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COURSE

Invitation To An Awakened Life

With Elliott Dacher, M.D.

For millennia, this supreme goal of spiritual awakening and radical aliveness has been portrayed as mysterious and accessible only through repetitive, secluded, and long-term practice. And too often, relaxation techniques have been offered as a quick substitute for a true awakening. However, the essence of profound meditation practice can now be aligned with the sensibilities and capacities of modern times, allowing each of us to experience the possibility of an authentic spiritual awakening. Yes, it takes devotion and practice to sustain and stabilize a full awakening, but it can be experienced right here and right now. With the practice of direct awakening, you can leap directly into the spiritual expanse of consciousness and the ultimate level of human flourishing. In this course, we will utilize the profound “Direct Path Teachings” that point the way to a full awakening. If you choose to take this next and final step in meditative practice, this course is for you. In this course, you will learn: • Why a “busy mind” is not an obstacle to profound meditation • How to dissolve the false self and reveal the natural self • The penetrative wisdom that brings suffering and afflictive emotions to an end • The essential steps in the practice of direct awakening • How to sustain the awakened state in the midst of life’s challenges • How to bring your awakening off the meditation cushion and into your daily life • How to cultivate the 5 major qualities of human flourishing

Experience radical aliveness here and now through Direct Path Teachings on human flourishing.

10 Days

2.4k students

4.9 stars

16 min / day

English

About this course

Tree of Life Visualization

Meet your Teacher

Elliott Dacher, M.D.

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Aquinnah, MA, USA

Elliott Dacher, M.D. is a physician and meditation teacher. He is a frequent presenter and author of numerous books on meditation, health, and healing.

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10 Days

2.4k students

4.9 stars

16 min / day

English

Lesson 1

The Two Great Aims Of Meditation

There are two traditional aims of meditation. The first is cultivating a healthy human life. The second is transcending our limited, day-to-day consciousness to discover our true self and its extraordinary qualities of human flourishing. Our first session begins by focusing on two quick and sure methods of calming the mind. Whenever your mind is out of control, these will be your go-to practices.

Lesson 2

Overcoming The Overactive Mind

A still and stable mind is a pre-requisite for accessing our full human possibilities. Rather than relying exclusively on methods to still the mind, we will now approach overcoming the overactive mind through a wise and subtle understanding of how the mind works.

Lesson 3

Awareness-Based Meditation

In this session, we explore an awareness-based meditation. Pure awareness observes moment-to-moment experience without comment, judgment, or attachment. A small tweak and our attention shifts from a constant conversation with mental activity to simply “watching” the “mind traffic” come and go. We rest in the awareness, rather than random mental activity.

Lesson 4

The Ordinary Self & The True Self

In this session, we will explore the second aim of meditation: the direct experience of our natural authentic self. We begin by becoming aware of the differences between our usual day-to-day “ego-I” and our “deeper natural true self.”

Lesson 5

The True Self Revealed

In this session, we focus on exploring our natural, ever-present, and unchanging true self. How can we miss seeing it? It’s right here, right now. Our long-forgotten home is directly revealed as our true unchanging essence.

Lesson 6

Experiencing Pure Awareness

In the previous session, we learned that our true self is empty of content – empty of past or future thoughts. In this session, we will focus on the second aspect of our true self, pure awareness. This special awareness is untouched by our past. It’s fresh, vital, and able to see with complete clarity and truth.

Lesson 7

The Practice Of Direct Awakening

In the previous session, we experienced the natural self as both empty of content and pristinely aware of moment-to-moment experience. In this session, we will train in the practice of Direct Awakening, exploring how to stabilize that experience of our true self, so it progressively becomes the ground of our life.

Lesson 8

Stabilizing Your True Self

The Direct Awakening practice enables you to go directly to your authentic self. We transcend personal identity and directly awaken to the center of our being. In this session, we will explore how to stabilize our true self when confronted by the strong and tenacious habit of our usual “I.”

Lesson 9

Integration: Bringing It Home

In the previous session, we experienced the practice of Direct Awakening. With this practice, we directly drop into and experience our true selves. In this session, we will explore how to integrate the experience of our true self into daily life, so that our life becomes our practice and our practice becomes our life.

Lesson 10

Human Flourishing Revealed

Why, you may ask, is it is so essential for us to realize the second aim of meditation - learning to live in our authentic self, the center of our being? Because it is only in our authentic self that we can be free of the limitations of our ego-self and have our lives transformed by the qualities of human flourishing. That attainment is the focus of this session.