Vast Sky Mind, Level 1 – Starting in October — SOLD OUT
Reversing the Stack – Latest cohort starts in Sept ’22. — SOLD OUT
Vast Sky Mind, Level 2 – Starting in March ’23 —SOLD OUT
Courses offered by Michael Taft
The current sequence of courses is:
- Vast Sky Mind, Level 1
- Vast Sky Mind, Level 2
- Reversing the Stack
See the descriptions below.
Additionally, Michael is planning to introduce several new courses this year!
Vast Sky Mind, Level 1
Nondual meditation is the ageless path of realizing the awakened mind already inside you. While generally following Buddhist understandings, this course takes a non-denominational approach that is informed by modern neuroscience and scholarship.
Whether you are new to meditation, or if you are a mindfulness meditator whose practice seems stalled, or if you have been following Michael’s guided meditation series on Youtube, if you are wanting something more—a practice that both engages with life and that can actually lead to awakening—then this course is for you.
In Vast Sky Mind, you will learn:
– What the term “nondual” actually means
– How to meditate on emptiness (and what “emptiness” even means)
– The techniques of “effortless” meditation
– How to overcome the obstacles that are blocking your realization
– The history of nondual meditation worldwide
– How nondual meditation is understood in Buddhist traditions such as Vajrayana and Dzogchen
– Serious practice without a guru
– A system of meditation that you can stick with
– Much more
This is a live-only, online course that takes place on Zoom. Class will meet once a week for 90 minutes. During each class, Michael teaches on that week’s topic, takes live questions from the group, and leads a guided meditation. In addition, students are encouraged to join a “practice pod”—a group of others students from the course—to study, share, bring up questions, and support each other’s practice throughout the class and moving forward. There are also optional Q & A sessions, supplemental readings, and a Discord server to help deepen your practice and understanding.
Requirements:
– Commitment to meditate for 30 minutes daily
– Complete all assigned course materials
– Attend each class (classes are not recorded! You must attend live.)
– Strong desire to learn, understand, and practice nondual meditation
– While it’s not a requirement, this class is much easier if you already have a strong meditation background
Vast Sky Mind, Level 2
Nondual awareness is our shared human heritage, not the property of any one religion or tradition. It has been talked about, practiced, and experienced all around the globe. Different traditions have explored different understandings, different avenues, and different expressions of this fundamentally liberating aspect of our humanity for millennia. And now with Vast Sky Mind, Level 2, you can get a genuine taste of these explorations.
In VSM1, we learned a system of nondual meditation that—when practiced diligently—can bring you to an experience of awakening. In Level 2 of the course, you will continue to deepen your practice of this system, while simultaneously broadening your understanding of the fundamentals of nonduality.
Together with other VSM1 alumni, you will learn the history and background of the various nondual meditation traditions; how they are similar, how they are different, where they came from, and why they matter to our practice—and our lives—today. You will also learn a wide range of powerful, classic techniques from each of these traditions. And crucially, you will learn to integrate these traditional meditations into the practice structure we’ve already developed.
In Vast Sky Mind, Level 2, you will learn:
- The history and background of nondual meditation worldwide
- How to understand the differences (and surprising similarities) between schools of nonduality
- Why nonduality is a “human thing” and doesn’t belong to any particular religion
- How to overcome the obstacles that are blocking your realization
- Serious practice without a guru or initiations
- A system of meditation that you can stick with
- Much more
This is a live-only, online course that takes place on Zoom. Class will meet once a week for 90 minutes. During each class, Michael will teach on that week’s topic, take live questions from the group, and lead a guided meditation. In addition, students are encouraged to join a “practice pod”—a group of others students from the course—to study, share, bring up questions, and support each other’s practice throughout the class and moving forward. There are also group AMAs run by teaching assistants, supplemental readings, and a Discord server to help deepen your practice and understanding.
Requirements:
- Commitment to meditate for 30 minutes daily
- Complete all assigned course materials
- Attend each class (classes are not recorded! You must attend live.)
- Attend practice “pod” meetings outside of class
- Strong desire to learn, understand, and practice nondual meditation
- Successful completion of VSM1