Course dates: October 3-24, 2023
This free, four-week interactive course is designed to accompany Month 8 in the yearlong online program “Embracing Life with Wisdom & Compassion.” Open to all.
We intend to appreciate our lives as they are, make the best choices we can, and be happy for the good fortune or achievements of others. Yet, we can feel urged by advertising, social media, and even friends and family to compare ourselves to the perceived success and happiness of others. Comparison and self-judgment can lead to feelings of jealousy and envy, whose suffering can be compounded by clinging to our internal stories or by judging, pushing away, or ignoring these feelings. How can we breathe into whatever we experience with gentleness toward ourselves and others, and allow our natural openness to emerge?
During this month-long course, we offer opportunities to join with others in guided practice, to reflect on and open to our experiences of jealousy with guidance and collective support, and to share with others what we’ve learned and gained. With practices that support each of us to connect with our innate capacity for wisdom and compassion, we can heal, transform, and discover that the imprints of jealousy and envy we carry can loosen and release, allowing our natural capacity for openness, compassion and joy to emerge.
Each weekly session will include a guided practice and time for reflecting and sharing in small and large groups. There will be materials to support daily practice between sessions.
The course follows three other free online offerings on the same theme of “Embracing Jealousy, Cultivating Openness”: a teaching and guided meditation with Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche on Wednesday, September 27, at 12 noon New York time; the continuous 24-hour Full Moon Practice session, which begins at 10 a.m. on Thursday, September 28, and ends at 10 a.m. the next day; and a science & spirituality dialog, date and topic to be announced.
Course size is limited to 20 participants to support a sense of warmth, connection, honesty, and safety. There is no fee to attend. Each group member is asked to commit to show up fully with a clear intention to benefit others, and between the weekly group sessions to engage in daily meditation practice, both formally and informally.
Classes take place via Zoom on four consecutive Tuesdays beginning October 3, 2023. Each 75-minute class begins at 1 p.m. New York time and is held in English. To register please complete the form below. You will receive an email from Juanita to confirm your participation in the program.
Access other offerings of the yearlong program, both live and recorded, at this link.
About the Instructor
Juanita Rockwell has practiced Tibetan Buddhism for 30 years and studied with Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche for more than 20. A teacher for The 3 Doors, an international educational organization founded by Tenzin Rinpoche, she graduated from the first North American 3 Doors Academy in 2013. Juanita guides a variety of workshops and classes both online and in person, including those she co-develops with Marcy Vaughn for The 3 Doors. Juanita’s experience as an educator spans three decades. She served as founding director of Towson University’s experimentally-focused MFA in Theatre Program, and is on the faculty of Wilkes University’s MFA program in creative writing. She has taught at many universities, schools and theaters in the United States and abroad. Juanita is a writer and director with more than 100 works of theater opera, radio, multidisciplinary, and site-specific projects presented on five continents. Her work explores the experience of impermanence and change in our lives and our world, where fragility and loss exist in balance with resilience, and where the space for something new to emerge can be discovered.