This on-going workshop will help to clarify the recognition of the natural state and eliminate doubts.  But recognizing the natural state is only the beginning of genuine awakening.  We will work extensively with ways of becoming more and more stable in this awakened heart-awareness.  This is the main part of the path and requires constant diligence.  It also involves inquiry into all the ideas, beliefs, emotions, identities, and blockages that appear to cause us to fall out of recognition of our true nature.

This is a group for people who are serious about spiritual awakening. It is an experiential group that derives its inspiration from a mutual passion for living the truth of non-dual reality.  Each meeting will be a shared immersion in our innermost essence, awareness-intelligence-love.  The regular group meetings function as a support for stabilizing and embodying this natural, awakened, ground of Being and expressing it in the world.

Our exploration and practice will be guided and inspired by non-dual Wisdom teachings such as Mahamudra, Dzogchen, Vajrayana, Zen, and Advaita Vedanta.  It will also be informed by modern Western psychological insights into the process of awakening.  We will learn to speak and share our experience from within natural awakened awareness, creating the bonds of true sangha.  Sometimes we will have background reading from great scriptures and teachings to lend a structure to our meetings, and sometimes we will simply explore reality as it is without reference to such a structure.

Meetings will include periods of formal and informal meditation, teachings, awakened sharing, and discussion.

Group leader:  The group will be led by Scott McBride who has practiced meditation for over 35 years.  He has trained extensively in the Mahamudra and Dzogchen lineages of Tibet and spent three years in monastic retreat.  He has been authorized to teach by 3 Tibetan masters.  He has also practiced under Advaita and other non-dual teachers.  In addition, he has years of training in western psychological perspectives.  Scott will on occasion be joined by his wife Nancy who has the same background.

Pre-requisites to attend:  To participate in this group you must have permission of the instructor.  You probably have several years of meditation experience.  You have enough meditation experience to easily settle and remain in the present for most of the session and are practicing self-awareness throughout your day.  You have developed enough love and compassion for yourself that you can be present with all the difficult feelings that come up when doing serious work on yourself.  You have familiarity with the Wisdom traditions of the East such as Buddhism and Advaita.  You may have participated in several meditation retreats.