Planetary Dharma - 2023
Welcome!
250 Hour Meditation Apprentice Training
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed individuals can change the world. In fact, it's the only thing that ever has."
MARGARET MEAD, Cultural Anthropologist
Congratulations on joining the inaugural cohort of the Karuna Mandala’s Planetary Dharma Apprentice Training. You have made a commitment to your personal growth and your awakening as a heroic altruist, a Bodhisattva.
We are all facing a time of great uncertainty, the dying of an old world, and the birthing of a new culture and a new time. This training in Fourth Turning Dharma is an offering to the larger worldwide awakening. May it support your growth in loving awareness and empower you to be of great benefit to the Good, the True, and the Beautiful.
Apprentice Level: 250 Hour Meditation Apprentice Training
January - December 2023
Planetary Dharma
This 200+ hour apprentice training focuses on the path of Maitreya’s Nine Stages of Calm Staying; a contemplative immersion cultivating the cognitive, metacognitive, motivational, attentional, and psychological capacities of students for peak performance, engaged joy, happiness, personal integration and equanimity.
Our system of training offers an initiatory distillation of the contemplative arts and sciences - a Planetary Dharma - for the emerging contemporary bodhisattva.
The 200+ hour apprentice course is one module in a four year program designed to train students to become a Level 1 Graduate Teacher in the Planetary Dharma 4th Turning system - with a certification from the Karuna School.
The Planetary Dharma Apprentice Program curriculum includes understanding the principles underlying meditation, exploring the interface of meditation with Western psychology and neuroscience, cultivating teaching skills, and more. As a student, you will:
Learn to teach Maitreya’s Nine Stages of Calm Staying with tools for body, heart, mind, and community
Acquire skills that apply Calm Staying and self-compassion to relationships, conflict resolution, healing trauma, organizational wisdom, and planetary evolution
Cultivate skills for facilitating groups and teaching a wide range of practitioners with diverse developmental and cultural needs
Commit with new resolution and depth to your spiritual unfolding
Join us for this extraordinary program that highlights the connection between psychological and spiritual depth.
Year 1:
Personal Vehicle: Dharma Foundations in the Nine Stages
This year’s curriculum teaches the foundations of self-healing in the Planetary Dharma system: the approaches of the integral Fourth-Turning, the understanding of multigenerational trauma, the importance of the insights of the four noble truths, learning to relate to suffering, karma and taking the personal responsibility to heal through the eight-fold path, and the meditation practice of Maitreya’s nine stages.
Students will be contributing to, and helping to create the Karuna Mandala and forward all of its projects. This training will allow students the benefits of strengthening their commitment to personal and group practice, social action, and to pave the way towards becoming a Graduate: Level 1Teacher.
Your educational journey will support:
healing personal developmental trauma,
awakening to the unbounded loving openness of your essential nature,
owning within yourself the “heroic altruist” archetype,
discovering your innate capacity for vital energy and bliss,
engaging in community with like-minded souls to build a new deliberately developmental culture of sacred sangha.
The Apprentice certification training is the first level of a 4 year Level 1 journey.
Apprentice
Assistant
Associate
Graduate: Level 1 Teacher
Training Format, Dates, and Hours
Recordings will be available in our membership library for all classes, practice weekends, and retreats.
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Planetary Dharma Class - 40 Hours
Held on the 1st & 3rd Thursday of Month: 5pm - 7pm Mountain Time
In this class we will be exploring the theory and practice of Maitreya’s Nine Stages of Calm/Staying within the fourth-turning teachings that synthesizes Buddhist contemplative science, psychodynamic integration, embodiment, adult ego-development, and esotericism. Each class consists of a dharma talk, Q&A, and a guided meditation.
This class meets the 1st & 3rd Thursday on Zoom unless a cancelation is posted below. Once you sign up you will have access to the link on our virtual courtyard.
*No class on January 5th. The first class for Planetary Dharma begins on January 19th.
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Contemplative Weekends - 98 Hours
Practice weekends are an opportunity for a 7 hour day of dharma practice giving students the opportunity to learn the path, benefit from the group field, rebuild karmic momentum in your personal practice, and refine your experience through nuanced guided meditation from the teacher.
Upcoming Dates:
January 14 & 15
February 11 & 12
March 11 & 12
April 15 & 16
September 16 & 17
October 21 & 22
November 18 & 19
Schedule for Practice Days (US Mountain Time):
Practice Session 1: 7:00am - 10:30am US Mountain Time
Meal Break: 10:30am - 11:30am US Mountain Time
Practice Session 2: 11:30am - 3:00pm US Mountain Time
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Online Retreats - 70 Hours
Retreats are an opportunity to take a deeper dive into your personal practice, benefit from the group field, and receive guidance from the teacher. They focus on a particular dimension of dharma practice such as staying calm practice, insight meditation, Open Ground essence practice, and alchemical energy practices.
Upcoming Dates:
* May 3-7
* December 6-10
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Peer Led Sangha - 40 Hours
Held on the 2nd & 4th Thursday of the Month: 5pm Mountain Time & in Europe 6pm Central European Time
Students will be assigned a circle of peers led by senior sangha members to share personal process related to the journey, the contemplative learning, and to practice facilitating group meditation.
*No peer group on January 12th. The first peer class begins on January 26th.
Syllabus
Year 1: The Body as a Personal Vehicle
Dharma Foundations in the Nine Stages of Maitreya
Over this first year of coursework Dr. Churchill, and special guests will guide you through a systematic presentation of the Nine Stages of Maitreya, integrating Buddhist contemplative science with contemporary perspectives from psychology, tantric psycho-energetics, peak performance, neuroscience, and trauma research.
What are the Nine Stages of Maitreya?
According to tradition 1600 years ago the meditation adept Asanga travelled through the dimensions of our planet to Tushita, a heavenly realm, and developed an ongoing relationship with Maitreya, the advanced Bodhisattva, and future World Teacher. Maitreya transmitted a body of teachings to Asanga who taught them and integrated them into the Mahayana, the Buddhist universal teaching. The nine stages form a part of an untranslated text called the Yogacarabhumi.
The nine stages are an educational journey in understanding, relating to, and taming the mind. The journey is both a meditative journey, and an initiatory journey into the path of the awakening hero; the Bodhisattva. By learning to let go of distractions in our lives we can begin to calmly stay on what is most meaningful to us. The nine stages are the training par excellence in peak performance supporting our personal, interpersonal, cultural and systemic engagement. As we become more unified within we are able to bring about unification in the world.
In this year long journey you will first develop an overview of the Planetary Dharma Path of the Bodhisattva. Then we build a strong foundation in the Buddhist psychology relevant to the nine stages. Over the year, we will step by step develop the motivational, cognitive, attentional, metacognitive, and interpersonal skills of engagement, joy, happiness, inner unity, and equanimity, the goals of the nine stages.
To allow for the most comprehensive learning experience the coursework is delivered through:
2 Classes per Month with Dr. Chruchill
2 Classes per Month with Peer Led Groups
7 Practice Weekends
2 Retreats
Through the year we will be working with readings, reflections, journaling, guided meditations, and engagement with community through the online community platform. By the end of the year you will have journeyed the 1600 year old path, covered over 250 hours of learning, skill development and insight earning yourself a Certificate of Apprenticeship Completion, having transformed your life and its direction forever.
Syllabus Schedule:
PDW1: Learning the Path:
January 14th & 15th
Thursday Evenings: Jan 19th & Feb 2nd
The Path of the Planetary Bodhisattva
The Maitreya Approach of the Boundless HeartMind
The Wheel of Multigenerational Trauma
Overview of the Nine-Stages of Mastering the Elephant Brain
Conscious Experience Model
PDW2: The Path of Reflection:
Feb 11th & 12th Path
Thursday Evenings: Feb 16th & March 2nd
The Dynamics of the Path
Moments of Consciousness Model
Hindrances, Antidotes, Powers, and Drives
Five Controlling Mental Factors
Mindfulness: conjoining Metacognition and Attention
PDW3: Developing Mindfulness:
March 11th & 12th & April 15th & 16th
Thursday Evenings: March 16th & April 6th
The Pleasure of Practice- the positive feedback loop
The Power of Self
The Directions of Heart
Partial Staying
PDI1: Five Day Practice Intensive
May 3rd - May 7th
Thursday Evening: May 25th
Review of PDW 1-3
Review practice schedule for June & July (self study)
Review & Refine: Summer Evening School
Thursday Evenings: Aug 3rd, Aug 17th, Sept 7th
Refining the Practice PDW 1-3
PDW5 The Path of Metacognitive Intelligence:
Sept 16th & 17th
Thursday Evenings: Sept 21st, Oct 5th, & Oct 19th
The Yogacara Mind System Model
Clearing Subtle Dullness
Whole Body Breathing
Meditative Joy
PDW6 The Skilled Meditator:
Oct 21st & 22nd
Thursday Evenings: Nov 2nd & Nov 16th
Bringing the Five Factors Together
Assessing Progress
Identifying the Way Ahead
White Magic: The Art of Manifesting Sacred World
PDW7 The Path of Enthusiastic Perseverance:
Nov 18th & 19th
Thursday Evening: Nov 30th
Advanced Meditation Factors and the Unification of Mind
The Pacification of the Senses
Joy & Happiness: Learning to Ease Up in Life
Meditating on the Equanimity of Mind
PDI2: Five Day Practice Intensive 2
Dec 6th -10th
Review & Refine PDW1-PDW7
Course Conclusion & Celebration
Thursday Evening Dec 14th
The sangha reflects on the past year, all that has been accomplished, and we begin to make plans for your next stage of training at the Assistant level. We will share plans for our social action and community projects: Dharma Army and the Karuna School.
How Does the Training Courtyard Work?
Please be sure to familiarize yourself with our process for obtaining zoom links & class recordings via the Courtyard Training membership areas.
Gated Content
You are now able to gain access to our gated Apprentice Training courtyard space. Please do not share you login information with others who are not registered for this course.
Zoom Links & Recordings
In this space, you will be able to access Zoom links to each class, practice weekend, or retreat, and the latest class recording.
