THE HIGHEST FORM OF MINDFULNESS

During six days of online live teachings, Tulku Lobsang will transmit to you his knowledge and experience in Shiné. Rinpoche will guide you step by step in the meditation and teach you all the important points – from the first step, where the mind is still crowded and full of thoughts, to meditative equipoise. You will learn which are the obstacles on this path and what can be done to overcome them. 

All teachings will be held via Zoom.

This duration allows you to truly practice and experience Shiné and to understand what it really is. As important as the teaching days are the periods in between. You will follow your own schedule of daily meditations and also meet up online with your peer group members in order to discuss and practice with them together and to share your experiences. 

You are guided and you guide yourself. You make your own experiences, questions arise and you discover many things to reflect upon. Six months are enough time to ask, to experience, to reflect and as a consequence to understand on deeper and deeper levels the detailed map of Shiné and what Shiné really is. This gives you not only knowledge – but also real understanding and first-hand experience and therefore the wisdom and capacity to teach.

During the teaching days, Rinpoche will guide you through meditations and teach you step by step how to calm your mind and reach Shiné. This way you experience yourself the different steps on the Shiné path. This will help you tremendously on your own spiritual path and later on in guiding your students and understanding their obstacles.

A peer group consists of four people and is assigned to you at the beginning of the Program. We will try our best to assign the groups based on language but we cannot guarantee that you will be assigned to a group in your own language.  

Peer group meetings offer the opportunity to practice together, to guide each other in meditation,  to discuss doubts and experiences and to help each other.

You will receive the contact data of your peer group members and we will share your contact information with them. The four of you then individually arrange your online meeting times whenever they are most convenient for your group.

Plus: Your peer group will be given two dates for a personal online meeting with your tutor.

An experienced Shiné-teacher (tutor) will accompany you during the whole program. 6 peer groups (in total 24 people) will be assigned to one tutor group. 

Your tutor will offer:

• five Zoom-meetings of 1 hour (one each in between the teaching days) with the tutor group of 24 participants for debate and experience exchange.
• two Zoom-meetings of 20 minutes for your personal peer group of four people to discuss and clarify questions on an even deeper and more intimate level. 

Attending these meetings is not mandatory. The individual dates will be made available at the beginning of the Education once we have been able to assign you to your peer group and your tutor. We will try our best to assign you to a tutor who speaks your language – but we cannot guarantee it.

You will easily learn how to really calm your mind with our step by step schedule for your personal daily meditation. 
You will gradually deepen your meditation, starting off with short sessions of five minutes. 
The meditation schedule is divided into cycles of at least 21 days, with the duration of the sessions being slowly increased with each cycle.

21 days is a very important timeframe, because it takes this amount of time to release obstacles that come up.

In Tibetan Buddhism it is said: if you really want to learn deeply, you need to learn on different levels.

For this reason this program is designed that you will learn on the following levels:

• Explanations help you to fully and clearly understand on a mostly intellectual level.
  • One part is hearing the teachings, listening to Rinpoche’s words.
  • One part is reflection. This will be done in the form of breakout rooms during the teaching days, in the peer groups and with the tutors.
• Trying out means you practice yourself; you meditate and receive the first glimpse of the true meaning of Shiné, of the deepest mindfulness.
• Experiencing goes beyond explanations and simply trying out. You will truly experience all 32 points of the Shiné-map. Thanks to this experience you will understand every one of these steps on a deep level and not only the words. You will know for example what subtle laxity is and not confuse it any longer with a calm mind. The highest experience we want to reach in this education is the most stable mind – the most profound mindfulness.
• Teaching is the best way to learn. Guiding others is an essential expertise for a Shiné teacher and at the same time it helps you in your own learning process. As you will be trained to become a Shiné teacher, you will of course also gain experience in guiding others in their meditation. This will be done within your peer group.

At the end of this education you will not only fully understand, you will not only have tried it out, but you will have gained some level of experience of the most profound mindfulness of Shiné.

You will receive an extensive and detailed Shiné teacher manual.

The manual includes:

• The phenomena called “mind”, its qualities and dimensions.
• Meditation in Tibetan Buddhism, its goal and its benefits.
• What is Mindfulness?
• Preliminary practices.
• A complete map of Shiné, including the 32 Shiné navigation points (the five faults, the eight antidotes, the six powers, the four mental engagements and the nine stages of calm-abiding).
• Support before beginning a Shiné practice.
• The complete practice.
• Practice guidelines, including a personal Shiné schedule and how to deal with obstacles.
• How to teach Shiné.
• How to organise a course.
• Recommended reading.

The largest part of the homework is your own personal daily meditation. We will provide you with very clear instructions. You start with meditation sessions of five minutes. Slowly these sessions are extended, up to 45 minutes a day.

The second part of the homework contains self-reflection and studying the teacher manual. 

Another part is to get together online with your peer group members for guided meditations and reflection.

In addition you are asked to create your personal Thangka – your personal picture of Shiné, accompanied by a written explanation (in A4 format). But don’t worry, you do not need to do this Thangka as a drawing if you don’t want to. It can be done as a powerpoint presentation or something equivalent. Creating your Thangka helps you to deepen your knowledge by illustrating your personal experience on the Shiné path. And it will show us your understanding of Shiné.

In order to be certified as a Shiné teacher, you need to successfully pass a final online exam at the end of the education.

After every teaching day there will be a small test: You will receive a link, where you can answer some questions online. This helps you to assess your own understanding and to find out where you still might need to dig deeper.

At the end of the program you will then take your final online exam – which at this point should be no problem anymore. We already wish you a lot of success!

And please do not worry: Even if you don’t pass the test, you always have another chance!