Planetary Dharma - 2024
200 Hour Intermediate Apprentice Training
Year 2
*This course is only open to students who have completed Year 1 - Nine Stages of Maitreya
200 Hour Meditation Training
Intermediate Apprentice: Year 2
January - December 2024
The Liberating Path of Insight & Universal Love
This 200 hour Intermediate Apprentice level training focuses on the heart of Mahayana Buddhism in its planetary, 4th turning expression. Together, we travel the liberating path of Love/Wisdom that unfolds through penetrating insight into our psychological reality, and ultimately rediscovering our essential Buddha Nature - free from all suffering.
In terms of meditative practice, the year is comprised of two cycles of training: the Mind Cycle and Open Ground Cycle.
The Mind Cycle:
Insight practices that address the fundamental openness of experience
Gaining freedom from the cognitive reification caused by language, somatic experience, self-structure, perceptual-duality, space-time, and the individual subjectivity of the attentional system.
Refining our insight into the impermanence of somatic, auditory, visual, and mental phenomena and in turn, gaining insight into the inherent non-dual perception of the body’s senses.
Deepening into the wisdom of the Great Way (Mahayana) through deconstructing time, back/foreground distinctions, and our core fixations that keep identity fused with the attentional system.
Building upon our metacognitive intelligence (prajna) introduced in earlier practices, we explore the nature of primordial wisdom (jnana).
The Open Ground Cycle:
A somatic approach to stabilizing the non-dual essence of mind.
Addressing the traumatic separation between the mind, body, and the world this more receptive feminine approach reveals the profound loving support of the fundamental ground of experience (the mother consciousness).
As we surrender into the larger field of sacred life, the recognition of Buddha-nature becomes stable and simple.
Our system of training offers an initiatory distillation of the contemplative arts and sciences - a Planetary Dharma - for the emerging contemporary bodhisattva.
Tuition Pricing:
The Early Bird special expired on September 1, 2023
The scholarship application window closed on September 1, 2023
Standard Tuition Full Payment: $4,900
There will be a $200 Facilities Fee for each of the two “in person” Boulder 2024 Retreats. Attendees will be billed separately for each retreat as the respective date approaches.
Full payment is due at registration. $435 of your payment is a non-refundable & nontransferable deposit. Our cancellation policy is strict & firm with no exceptions: Cancellations on or before 11/1/23, will forfeit deposit and the remainder of your payment will be refunded. Cancellations after 11/1/23 will forfeit all money rendered. ALL session recordings will be available in membership library for your use until Jan. 1st, 2025.
2023/2024 Dates
Please scroll forward to January 2024 to view the dates for the Intermediate Apprentice Training.
Meet Your Instructors:
Dr. John Churchill
DOCTOR OF CONTEMPLATIVE PSYCHOLOGY | DHARMA TEACHER | TRADITIONAL CHINESE MEDICINE PRACTITIONER | AUTHOR
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Born in London, Dr. Churchill's interest in psycho-spiritual development, Integral theory, Contemplative studies, Western Esotericism, and Mahayana Buddhism began in his adolescence, eventually leading him to spend several years as a Buddhist monk at Samye Ling Monastery in Scotland. During this time, John received the esoteric Planetary Dharma transmissions that would in time unfold as his contribution to a planetary fourth turning teaching.
Dr. Churchill spent 15 years training and teaching “Great Seal” meditation in an Indo-Tibetan Mahayana lineage under the mentorship of the late senior Western teacher, translator, respected author, and clinical psychologist Dr. Daniel P. Brown.
He is also a founding member of the Integral Institute led by esteemed Transpersonal/Integral philosopher, Ken Wilber.
John has received advanced training in: attachment therapy, hypnosis, positive psychology for peak performance, and the “Pointing Out” style of Mahamudra meditation.
For the last 25 years, John has developed a a Fourth Turning Planetary Dharma practice which includes the somatically based contemplative practice path; Embodying the Open Ground, that integrates psychodynamic healing, adult development and meditation.
John holds a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology from William James College, and is a practitioner of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
Married to his partner, Nicole since 2000, they share two teen-agers together - Trinity and Bodhi, and are Co-Founders of Samadhi Integral, and Co-Directors of Karuna Mandala.
Nicole Churchill
MASTERS IN TRANSPERSONAL PSYCHOLOGY | CREDENTIALED MINDFULNESS BASED PSYCHEDELIC THERAPIST | BORAD CERTIFIED MUSIC THERAPIST | KUNDALINI YOGA INSTRUCTOR | MAMA OF THE CHURCHILL TEMPLE!
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Nicole is a psychedelic therapist with advanced training and credentialing in Mindfulness-Based Psychedelic Therapy through the Center for Medicinal Mindfulness where she is on staff. She has extensive training in the healing arts and is a board certified Music Therapist, Transpersonal Counselor, Certified Kundalini Yoga Instructor, and an Expressive Movement Facilitator.
She is a founding member of the Integral Institute led by esteemed Transpersonal/Integral philosopher, Ken Wilber, and was mentored for 15 years by respected author and clinical psychologist Dr. Daniel P. Brown. She has completed advanced training in the following areas: attachment therapy, hypnosis, gestalt, addictions, anxiety disorders, depression, conflict resolution, positive psychology for peak performance, CCRT (Core Conflict Relational Themes), and the “Pointing Out” style of Mahamudra meditation.
Nicole earned her BA from Boston’s world renowned Berklee College of Music (1993), where she majored in voice and songwriting. She was awarded a dual Masters from Naropa University in Boulder, CO, where she studied Transpersonal Psychology and Music Therapy (2001).
In addition to her clinical work, Nicole is the Co-Founder of Samadhi Integral and is the Executive Director of the Karuna Mandala Initiative, a 501 (c) (3) umbrella organization that nurtures, cross-pollinates, and actualizes projects that aim to raise human consciousness and develop wisdom culture in support of a good, true, beautiful, and sustainable future for our planet.
Married to her partner, John since 2000 they share two teen-agers together - Trinity and Bodhi. Tending to the Churchill family temple and raising their children has been a sacred journey of Karma yoga for Nicole. The lessons of motherhood have been immense and inform her approach to teaching the dharma of sacred world in everyday life.
She and John are the Co-Founders of Samadhi Integral, and the Co-Directors of their non-profit, Karuna Mandala.
Initiation Phases
The 200 hour Intermediate Apprentice Level course is the 2nd Initiation in a four year Bodhisattva/Practitioner training program. The intention of this training is to support the maturation and development of Bodhisattvas for their deployment across the wide range of altruistic service in the world.
For those advancing students that demonstrate interest, commitment, and aptitude, a facilitator track is available for applicants at the end of the 2nd year, and will be activated in the 3rd year. Please note: this is not a requirement to continue on with your Bodhisattva/Practitioner training. Students who apply will be considered for acceptance as a Senior Apprentice Facilitator-In-Training.
Accepted students will be provided intensive training opportunities (week-long retreats) in addition to the Bodhisattva training offered in Year’s 3 & 4, to become adjunct facilitators-in-training completing their practicums by supporting Novice students (Year 1) and Intermediate students (Year 2). Facilitators-in training will then have further opportunities to be onboarded to the Assistant and Associate Facilitator Track to become Adjunct Instructors in the Planetary Dharma 4th Turning system - with a certification of completion from the Karuna School. Graduate candidates will be invited to become Assistant instructors, and will complete further practicums to support students in Year’s 3 & 4.
Initiation Phases of the Four Year Meditation Apprentice Level Training:
Year 1: Novice
Year 2: Intermediate
Year 3: Senior | Facilitator-In-Training
Year 4: Graduate | Facilitator-In Training
The Planetary Dharma Apprentice Program curriculum provides an in depth training of the principles underlying meditation, exploring the interface of meditation with Western psychology, and the developmental processes of psychological individuation, soul initiation, and spiritual identification.
Join us for this extraordinary program!
