Rebuild Your Attention: Buddhist Practices for Focus, Clarity, and Joy

Five Thursdays, February 27th – March 27th, 2025
3:30 – 5pm PT | 6:30 – 8pm ET
Online
About this Course
At the heart of Buddhist tradition is the ancient practice of meditation, through which we train our faculties of attention and investigation with the aim of decreasing stress and suffering.
Meditation has never been easy—people in the Buddha’s time struggled with distraction, sleepiness, and worry the same way we do—but our sped-up, information-saturated culture makes it harder than ever. We all know it would be good to slow down and become more present, but how do we really do this?
This 5-week course is the second in a series of practice and study courses aimed to build a strong foundation for Theravāda Buddhist training. Focusing in this series on meditation as attention training, we will look at developing focus, concentration, and strong inner energy, and why these are the core skills in meditation and mindfulness. You do not have to have taken the first course in the series to take this one, and beginners are welcome.
We will read original texts from early Buddhist teachings preserved in the Pāli Canon, as the source of our meditation instructions, and weave in supporting material from contemporary neuroscience and psychology. Each week we will meditate together, read passages from the discourses, and support each other in building or deepening a daily meditation practice. You will come away with an approach to Buddhist meditation that understands the central role that pleasure and relaxation hold in concentration, and actionable skills for slowing down and bringing focus back into your everyday life.
About Sean
Sean Oakes, PhD (he/him, queer, of Spanish/Puerto Rican and Northern European ancestry living on unceded Pomo land in California), teaches Buddhism, Yoga, and somatic practice. He received teaching authorization from Jack Kornfield, wrote his dissertation on extraordinary states in Buddhist meditation and experimental dance, and focuses on the integration of philosophy, somatics, and social justice discourse with the Dharma. He teaches at Spirit Rock Meditation Center, East Bay Meditation Center, Insight Timer, and elsewhere.
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