FOUNDATIONS OF MINDFULNESS

FOUNDATIONS OF MINDFULNESS - For Members only

Instructor: Karleen Manchanda, Zen Life & Meditation Center Teacher

4 Sundays, 10:30 am – 12:00 pm

February 12, 19, 26 & March 5

Fee*: Sliding scale $40 - $80 (or $40/$60/$80)

We have to restrict to 15 members only

*Please pay the most generous rate that you can afford. The instructor is offering these classes free of charge, and all fees will directly support the Japanese Cultural Association of Manitoba.

Please register HERE.

In these uncertain times, there are time-tested practices that can help us to navigate and embrace the full range of experiences in our modern lives. The Foundations of Mindfulness Series consists of four classes taught once a week in person. This series offers an introduction to how mindfulness and meditation can lead to living our lives with greater openness, empathy and clarity. Classes are open to all and will be taught in an inclusive manner drawing on both Western science as well as Japanese Zen Buddhism. Prior knowledge of meditation and Buddhism is welcome but not required. The class series will include useful teachings and practices for greater well-being in our daily lives. Learn how to

• Establish a mindfulness meditation practice
• Develop resilience in the midst of uncertainty, difficulty and change
• Cultivate courage to face unpleasant feelings like fear, anger and shame
• Open your heart and appreciate your life just as it is
• ...and more

Your instructor, Karleen Manchanda (she/her), is a mother, wife and fourth-generation Japanese-American who was born in Hawai’i and has lived on Treaty No. 1 Territory in Canada since 1997. She has studied and practiced mindfulness, meditation and yoga for the past ten years, and has taught these practices in local schools. Karleen holds a Master’s degree in Education from the University of Illinois, and has participated in trainings with The Centre for Mindfulness Studies in Toronto, University of California Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center and Yoga Centre Winnipeg. She completed her Zen Life & Meditation Center (Chicago) teacher training with Roshi Robert Joshin Althouse who is an ordained Zen priest in the White Plum lineage and creator of the Foundations of Mindfulness curriculum. Karleen is grateful to have the opportunity to share her passion for mindfulness and compassion education with the JCAM community. If you have questions, please contact her at growlovewpg@gmail.com for further information.
FOUNDATIONS OF MINDFULNESS
COURSE OUTLINE
(Adapted from the Zen Life & Meditation Center, Chicago)
CLASS 1: INTRODUCTION TO MINDFULNESS
This class will provide an overview of what it means to live mindfully from both Western and Zen perspectives. It will dispel many misconceptions about mindfulness and meditation, teach you how cultivating mindfulness can benefit many areas of your life, and introduce the experience of meditation.
CLASS 2: WHAT GETS IN THE WAY
This class will integrate the practice of mindfulness within the larger context of living a life of openness, empathy and clarity. It will ground you in your lived experience and examine shame as a conditioned response that prevents you from trusting a larger, more authentic sense of yourself. It will also look at the role of compassion in developing the courage to see and change our habits of mind.
CLASS 3: ONE-POINTED ATTENTION
This class will teach you the basics of how to meditate, including what physical posture to use when sitting. The regular practice of one-pointed mindfulness meditation can improve both your quality of attention and ability to focus. This can have a profound and transformative effect in our daily lives.
CLASS 4: LIVING A LIFE OF OPENNESS
This class will help you learn to live more comfortably with uncertainty, difficulty and change. It will address the importance of trusting the non-verbal feedback from your body and being more intimate with your emotions moment by moment. You will learn some of the many benefits of living more openly, such as increased vitality, joy, and freedom from fear.