Structure of the 8 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.

Workshops (top)

There are three two-day workshops; an opening workshop, mid-course workshop and completing workshop. These workshops will be offered in San Francisco, New York, Boulder, Vancouver (Canada), Munich (Germany) Paris (France) and in India. You can attend in the place of your choice, and you don’t need to attend at the same location each time.

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 8 months
• be introduced to the experience of the unconditioned mind
• 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 the unconditioned mind and sharing this with others
• be given opportunities to facilitate this work

Readings (top)

Every two weeks you will receive an essay written specifically for this course. The essays are very focused. They introduce you to the distinctions and practices that you’ll work with over the next two weeks. The readings are transformational in their own right. They directly open up new possibilities for living fully in the moment and new ways for accessing the unconditioned mind. They also give you a set of reference materials through which you can refresh you experience of the unconditioned mind. The themes of the essays follow the curriculum of the course.

Experiential Projects (top)

Every two weeks you will also receive a set of experiential exercises to be completed over the next two weeks. Altogether there are 48 exercises. 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 (top)

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 contribute your meditative experience with others, we can also help you with this. 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" in which with a partner while connected by 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.

Koan practice (top)

Koan practice is usually associated with Zen Buddhism, but there are also natural koans that arise in the journey from a structured (knowing) to an unstructured (not knowing) state of consciousness. These are 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 all koans because each one of them is a key that can unlock the conceptual mind, and take us into the unconditioned mind. In the second semester you will explore how natural koans can be used to enter and stabilize the experience of unstructured awareness. You’ll learn how to place you mind on these questions in a way that let’s your thoughts dissolve into the infinite expanse of unconditioned awareness

Individual sessions (top)

Every second week you will have a private 30 minute session with your instructor. In these sessions you receive personalized and focused coaching in the issues you’re 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 (top)

Every two 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

If you are interested in the Radiant Mind Course a Free Video Interview is available of Peter Fenner being asked about the Course, what the unconditioned mind is and how people can tell if they are experiencing nondual awareness.