I'm honored and enlivened to invite you to this beautiful and powerful immersion in one of the most important practices in a human life. I'm infinitely grateful to my teachers who showed me what is possible.
What is it?
Maitri: A Courtship with The Essential Ingredient.
The Essential Ingredient is Maitri.
Maitri is a Sanskrit word often translated as "lovingkindness."
However several teachers in my lineage have gone further naming it:
"Unconditional, brave welcoming.
Courageous friendliness.
Lionhearted lovingkindness."
(that last one is from me)
It is a practice that changes everything it touches.
Join me for a live online course to steep in the practice of maitri
to plant sacred seeds in the center of your heart and
to slake a deep and ancient thirst by offering the milk of unconditional kindness.
Beginning right here, right now, with your quirky, human self, in the midst of your life just as it is.
The powerful practices we'll explore in this course can ripple benefits into your life in so many ways. Your participation in this course will support you to:
- meet life in an open, grounded, and centered way
- nurture kindness toward your inner and outer life
- practice an essential skill that supports you to grow into a mature human being
- bravely befriend yourself, forgive yourself, love yourself, become yourself
- grow much more available as a source of true benefit to others
- learn to love your inner critic
- savor soulful poems as powerful teachers you can return to again and again
- calm the stress of always trying to "do it right"
- become a makeweight for a more loving world
- grow grounded, embodied presence as a foundation for an open heart
- nurture your sense of belonging in the world
- shed the habits of domination and oppression
- follow a breadcrumb trail from Mary Oliver who says "First love yourself. Then forget it. Then love the world."
This is not about improvement but about a deepening relationship with yourself and with your embodied life.
The paradox is that improvements often blossom like a field of wildflowers from the rich soil of welcoming presence.
Who is it for?
For any human who wants a softer, braver heart. For anyone who wants to reduce stress, become more kind and wise, and be of more lasting benefit in the world. For anyone who wants their own heart-mind to be a refuge rather than a battleground.
“Giving up our muscular agendas of self-improvement is an act of kindness. It says that by befriending our life, we deepen our capacity to welcome what is, what comes, whoever arrives at the interior door of our soul’s house. We don’t often get to decide who or what shows up at the “guest house,” as Rumi says, but we can cultivate an atmosphere of curiosity and receptivity. Self-compassion gradually becomes one of the basic elements of maturation. We slowly relinquish the harsh program of ridding ourselves of our outcast brothers and sisters for the sake of fitting in; we simply set another place at the table.
Self-compassion is not an event, but an ongoing daily practice. It is the root practice for our inner life and also for our relational lives. Our ability to receive love is proportional to our capacity to welcome all of who we are. Self-compassion is a skill that needs to be exercised and developed regularly in order for us to remain open and available to life. It is the gift of a generous heart.” – Francis Weller
When is it?
Our live online sessions will meet Sundays from 10am-12noon Mountain Time. (That's 9am PT, 11am CT, Noon ET, 5pm UK, 7pm Cairo, 10:30pm India, midnight in Bangkok, 4am in Melbourne.)
We will meet on March 5, 12, 19, 26, and April 2.
We'll gather again after a three-week integration break for a bonus meeting on April 23rd for community connection, celebration, and a refresher on the practice.
Where is it?
Weekly meetings will be held live on zoom. If you cannot attend live but would like to participate, or if you need to miss a class, no problem! All classes will be recorded in audio and video form and posted to our easy-to-use online classroom which will also host written invitations, supplemental teachings, soulful poetry, and a place to connect with classmates. Essentially you're invited to come from the comfort of your home or wherever in the world you are. You just need a decent wifi connection. Recordings and supplemental materials are hosted on Ruzuku.
Why?
I believe with my whole heart that the world needs more embodied, courageously kindhearted, truly adult human beings.
Barry Lopez writes that evidence of the failure to love is everywhere around us. It's true. From our ecosystems to our unjust social systems to our ways of relating to our own lives - the habits of violence and domination are everywhere - some obvious and some subtle. Yet we can do something about it. We can love more and better. We can start with ourselves.
Does anything ever heal or thrive in an environment of contempt? No. Not in your heart-mind, not in your body, not in your relationships, and not in the world.
Maitri offers a radical and fresh approach. Whether I am teaching somatics, deep ecology, inner listening, embodied movement, meditation, or anything else – Maitri is the essential ingredient that makes it of actual benefit or – in its absence – just more fodder for struggle.
This is an essential practice for humans in times of uncertainty.
That is us. The time is now.
This short human life is our opportunity.
Let’s not waste it.
Think deeply about the seeds you want to plant and how you want to use this one precious life.
Saturated to your bones with unconditional warmth and kindness?
Or embodying and exuding more judgment, battle, and oppression, thus making the world more full of judgment, battle, and oppression?
Many people are stressed, often absorbed in thoughts and projections, distracted and disconnected from deep heart values, and are often spreading their stressed-out vibes and inner violence and cruelty into the outer world. People are missing Maitri.
My hope is that this practice supports you to become an island of sanity in a suffering world. May we all be the kinds of humans who can spread grounded presence and a compassionate heart vibe wherever we go. May it become contagious.
“Loving-kindness—maitri—toward ourselves doesn’t mean getting rid of anything. Maitri means that we can still be crazy after all these years. We can still be angry after all these years. We can still be timid or jealous or full of feelings of unworthiness. The point is not to try to change ourselves. Meditation practice isn’t about trying to throw ourselves away and become something better. It’s about befriending who we are already. The ground of practice is you or me or whoever we are right now, just as we are. That’s the ground, that’s what we study, that’s what we come to know with tremendous curiosity and interest.” - Pema Chodron
Tuition:
I'm keeping the price low as I hope as many people as possible will jump in and steep in Maitri. I hope a great wave of courageous lovingkindness spreads through our world as a result.
The cost is $295 or 3 monthly payments of $100.
Please read my cancellation policy and then sign up below.
Please understand that if you choose a payment plan you are responsible for the full tuition cost whether you attend all classes or not.
Maitri: A Courtship with the Essential Ingredient includes
- 6 powerful live online workshops,
- transformative teachings,
- guided meditation,
- somatic practices,
- soulful poetry,
- authentic conversation,
- deep listening,
- weekly ritual invitations,
- resources to support daily life integration,
- and so much love.
- In addition, all classes are audio and video recorded and posted in an easy-to-use online classroom so you can return to the lessons anytime. If you need to miss a class, (or attend the whole class by using recordings) you can easily catch up on what you missed from home. The online classroom is open indefinitely. You'll have access to these teachings as long as you like.
“I am inviting you to go deeper, to learn and to practice so that you become someone who has a great capacity for being solid, calm, and without fear, because our society needs people like you who have these qualities, and your children, our children, need people like you, in order to go on, in order to become solid, and calm, and without fear.”
- Thich Nhat Hanh
More than ever, I believe it's time to de-center the idea of our own enlightenment, our own well-being, or our own "self-improvement project" separate from the world. We must include ourselves and then include more. Widening circles, baby.
We do this work and engage in this learning not only for ourselves but on behalf of Life.
May the love of life for life itself flow through us in an unhindered way.
Wondering who I am? Hi, I'm Erin. You can read more about me here. I'd love to meet you.
I've been practicing maitri since I was introduced to it in 1992. It hasn't always been easy.
I know the territory of inner struggle and self-criticism intimately. One meditation teacher I had 20 years ago told me I had the most intractable inner critic he’d ever seen as a meditation teacher or in his therapy practice. And yet, after many years of practice, I’ve become my own best friend. I even love my inner critic who often gets scared and worried about me. (How adorable.) I know in my bones I’ll never abandon myself again. I’m infinitely grateful for my teachers and these teachings and that I've learned to touch my struggles and pain with care and affection. This has changed everything. Everything. Parenting. Marriage. Pain. Money. Body. Friendships. Exercise. Eating. Work. Earth love. Mindfulness. And more.
From living inside the stress of trying to “do life right” to deeply trusting myself and taking refuge in my ability to respond with Maitri whatever comes.
I want this refuge of courageous kindness for everyone.
There’s no such thing as perfect. (And what a relief to release that sisyphean project!) Yet for sure, with practice, we can become kinder and more courageously caring, and that changes everything for the better.
When we’re training a dog or parenting a child – it can be done with domination and fear as a motivating force. Or it can be done with gentleness and connection. That is not indulgence and a lack of boundaries but is infused with deep respect. The same is true with you. The world doesn’t need one ounce more of domination, fear, and aggression as a way to orient toward life. Let’s stop that noise and become a make-weight for a more loving world. Wow, is it needed!! The good news is that we get to start just as we are.
I'll close with these gorgeous words from Elizabeth Mattis Namgyel.
“May this new year, bring you wellbeing, joy, and limitless opportunities to grow. Let’s be fierce in our commitment to value and utilize even the most challenging circumstances as a way to deepen our understanding and cultivate compassion for others (as well as ourselves.) Let’s continuously find creative and skillful ways to serve living beings and this precious planet, our home, and look at life around us as the rich ground for awakening from self-absorption. If we can do this, how can we possibly lose?”
I hope you'll join me.
With love,
Erin