Lesson 1
Tranquility — Pacify Your Mind
Tranquility is that serene quality of peace and restfulness. Tranquility involves keeping your mind and heart calm, like the ocean’s depth. With tranquility, you take your time to observe what’s going on and act purposefully, without agitation, without hurry, and without overreacting. On a deeper level, it means to diminish rumination, worries, and useless thinking, saving your energy.
read more
Lesson 2
Focus — Gather Your Energy
Focus, the ability to control your attention, is the core skill of meditation. It involves bringing your mind, moment after moment, to dwell where you want it to dwell, rather than being pulled by the gravity of all the noise going on inside and outside of you.
In a deeper level, focus is the ability to live your life by design rather than by default. To live a life where you are taking steps moment after moment toward what you consider to be meaningful and fulfilling. It’s the ability to stop paying attention to things that are not serving your higher purpose; to ignore the trivial many, and to double down on the essential few.
read more
Lesson 3
Integrity — Be True To Yourself
Living with integrity means you can free up a lot of mental space, because
you don’t need to remember lies or make excuses. You default to honesty and transparency. You promise less often—but when you promise, you fulfill. It builds trust in people and confidence in yourself. There is a sense of “moral pleasure”, a peace of mind that comes from living a life of integrity, which cannot be found elsewhere. It also brings a better sense of who you are and what you stand for.
read more
Lesson 4
Humility — Let Go Of Ego
Humility is letting go of the desire to feel superior to other people by means of wealth, fame, intelligence, beauty, titles, status, or influence. It’s about not comparing yourself with others, not thinking of yourself as either superior or inferior. In the words of C.S. Lewis, “True humility is not about thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less”. In the deepest sense, humility is about transcending the ego.
read more
Lesson 5
Wisdom — Perceive With Insight
Wisdom, on the other hand, is understanding things in the correct perspective, knowing yourself, and knowing how to be and how to act in this world. We can also call it discernment, clarity, vision, or insight. The key practices for developing wisdom are honest self-reflection, observation and deep contemplation. Wisdom is developed by asking yourself hard questions, and looking deeply within. For that purpose, we need a mind that is calm, sharp, and able to penetrate deeply into the nature of things.
read more
Lesson 6
Courage — Act Despite Fear
Courage is the power to act regardless of fear. It is the ability to hold on to the feeling of “I need to do this”, ignore fear-mongering thoughts, and take action. Courage is the strength that allows one to triumph over fear and uncertainty. It’s a universally admired virtue. This lesson will help you develop it.
read more
Lesson 7
Trust — Open Your Heart
Trust is our ability to set doubts and fear at rest. It allows us to not be neurotic; to not be cynical. Even though these things are proudly worn as a badge of intelligence and rationalism by some, with them comes mental distress and isolation. Trust believes in goodness. It is innocent, open, and it gives peace of mind to the one who cultivates it. Learn how to develop trust in a balanced way.
read more
Lesson 8
Joy — Cherish Your Existence
According to the meditation masters, joy or bliss is the natural state of our mind and heart. But we forget, we get distracted, and we pay attention to the wrong things—and thus get disconnected from ourselves. This lesson will help you to naturally incline your mind towards joy, appreciation and cheerfulness.
read more
Lesson 9
Non-Attachment — Let Go Of Your Chains
Non-attachment, or letting go, is the most essential skill for overcoming suffering. It doesn’t mean that we live life less intensely. Rather, we do what we are called to do with zest, and then we step back and watch what happens, without anxiety. It doesn’t mean that we don’t love, play, work, or seek with intensity. But rather, that we are detached from the results, knowing that we have full control only over the effort we make.
read more
Lesson 10
Kindness — Enlarge Yourself
Kindness (and related virtues of love, compassion, and consideration) is the core “social virtue”. Kindness invites us to expand our sense of well-being to include others as well. It gives us the ability to put ourselves in another person’s shoes, feel what they feel as if it is happening to us, and if appropriate, do something about it. The result is the experience of the “helper’s high”, a mix of dopamine and oxytocin. A greater sense of satisfaction that comes along with broadening your heart to accommodate others.
read more
