INEXPLICABLE MAGIC
A FOUR-WEEK COURSE
Oct 21, Oct 28, Nov 4, Nov 11
Tuesdays 6:00 - 7:30 pm ET
Earlier this year I offered this program as a gathering place for us during an extremely chaotic and uncertain time.
The chaos and uncertainty have certainly not diminished.
I want to invite you again to explore the dharma of being human at this time on planet earth, feel the support of our wonderful community, and, perhaps most of all, remember how to protect your mind–not to bypass or ignore, but to preserve your sanity, courage, and compassion. These are the tools needed to live fully and to turn the tide. When it is time to use them, we want to be ready.
Register Today
Inexplicable Magic
Oct 21, Oct 28, Nov 4, Nov 11
Tuesday evenings from 6–7:30pm ET
Price: $154
Payable in full or in two installments
($77/mo for two months)
The deadline to apply for a scholarship has passed. All applicants will be contacted by October 13.
Oct 21, Oct 28, Nov 4, Nov 11
Tuesday evenings from 6–7:30pm ET
Price: $154
Payable in full or in two installments
($77/mo for two months)
The deadline to apply for a scholarship has passed. All applicants will be contacted by October 13.
Please Note: No full or partial refunds
About the Program
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 what was mentioned above: sanity, courage, and compassion. 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 calling you into something mysterious. Countless practitioners over millennia 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 generally, 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.
This discovery will be our focus during the program.
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
- The personal is not an obstacle, it is the way
- The power of a broken heart
- The importance of cleaning up after ourselves
- The necessity of boundaries
- How to dream on behalf of the world
- The householder mystic
Register Today
Inexplicable Magic
Oct 21, Oct 28, Nov 4, Nov 11
Tuesday evenings from 6–7:30pm ET
Price: $154
Payable in full or in two installments
($77/mo for two months)
The deadline to apply for a scholarship has passed. All applicants will be contacted by October 13.
Oct 21, Oct 28, Nov 4, Nov 11
Tuesday evenings from 6–7:30pm ET
Price: $154
Payable in full or in two installments
($77/mo for two months)
The deadline to apply for a scholarship has passed. All applicants will be contacted by October 13.
Please Note: No full or partial refunds
Curriculum
CLASS ONE
October 21: View
Overview/reminder of the meditation technique
What “mindfulness” meditation leaves out and how to bring it back in
The power of daily ritual: why, how, when
Rediscovering self-love; appreciation for our beauty and our craziness as guides
Ordering your world
CLASS TWO
October 28: Outer Magic
The problem with egolessness
The intimacy of the spiritual journey
Connecting with rather than turning away from yourself
The vulnerability that arises with meditation–and how important it is
CLASS THREE
November 4: Inner Magic
Connecting with the inner guru
The importance of sorrow
The vital necessity of establishing boundaries
Living from a place of sanity (rather than in reaction to insanity)
CLASS FOUR
November 11: Secret Magic
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 a small group
- 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 connection or reconnection to 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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