A Foundation in Wisdom Traditions

I'm a 200-hour certified meditation teacher and hold an advanced meditation teacher training certification. My studies delve into the profound depths of the mind, drawing from traditional Tibetan Buddhist methods. My training includes:

• Subtle Body & Consciousness: Understanding how the layers of the subtle body and consciousness influence meditation and exploring the interconnectedness of body, breath, nutrition, environment, and karma in shaping our experiences.

• 9 Stages of Meditative Development: Guiding you through the progressive stages to achieve the deepest states of meditation, including common challenges and their solutions at each stage.

• Death Awareness: Offering traditional Tibetan Buddhist perspectives on death, preparing for this transition through meditation, and fostering a new understanding of impermanence.

• Silent Retreat Practices: Providing insights into traditional solitary meditation retreats in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, including readiness, planning, diet, exercise, sleep, and practice selection, drawing from my own deep retreat experiences.

• Unconditional Love: Exploring the true nature of unconditional love, its link to joy, and traditional Tibetan Buddhist methods for opening the heart and fostering compassion.

• Core Meditation & Tibetan Buddhist Principles: Helping you build a consistent meditation practice, grasp key concepts, effectively guide meditations, track progress (including states of mind, compassion, and wisdom), and understand the purpose of meditation in achieving enlightenment through the laws of karma and philosophical inquiry.

Meditation & Mind Training

My 200-hour yoga teacher training, certified by the Yoga Alliance, emphasizes an authentic Buddhist approach to yoga. This includes philosophical studies and utilizes the Ashtanga method of yoga sequencing. My expertise covers:

• Physical Training: Guiding you to build or strengthen your personal practice, including working towards the entire primary series of Ashtanga for increased strength and flexibility.

• Alignment & Anatomy: Providing a solid understanding of basic anatomy, physiology, and biomechanics, along with anatomical and medical contraindications and benefits of yoga asana, all within an Ashtanga-based alignment framework.

• Posture & Breathwork: Teaching the 8-Point Posture of Vairochana and how to modify it, alongside the basic mechanics of breath and how to utilize it for deep meditative states.

• Subtle Body in Yoga: Exploring subtle body anatomy, including the chakras and channels, the impact of sound and mantra, and practicing a 1,000-year-old approach to the subtle body through Lady Niguma's yoga sequence, understanding its historical lineage.

• Sanskrit: Introducing the origin of Sanskrit, its relationship to yoga, and proper pronunciation of yoga poses and chants.

Yoga & Physical Practice

Applied Philosophy & Ethics

My dedication to deep philosophical understanding is further cemented by completing all 18 courses of the Asian Classics Institute (ACI) curriculum. This intensive program mirrors the 20 years of training a monk or nun undertakes to become a Geshe, covering the classical teachings of Tibetan Buddhism in an accessible, relatable way. Key areas of study include:

• The Buddhist Path: Comprehensive understanding of the entire Buddhist path, including how to find an authentic teacher, defining key terms, developing higher states of mind, levels of reality, karma, and emptiness.

• Wisdom & Liberation: Exploring perfect wisdom, protective states of mind, the qualities of a Buddha, steps to developing unconditional love, and the levels of freedom including Nirvana.

• Karma & Reality: Delving into the laws of karma, understanding good and bad karma (of body, speech, and mind), projecting and finishing karma, creating powerful karmic results, and purifying negative karmas. This also includes examining how we perceive reality, the origin of consciousness, and the concept of past and future lives.

• Ethics & Compassion: Learning the ethics that define a meditator and a yogi (the Yamas and Niyamas), practicing these ethics within a community, and developing radical compassion through practices like Lojong, which includes techniques for transforming difficult situations.

• Bodhisattva's Way of Life: Studying how to live like a saint, remove obstacles to unconditional love, and practice the six perfections. This also addresses working with anger, addiction, jealousy, pride, and ignorance, and developing patience, joy, and concentration.

• Understanding Emptiness: Exploring profound concepts like emptiness, dependent origination, the five heaps, and perception, which are crucial for achieving high meditative realizations and fully transcending suffering.