MARC

Continuing Mindfulness Teacher Education

Beyond Basics: Training in Mindfulness and Awareness Teaching 

Discover how to teach the Spectrum of Awareness Practices and guide your students to skillfully incorporate them into their life.   

  • Do you want to learn how to teach powerful strategies beyond the usual mindfulness practices?
  • Are you looking to expand your repertoire of awareness-based practices?
  • Do you want to assess a student’s meditation and discover how to direct them to a variety of practices?
     

As mindfulness teachers and practitioners, most of us tend to get caught in habits. We are familiar with teaching the basics of mindfulness—for instance, habitually instructing students to focus on their breathing and return when their attention has wandered. However, focusing our attention is only one way to teach mindfulness. Awareness practices are quite varied. 

Using the model of the “Spectrum of Awareness Practices” we will explore four different types of awareness, how they manifest themselves in our own meditation practices, and how they can be taught to students. These four types are focused awareness, investigative awareness, open or choiceless awareness, and natural awareness– investigating the nature of awareness itself. 
 

In this online, 8-week training program you will: 

  • Identify ways of building and strengthening each type of awareness. 
  • Notice practices you are very familiar with and others that are new. 
  • Gain a repertoire of ways to practice awareness that will be expansive and responsive, personally, and for each student. 
  • Learn what type of meditation can be used in what situation to benefit the meditator.

Program Dates:

  • June 16- Access to Online Platform (not a live class)
  • June 23- Class 1
  • June 30- Class 2
  • July 7- Class 3
  • July 14- Break
  • July 21- Break
  • July 28- Class 4
  • Aug 4- Class 5
  • Aug 11- Class 6
  • Aug 18- Program Wrap-up

View Syllabus

See FAQ's

Prerequisites

  • Must have an established mindfulness practice
  • Must currently be sharing or intending to share or facilitate mindfulness with groups or with individuals
 
 
WHEN & WHERE                                                                                                                       

Live-Online Instruction Taught Simultaniously in English and Spanish

Date:
Wednesdays 
June 16 - August 18, 2021
4-6pm,  PST (Check your time zone here)


*Scholarships available to those who qualify. 

Regular Rate
Cost: $950*
 

 

TMF/IPP Rate
(20% discount)
Cost: $760
 

 

*Scholarships available to those who qualify. 

This training program is proudly co-sponsored by the Mindful Awareness Research Center at UCLA and the Mexican Institute for Mindfulness.

Syllabus

Lesson 1: Overview

  • Overviewing the Spectrum of Awareness Practices
  • How these practices map up against traditional meditation practices
  • Where does our personal practice lie on this MAP?
  • How we can teach the full range of practices to our students and help them become their own guide in expanding their meditation practice

Lesson 2: Focused Awareness

  • What is Focused Awareness and what purpose does it serve?
  • Techniques to build focus in your meditation
  • Teaching students how to develop focus through meditation techniques

Lesson 3: Flexible Awareness Part 1: Investigative Awareness

  • What is Investigative Awareness?
  • How to lead meditations that move beyond focused awareness
  • Teaching Working with Emotions as an investigative awareness practice

Lesson 4: Flexible Awareness Part 2: Choiceless/Open Awareness

  • How to lead open awareness meditations
  • What is choiceless awareness?
  • Pointing Students towards Insight in all flexible awareness practices

Lesson 5: Introducing Natural Awareness

  • What is Natural Awareness?
  • An exploration of glimpse practices that can point us towards natural awareness
  • How to introduce practice that point people towards the nature of awareness itself
  • How to incorporate natural awareness into daily life

Lesson 6: Putting it all together

  • How to use the full spectrum of awareness practices to guide students’ practice
  • What type of awareness practice is most useful when?
  • how to teach students to guide their own practices
  • Next steps

Learning Objectives

Upon completion of this course, participants will be able to:

  1. Articulate an overview of how these different types of meditations fit together and map them onto traditional Buddhist practices, such as Vipassana, Dzogchen, etc.
  2. Identify the parameters that help define the different types of practices: expansion, effort, object-based
  3. Utilize techniques for improving focused awareness and tools to share with students
  4. Utilize investigative awareness and how to apply this type of awareness in practitioners or our own practice
  5. Articulate the use of RAIN as an investigative awareness practice
  6. Point students towards insight in meditation
  7. Identify natural awareness: how to discover it in our meditation and point students there
  8. Identify how to look at the nature of awareness itself, as a meditation practice
  9. Apply these range of practices into daily life
  10. Customize meditation practice: Teach the student which practice to use when, and how they can skillfully incorporate the range of practices 

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

What is the duration of the Training? 

8 weeks. The program starts on June 16th. You will have access to the platform one week before the first live session with Diana, as well as one week after the last live session. 

Are the sessions live? 

Yes! There will be 6 live sessions with Diana Winston. Additionally, you will have access to complementary materials in our online platform, including recordings of the live sessions.  

Can I pay in monthly installments?

Yes, you can pay in 3 monthly installments with Paypal. 

Who will be teaching this training? 

Diana Winston, Director of Mindfulness Education at the Mindful Awareness Research Center, UCLA.

Who certifies this training?

This program is co-sponsored and certified by the Mindful Awareness Research Center and the Mexican Institute for Mindfulness.