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with Brent Morton

8 Limbs Livestream

Mindfulness is the art of paying attention strategically. What we pay attention to and how we pay attention very well could be the most important thing we have control over in our lives. Where we place our attention has a powerful effect on our nervous system, affects how much we suffer from psychological issues, and it could very well determine how long we live and the quality of that life.

Mindfulness is a vivid awareness of whatever appears in one’s mind or body—thoughts, sensations, moods—without grasping at the pleasant or recoiling from the unpleasant. Though simple in its description, in practice, it is as complicated as being human.

Training in mindfulness meditation is training in reclaiming our agency around the most essential aspect of our being human: our consciousness. Homo sapiens means that we know that we know. Without training, we may be destined to have our awareness hijacked instead of realizing and moving towards what is most vital for our attention to experience.

8 Limbs now offers two individual Mindfulness Courses to explore the art and science of mindfulness thoughtfully and systematically: Mindfulness Foundations & Intermediate Mindfulness. These classes are offered online via Zoom and additional content and recordings are hosted on Teachable.

Each course includes:

  • Six weekly live (online) class meetings or eight (Parts 2 and 3)
  • Full-day retreat
  • Recordings of classes for duration of course
  • In-depth workbook with daily reflections and teachings
  • Supplemental video recordings of teachings, and guided audio meditations

 

Part 1: Mindfulness Foundations (Livestream)

Saturday 10am-12pm, January 22-February 26 and day-long retreat March 5, 10am-4pm

This course is designed for folks new to mindfulness or meditation in general and will address:

  • The Buddha’s four foundations of mindfulness, or the four main things to place your awareness on for the purposes of truth, freedom, and happiness.
  • The exploration of body sensations, emotions, cognitions, and phenomena with the tool of mindfulness.
  • Negativity bias: How negatively charged aspects of our awareness tend to grab our attention, and how to break the habit of letting our attention “vortex” in these negative experiences.
  • How what we pay attention to affects our “state.” Learn how to “shift” your state by controlling your attention and stabilize a positive state while avoiding negative states. Learn the difference between this technique and the psychological pathos of “repression.”
  • How cultivating resilience is really a training in mindfulness and strategic use of awareness.
  • Relevant teachings from Western psychology and neuroscience, including the Flow-State science and a basic understanding of Operant Conditioning.

Part 2: Intermediate Mindfulness (Livestream) plus day-long session March 12, 10am-4pm

Mondays, 6:30-8:30pm,  January  24- February 28, 2022

This course is for practitioners with experience in meditation and/or Mindfulness and will address:

  • Commonalities between modern research in neuroscience, evolution, and psychology and the 2500-year-old wisdom tradition of Mindfulness.
  • How the autonomic nervous system and stress response (fight, flight, freeze, social engagement) maps in alignment with the Buddhist teachings on the three root causes of stress (desire, aversion, confusion).
  • Polyvagal Theory, the study of the stress response (fight, flight, freeze, and social engagement).
  • Ancient as well as modern techniques to shift the physiological state from stress to ease and engagement, using the tool of Metta meditation (the cultivation of states of kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity)
  • Exploration of various intermediate level Buddhist maps, including the law of impermanence, the seven factors of awakening, and the four noble truths

For those with experience in Mindfulness and meditation, these two courses may be taken in any order and/or at the same time.

 

Part 3: Mindfulness Teaching Methodology (Livestream)

Saturdays, March 26-April 30, 2022, plus day-long session May 7, 10am-4pm

  • How to design a four-week intro to meditation class to teach locally or online
  • How to teach from the depth of your own practice
  • Story-telling as a means to evoke states
  • Developmental arch of students of mindfulness
  • Regulating your own system while teaching
  • Learning to track the mind-states of the group at large as well as individuals
  • The art of conversation and free association
  • Asking for help (consultation)
  • How to work with your own inner critic when teaching (a mini-exploration of internal family systems)
  • Book Recommendations
  • Two hour-long teaching consultation with Brent, one at the beginning of the course and one at the end

 

Cost per course:

These courses are offered at three rate options to support meaningful access at different economic levels.

$375 – Sustaining is the market value rate that includes consideration for the instructor’s compensation and hosting expenses.

$425 – Supporting – If you are able to support our efforts to make this series and other events more accessible.

$325 – Supported  –If you need financial support to access this offering.

Once they have completed a full course, participants may repeat courses at 20% discount off the Sustaining rate. Please email info@8limbsyoga.com. If these three tiers still make this course out of reach, please contact us at access8@8limbsyoga.com with “Mindfulness” in the subject line. 

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Brent Morton has been meditating in the mindfulness tradition starting in 2007. He has trained extensively in the Theravada Buddhist (mindfulness) tradition, spending over a year in silent retreat and practicing in Burma, Thailand, and India. He completed a four-year mindfulness teacher training with Jack Kornfield through Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Marin, California, in 2016. He has taught meditation trainings, retreats, and teacher training since 2014. Brent moved to Kauai last year after living and teaching in the Seattle area for most of his life.

Teacher Training

These courses can be taken as part of a four-part Mindfulness Teacher Training. This training has two additional modules for trainees only. Learn more here.


Note: Our series require a minimum of five registered participants, by five days before the start date; if you are considering joining please register early.

Cancellation Policy: Refunds of 90% up to five days prior to start of series. No refunds allowable after that time.Want to learn how and why to be kinder to yourself?

Missed the first class? These series can be joined late, with approval, at full cost. Email workshops@8limbsyoga.com to request late registration & access to class recordings.

 

 

About the instructor: Brent Morton

Brent Morton

Brent Morton has been meditating in the mindfulness tradition starting in 2007. He has trained extensively in the Theravada Buddhist (mindfulness) tradition, spending over a year in silent retreat and practicing in Burma, Thailand, and India. He completed a four-year mindfulness teacher training with Jack Kornfield through Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Marin, California, in 2016. He has taught meditation trainings, retreats, and teacher training since 2014. Brent moved to Kauai last year after living and teaching in the Seattle area for most of his life.

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