INEXPLICABLE MAGIC
A FOUR-WEEK COURSE
April 29, May 6, May 13, May 20
Tuesdays 6:00 - 8:00 pm ET
Though meditation practice is most often presented as a way to de-stress and improve performance, this is not what it was created for. It is a path to liberation from suffering, a way to discover the three qualities of the awakened mind: wisdom, compassion, and fierce courage.
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About the Program
However long you have been meditating, you have seen (or caught glimpses) of these qualities. You see more clearly the patterns of your life. You feel more and are more easily touched by your own and others’ experience. And, somehow, you become more and more certain about who you really are and how to live from that certainty. You navigate away from self-help and see that meditation is a silent incantation into something far more mysterious. Countless practitioners over millennia of experience have testified to this.
How does this happen? How does sitting there “doing nothing” bring all of this about? Well, I could cite neurological studies (somewhat valuable) or share the words of great wisdom masters who have broken it all down (extremely valuable) but instead, I’ll just say this: It’s magic. Though it may be possible to deconstruct it, it happens in a very particular way for each person. Through some combination of karma, psychology, and auspicious coincidence, transformation happens. It may or may not look like what you expect. It is not crafted; rather, it is discovered. It’s magic.
During more conventional times, I would say that simply having a steady (or steady-ish) meditation practice is enough, a perfectly good adjunct to your efforts to live a good life. Such a practice will rouse the more common results of meditation: stress-reduction, becoming more patient, less easily triggered, nicer, and so on. These are great things.
But these are not conventional times and more is needed–more power, more depth, more mystery, and less conventionality: the esoteric fruits of practice.
To enter this realm, your entire life needs to become part of your practice.
It is not just about sitting on the cushion for 5 or 10 or 45 minutes and then going about your business. I mean, please do sit for 5 or 10 or 45 minutes; it will enrich your life. But also begin to dismantle any barriers between what you do on the cushion and what you do everywhere else.
We are seeking to discover all the ways in which our homes, relationships, jobs, and art are practice; everything from the way we keep house to the relationships we choose to invest in (or not) is included.
During this four-week program, we will take a close look at this view of meditation and how it leads to certainty that you are actually living in a sacred (read: awake) world, including everything that is beautiful and everything that is insane.
Our guiding principles for this exploration are:
- The power of ritual and lineage
- It is possible to bring mindfulness and awareness off the cushion and into everyday life
- The personal is not an obstacle, it is the way
- Heartbreak is a super power
- The necessity of boundaries
- We clean up after ourselves (physically, emotionally, spiritually)
- We can dream on behalf of the world
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Curriculum
CLASS ONE
April 29: View
Overview of the meditation technique
What “mindfulness” meditation leaves out and how to bring it back in
The vulnerability that arises with meditation
The three jewels that create mind- and heart-protection
The power of daily ritual: why, how, when, etc.
CLASS TWO
May 6: Outer Magic
What is lineage? Do you have one? (Spoiler: yes) Why this is important
Living as mystics (hiding in plain sight)
Arranging your world through 5 sacred acts
Rediscovering self-love; appreciation for our beauty and our craziness as guideCLs
CLASS THREE
May 13: Inner Magic
Who is this inner guru?
The importance of sorrow
Living from a place of sanity (rather than in reaction to insanity)
CLASS FOUR
May 20: Secret Magic
The vital necessity of establishing boundaries
Learning to read your own wisdom
Remembering to dream (and how this benefits the world)
Where to go from here
Included in each class:
A new teaching and conversation with Susan
A breakout meeting with your small group (assigned at random during the first class, to be continued in each subsequent gathering)
A chance to share your questions and reflections with all
An optional essay assignment to help you corral your thoughts and reactions; use of our private forum to learn from each other
You will leave this course with:
A steady meditation practice
A personal ritual to begin your day with confidence
Greater insight into the sources of support you already possess
An introduction to the “householder path” and how to bring everything in your life to the path
The irreplaceable support of a kind community
Lifelong access to these classes
ABOUT SUSAN
Susan Piver is a Buddhist teacher and the New York Times bestselling author of nine books including The Four Noble Truths of Love: Buddhist Wisdom for Modern Relationships and The Buddhist Enneagram: Nine Paths to Warriorship, Her new book, Inexplicable Joy, was published in January 2025.
In 2011, Piver launched The Open Heart Project, an online meditation community with nearly 20,000 members who practice meditation together and explore ways to bring spiritual values such as kindness, genuineness, and fearlessness to everyday life.
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