Historical, theoretical, and practical applications of the teachings of abhidharma are discussed. 

https://seculardharmafoundation.com/programs/

Rochelle Calvert, PhD, CMT, SEP, licensed clinical psychologist, certified mindfulness teacher, somatic experiencing practitioner has a devoted love to share the power and healing potential of mindfulness, somatic awareness and nature. She has studied and taught mindfulness for the past 20 years and knows personally the transformational potential. To share the love of these healing practices she has published a book Healing with Nature: Mindfulness and Somatic Practices to Heal from Trauma.

https://drrochellecalvert.com/

Dr. Calvert leads courses and retreats in mindfulness, somatic experiencing and Awake in the Wild, nature-based mindfulness. She also facilitates professional trainings in mindfulness for clinicians and travels the country teaching retreats and seminars. She is the director of the Ecotherapy Program at SouthWestern College and New Earth Institute in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She is a certified mindfulness teacher with the Mindfulness Teaching Institute, the International Mindfulness Teachers Association and Awake In The Wild organization.

Rochelle is the founder and clinical director of New Mindful Life, which offers mindfulness, nature-based, and somatic experiencing therapies. She teaches individual meditations with nature that assist in healing from trauma. She supports her clients and takes them into nature with the aid of Bertha Grace, a Sprinter van that serves as a mobile therapy office.

Rochelle now lives in Taos, New Mexico and has a private practice in both Taos New Mexico and San Diego, California. She enjoys spending her free time in nature, hiking, practicing yoga, exploring Indigenous heritage, and resting with trees. She practices mindfulness-based meditation rooted in the Buddhist Theravada Tradition and practices meditation outside in nature daily.

What is Realistic Dharma?

During this live event we will explore two questions. The session will be 90 minutes. 

1. In what ways can contemporary Buddhism and Dharma practice be misleading in the context of modern life?   

2. How can we balance aspiration and realism when it comes to making progress in ethics, meditation, mindfulness, and our overall relationship to the world?

These monthly events will explore a range of topics that are both rooted in early Buddhist thought and are relevant to the challenges and issues that we face in our current lived experience.
 

The format will not follow a traditional Dharma talk, but will take place in a dialogue format that is intended to raise more questions than provide answers. As the practice of the Dharma continues to make inroads into our culture through various channels, these dialogues have been created to address ideas, topics, and tensions that are not generally addressed in the greater arena of mindfulness, Dharma, and Buddhism.

Our hope is to address the existential, therapeutic, contemplative, and ethical dimensions of our humanity that can skillfully bring to light pragmatic and realistic sets of practices and perspectives that can have a meaningful impact on what it means to live in this world. Here and now.

Jay Michaelson is a professor, journalist, rabbi, and meditation teacher. He is a visiting professor at Harvard Law School, where he is convening the first-ever conference on psychedelics in Abrahamic religious traditions.ay was a teacher and editor at Ten Percent Happier for five years, and is authorized to teach in a the Theravadan Buddhist lineage of Ayya Khema.  He has had leadership roles at the New York Insight Meditation Center and the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies.

https://jaymichaelson.substack.com/

Jay also is a journalist – he’s a commentator on CNN and a contributor to Rolling Stone, The Forward, and other publications, and he previously worked for ten years as an LGBTQ activist.  He is the author of ten books, and holds a Ph.D. in Jewish Thought from Hebrew University, a J.D. from Yale Law School, and nondenominational rabbinic ordination.  So, yes, he is Rabbi Doctor Jay Michaelson.

Dave and Jessica have been practicing for almost 30 years and share very similar Dharma roots. 

Jess Morey is a meditation teacher and contemplative coach. https://jessicamorey.org/

She began practicing meditation at age 14 on teen retreats offered by the Insight Meditation Society (IMS), and has maintained a consistent commitment to meditation since. Diving head first into meditation at such a key developmental stage makes the revelatory perspective of mindfulness & compassion her natural home turf, and gives her an easy, conversational teaching style anyone can relate to.

She is also a lead teacher, cofounder and former executive director of Inward Bound Mindfulness Education which runs in-depth mindfulness programming for youth, and the parents and professionals who support them across the US, and internationally.

Before dedicating her professional life to teaching mindfulness, Jess studied engineering and worked in clean energy finance. She has no doubt in the technical brilliance of humanity to solve the challenges facing us – including climate change and systemic injustice. Where she believes we need some help is in our inner & interpersonal intelligence.

Two questions are explored in dialog between Dave Smith and Stephen Batchelor 

1. What is a secular approach to the dharma?

2. How can this approach alter, enhance, or challenge our practice in a meaningful way?

These monthly events will explore a range of topics that are both rooted in early Buddhist thought and are relevant to the challenges and issues that we face in our current lived experience.

The format will not follow a traditional Dharma talk, but will take place in a dialogue format that is intended to raise more questions than provide answers. As the practice of the Dharma continues to make inroads into our culture through various channels, these dialogues have been created to address ideas, topics, and tensions that are not generally addressed in the greater arena of mindfulness, Dharma, and Buddhism.

Any donations offered for this program are greatly appreciated. You can support us through making a tax free donation via PAYPAL. https://seculardharmafoundation.com/donate/

The mission of the Secular Dharma Foundation (501c) is to foster the advancement of emotional and psychological well-being through the education and integration of mindfulness, psychology, nature-based programming, and various therapeutic modalities. We provide educational tools and resources, mindfulness and emotional skills training through online programs, podcasts, trainings, and retreats.

Maureen Fallon-Cyr, LCSW is a clinical social worker, meditation teacher, and certified Hakomi therapist. She has worked as a mindfulness-based psychotherapist with children and adults for over 30 years, specializing in trauma, somatic release work, and depth psychology. A lover of Dharma, she has sat multiple long retreats and served on the teaching council of the Durango Dharma Center for eight years, teaching meditation, mindfulness 12-Step work, mindful parenting, and householder practices. Weaving together her practices of mindfulness and psychology, she developed Essence-OrientedTM Release Work, outlined in her new book, Reimagining Success: Manifesting Happiness and Fulfillment. With her husband Mark, who is a psychiatrist, they have developed True Success For All, a program that empowers people to more fully realize their potential and what it means to live a truly successful life. 

Website:  True Success For All      https://www.truesuccessforall.com/
Upcoming Training in Essence-Oriented Therapy True Success Boston Training

Mike Slott is a lifelong US political and labor movement activist. A Buddhist practitioner since 2010, he is the editor of the Secular Buddhist Network website, responsible for their newsletter, Rethinking the Dharma/Reimagining Community.

Find out more: https://secularbuddhistnetwork.org/

Get the book: https://tuwhiri.org/products/mindful-solidarity

Rabbi Dr. Jay Michaelson works at the intersection of politics, law, and contemplative practice.  A journalist, meditation teacher, and professor, Jay is the author of ten books and over three hundred articles.

Jay is a contributing writer to New York Magazine, Rolling Stone, The Daily Beast, and other publications, where he most frequently writes about the Supreme Court, religion, LGBTQ issues, and climate change. He has appeared on NPR, CNN, and MSNBC, and in 2013, he wrote the landmark report Redefining Religious Liberty: The Covert Campaign against Civil Rights. Jay has twice won the New York Society of Professional Journalists ‘Deadline Club’ award for opinion writing.

Jay is also a teacher, podcast host, and editor at the Ten Percent Happier meditation startup, which makes serious contemplative practice available to a contemporary audience.  He has written several books about meditation and spirituality, including The Gate of Tears: Sadness and the Spiritual Path  and Evolving Dharma: Meditation, Buddhism, and the Next Generation of Enlightenment. He is also  a nondenominational rabbi and frequently writes and teaches about Jewish theology and mysticism. Books on that subject include Everything is God: The Radical Path of Nondual Judaism and God in Your Body: Kabbalah, Mindfulness, and Embodied Spiritual Practice. Jay has been a scholar in residence at numerous universities, synagogues, and other institutions.  Samples of this work can be found on this site’s multimedia page and on Jay’s YouTube channel.  Testimonials can be found here.

Finally, Jay is an affiliated assistant professor at Chicago Theological Seminary and a visiting fellow at the Center for LGBTQ & Gender Studies in Religion, where he teaches and writes about religion and sexuality, law and religion, and Jewish theology and mysticism. He holds a Ph.D from Hebrew University and a J.D. from Yale Law School. He previously held teaching positions at Boston University Law School and City College of New York. Dr. Michaelson’s academic CV and publication list is here.

From 2003 to 2013, Jay was a professional LGBT activist; he founded two LGBT organizations and spoke at over 100 religious institutions in support of his bestselling book God vs. Gay? The Religious Case for Equality. In 1998-99, Jay clerked for Judge Merrick Garland of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

Amma Thanasanti first encountered the Dharma in 1979. As a former Buddhist nun of 26 years, she combines the precision and rigor of Ajahn Chah Forest Tradition, compassion, pure awareness practices and a passion for wholeness. Amma is in touch with the natural world and uses nature in her teaching. Amma has been teaching intensive meditation retreats in North America, Europe, Australia and Asia since 1995.

Amma’s teaching style emphasizes deep listening, authenticity, inquiry, fierce compassion, warmth, humor and an unwavering commitment to presence. She feels a special calling to do her own work so that students from diverse communities feel supported and belonging; where the community members are able to connect across differences of culture, race, gender, sexuality and ability. She invites an openness to pause and inquire into the truth of the present moment, integrating adaptive skillful means and rooted traditional approaches.

https://awakeningtruth.org/

https://awakeningtruth.org/integrated-meditation/

Oren has practiced meditation in the early Buddhist tradition since 1997, beginning his studies in Bodh Gaya, India with Anagarika Munindra and Godwin Samararatne. He is a long-time student of Joseph Goldstein, Michele McDonald, and Ajahn Sucitto, a member of the Spirit Rock Teacher’s Council, a husband, and father.

Oren is the author of several books, including the best-seller Say What You Mean: A Mindful Approach to Nonviolent Communication, a practical guidebook for having more effective, satisfying conversations. His latest book, Your Heart Was Made For This: Contemplative Practices to Meet a World in Crisis with Courage, Integrity and Love, explores the relevance of contemplative practice for our current moment in history. He is also co-author of two books on teaching mindfulness to adolescents: The Mindful Schools Curriculum for Adolescents and Teaching Mindfulness to Empower Teens.

Oren first became interested in contemplative practice in high school, when he picked up a little book called The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff. He went on to complete a degree in Comparative Religion from Columbia University, and later spent two and a half years of living as an Anagarika (renunciate) at branch monasteries in the Ajahn Chah Thai Forest lineage. Today, his teaching combines classical Buddhist training with the accessible language of secular mindfulness.

https://www.orenjaysofer.com/about