Video Courses
The Rinzai Zen Way
A complete course laying out the foundations of Rinzai Zen practice. In this course, Meido Roshi provides a comprehensive and practice-intensive three-part teaching that includes Zazen (formal seated meditation practice), Internal Energetic Cultivation practices, and Mantric Sounds practices.
Embodied Zen
Zen is an embodied path, using practices that cultivate the body, breath, subtle energetic system, and mind. Meido Roshi here introduces these methods, including a more detailed instruction of the crucial foundational practice of Tanden Soku, cultivation of the navel energy center, and the Naikan practice of the great Rinzai Zen master Hakuin.
Direct Pointing & Sudden Awakening
The central point of Zen is “Direct pointing at the mind”: the methods that create conditions for sudden awakening. Meido Roshi here presents many such practices that you can use on your own to experience basic clarity, enter meditative absorption (samadhi), and arrive at awakening itself.
Jukai: Taking Refuge and Entering the Zen Path
In this course, Meido Roshi discusses various aspects of lay initiation, also known as jukai (“receiving precepts”). After introducing the Three Refuges, Five Lay Precepts, and Four Vows, he then actually conducts the jukai ritual for the viewers. By participating in the course, you therefore have the opportunity to formally enter the Buddhist path.
What is Awakening? Part I
In this course, Tina provides an overview of awakening across a variety of wisdom traditions including Theravada Buddhism, Zen, Tibetan Buddhism, Hinduist Traditions, and non-dual teachings. She provides instructions for 2 categories of meditation: Heart-based and Focused Attention.
What is Awakening? Part II
In this course, Tina gives an overview of awakening in modern non-dual teachings and provides an in-depth overview of dimensions of non-duality that practitioners might go through at an experiential level. She offers in-depth instructions for the remaining two categories of meditation practice rooted in tradition and confirmed by neuroscience: Open Monitoring and Self Transcending meditations.
Heart Practices: Brahmaviharas and Bodhicitta
In this course, Tina Rasmussen provides in-depth material on the “Heart Practices” category of meditation, which includes the Brahmaviharas and Bodhicitta, and teaches meditation practices to cultivate them. The Brahmaviharas are the “divine abodes of the heart” or skillful virtues, found in both Theravada and Tibetan Buddhism, known as Four Immeasurables in the latter. Bodhicitta is the Tibetan Buddhist practice of feeling our heart’s aspiration for awakening for our own benefit and for the benefit of all beings.
Focused Attention Meditation: Samatha
In this course, Tina Rasmussen provides in-depth material on the “Focused Attention” category of meditation, which includes Samatha, and teaches a variety of Samatha meditation techniques as taught in the Pa-Auk Sayadaw lineage. Focused Attention meditation is the foundational practice category in many traditions, and it is necessary for a deeper investigation of the nature of consciousness and the purification of the mind.
Open Monitoring Meditation: Vipassana
In this course, Tina gives an overview of the “Open Monitoring” category of meditation, in particular, the Vipassana practice as it is taught in Theravada and Tibetan Buddhism. Vipassana is also known as Insight Meditation and utilizes our capacity to investigate, to more deeply understand phenomena so that we can develop equanimity in being with things as they are. Investigating our experience can also potentially lead to perceiving phenomena at their ultimate level.
Self-Transcending Practices: Dzogchen
In this course, Tina gives an overview of the “Self-transcending” category of meditation, in particular the Dzogchen practice as it is taught in Tibetan Buddhism. The Self-Transcending practice of Dzogchen uses the other three categories of practice as building blocks, culminating in the possibility of transcending the sense of the ego-self through the Rigpa practice of Dzogchen. The Dzogchen teachings are rarely given, and are extremely hard to find other than in book format, so access to these teachings is a rare opportunity.
Foundational Pillars
In this course, Shaykh Burhanuddin introduces main practices and provides foundational steps into the world of the dervish and Sufi tradition. He gives an in-depth overview of the foundational principles within the Sufi tradition and presents practices to integrate those principles into daily life.
The Idealized Image
In this course, Shaykh Burhanuddin offers insights into the foundations of the Ego, introduces the traditional Sufi hierarchy of self-realization – Nafs (Lower Self/Ego), and provides practices we can leverage to progress along the Nafs. The course aims to help us stabilize different areas of our lives, improve our conscious awareness, and build an understanding of how the Lower Self/Ego functions, getting us to a point where we are finally ready to go beyond personality toward awakening.
Dhikr: Sufi Mantras and Sounds
In this course, Shaykh Burhanuddin covers the practice of Dhikr (Sufi mantras) and how they can be integrated into daily life to unify your heart and mind and act more skillfully in relation to others. In addition, he teaches singing meditation from the Dhrupad singing tradition, among other Sufi practices related to sound.
