Lovingkindness

A course from February 29 - Beltane, May 1
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True wisdom is inseparable from universal love.
-Swami Sivananda

I have, as the decades of my teaching have passed, honed my experience and my offerings ever more toward love, and this is what I wish to share here with you this spring: the cultivation of lovingkindness.

What the world needs now is love, sweet love
— Hal David

Lovingkindness lights the way. It lights our way toward one another both in joy and in sorrow. In difficult times, its light within our hearts helps us to carry on. In easeful times, we can strengthen our capacity to shine with love. In all times, it encourages us to act to create the world we want to live in – for ourselves, our children, and everyone everywhere. Of all the tools and skills that I have had the honor of learning, holding, and passing on, this is the one that people turn to most in painful seasons, which makes this capacity wise to cultivate before those times arrive, and a balm when they do. Metta Bhavana is the name in Pali of this ancient practice, which humans have practiced for millennia. I find it to be a source of medicine, hope, and fuel.

For small creatures such as we, the vastness is bearable only through love.
— Carl Sagan

This course will be a slow, sweet exploration of the cultivation of lovingkindness. within us in meditation and around/between us in practice. In meditation and conversation we will explore our natural access to lovingkindness, cultivate a deep somatic experience of feeling love-drenched, and practice the cultivation of lovingkindness for other people. We will explore boundless love, loving boundaries, and how to hold people we find difficult in loving compassion. In this we will be connected with one another, with people all over the Earth, and with the life of the universe.

The forms in which I share my work are always adapting with the needs of our community, cultural shifts, and technological possibilities. If you have taken my meditation courses before, please attend carefully to the description of structure for this one, which has significant changes from prior offerings. This offering aims to be both more robust and simpler than my pre-pandemic courses. There is less email and more direct connection than in my early online offerings. The freedom to engage with the material whenever it suits you remains.

I would like my life to be a statement of love and compassion – and where it isn’t, that’s where my work lies.
— Ram Dass

My approach to meditation has become broader, softer, and more inviting with the years as my understanding ripens of how entirely natural it is to all beings to fall into states of contemplative integration and my skill at creating environments and structures to support your experience of this increases. You will find me as wide-open as I can be: you can join meditation from bed, from a long walk, from the bathtub; folks regularly do all of these in the spaces I hold. Whatever makes it work! There is no pressure to participate at any particular pace, only invitations to simple meditations and everyday actions that are options you have for feeling connection and wholeness.

Gathering

The teaching for this course will be presented each week in a one hour Saturday morning Gathering via Zoom. Each session will be recorded in video and audio formats so that you can either join live or later at your leisure. Video recordings will be available for viewing for two weeks. The meditation portion of these sessions will be recorded and shared as an audio file which you can stream or download for your personal use during our course and beyond. Session meets 8-9am. My weekly drop-in yoga session The Soft Animal is 9:15-10:45 if you’d like to stay!

"The classes have really changed how I think about my relationship with myself. I feel more capable of treating myself kindly and that has transformed my relationship with other people."

“The tools that we were shown, taught, modeled and shared during this course are vast and amazing. I feel like I’ve opened so many little ports inside me that I had forgotten about, that maybe were more easily accessed at different points in my life. I am so grateful that we have access to all the recordings and written words. It’s a true gift and investment!"

Sharing Circle

A hallmark of my online courses is our written conversation: each person gets the opportunity to share about their experience and ask questions and to receive from me in return a reply which may contain appreciation, reflection, support, teaching, and advice. You have the option to specify how you do and do not wish to be met by me in this, to ask specific questions or seek particular guidance, or simply let me respond with my own best judgment. These posts and my replies are shared with our course community.

These Circles offer you the opportunity to be known and witnessed by the community, supported and advised by me, and for all of us to learn from one another. The Circle takes place weekly, so there is steady inspiration and teaching present, and each person will be scheduled to post and receive a reply once a month. In early courses we had these conversations by email; now they take place via Google Docs, which makes for an easier flow of attention while reading.

“I am still blown away by Dahlia’s response to my questions. I feel that each of her responses to my posts are like little love letters to me as I practice, which motivates me even more.”

“There’s a piece to this class that I wasn’t expecting and that’s been very meaningful to me, which was to bear witness the journey everyone else is on. We are all going through so much shit. We rarely get to watch others going through stuff in real time, especially as an outsider. But…we’re sharing that with each other in real time. That’s just really beautiful.”

1:1 Support

Connecting with me directly for private conversation brings greater intimacy and immediacy to our experience. Once each month, you get an hour with me one to one via phone or videochat – or in person if you’re local – to use as you wish. Most people choose to engage in conversation, receiving individualized teaching about our practice or spiritual counsel about how the rubber of practice is hitting the road of their personal lives. Some people choose to use this time for guidance in yoga, self-massage, for energetic healing for themselves or relationships, or to have me create them a personal meditation recording. All of my skills are available for you to choose from during these sessions.

Scholarships & Equity Pricing

Scholarships, equity pricing, and payment plans are available, drop me a line! Contributions toward scholarship are warmly received and always granted to someone in the current course.

Questions? I’d truly love to talk! Drop me a line to dahlia@beloved.org