily life (informal) practice
Week 3:  Cancelled
Week 4:  Sympathetic Joy instruction on how to cultivate joyous appreciation of the good qualities of others (May 24th)
  • Learn how to be a good friend, employee, partner, client, etc
  • By becoming the kind of person you want to be around you attract the kind of people you want to be around (obvious!).
  • By developing trustworthiness you cultivate ease in your interactions with others.
  • Traditional walking meditation using noting
  • Practice Homework
    • 30 mins daily of sympathetic joy meditation plus daily life practice
Week 5:  Instruction on compassion meditation (May 31st)
  • keep your wits about you when you are dealing with a difficult person or situation
  • how the heart practices cultivate epistemic trust
  • how compassion helps maintain epistemic trust when things fall apart
  • learn to metabolize your own difficulties and be there for others when they suffer
  • Practice Homework
    • 30 mins daily of compassion meditation plus daily life practice
Week 6: Essence Noting (June 7th)
  • How to find openness and ease with things as they are
    • 30 mins daily of essence noting meditation plus daily life practice (See Hear Feel, and/or loving kindness)
Week 7: Trigger Practice, and Daily Life Practice (June 14th)
  • Learn how mindfulness can de practices all the time not just in formal practice
  • The metric for success of meditation practice is positive transformation in daily life, not what it feels like when you meditate (meditation is often difficult and this doesn’t necessarily indicate a problem).
  • Trigger practice
    • Learn to apply mindfulness to the times when you are triggered and about to make a mistake and how to catch it before you regret it.
  • Practice Homework
    • 30 mins of daily practice of your choice
Week 8: How to deepen your practice going forward (June 21st)
  • Meditation retreats
  • the importance of having friends who cultivate themselves in the direction of positivity
  • listening to and reading to content about meditation and related contemplative subject matter
  • modeling mindfulness, friendliness, and ethics for those around you
  • modeling livelihood in line with your ethics and kind intentions
  • Practice Homework
    • 30 mins of daily practice of your choice

 

Two Time Slots Offered

The class will be taught twice to reach people in different time zones. The content is the same.

1) USA Sunday Morning & Europe Wednesday Evening Class:
  • In the US:
    • 12:00pm Eastern Time Zone
    • 11:00am Central
    • 10:00am Mountain
    • 9:00 am Pacific
  • In Europe:
    • 18:00 (Central European Time (CET) which is UTC/GMT+2)
    • 17:00 (Western European Time (WET) which is UTC/GMT+1)
2) USA Sunday Evening Class
  • 7:00pm Eastern
  • 6:00pm Central
  • 5:00pm Mountain
  • 4:00pm Pacific

To sign up:

Please fill out this google form with you email. I will email you the day before the class starts with the Zoom links for the two time slot options. You’ll be able to choose which ever one is most convenient.

Sign-up for Cultivating Joy and the Heart of Service

It’s recommended to come to all classes. But, it’s no big deal if you miss one and then pick up the next class.

Feel free to forward this to friends who might find this class beneficial.


Photo by Simon Matzinger

Hourly Schedule

Schedule Common to each 90 minute class:

5 mins of meditation
5 mins brief review of the prior class (first class will be introductions instead)
20 mins practice questions relating to last weeks material (first class would be lecture instead)
15 mins lecture of new practice
5 mins brief clarifications as to the technique
20 mins guided meditation for technique just discussed
20 mins follow up questions and homework assignment.


3 comments on “Cultivating Joy and the Heart of Service  
7 Weeks Online Meditation Course

  1. Hey Dr. Chakraborty,
    Two Time Slots Offered
    The class will be taught twice to reach people in different time zones. The content is the same.

    1) USA Sunday Morning & Europe Wednesday Evening Class:

    In the US:
    12:00pm Eastern Time Zone
    11:00am Central
    10:00am Mountain
    9:00 am Pacific

    In Europe:
    18:00 (Central European Time (CET) which is UTC/GMT+2)
    17:00 (Western European Time (WET) which is UTC/GMT+1)

    2) USA Sunday Evening Class

    7:00pm Eastern
    6:00pm Central
    5:00pm Mountain
    4:00pm Pacific

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