The Spectrum of Awareness: Expand the Breadth of your Practice (WT1T25)

PROGRAM DATES: September 9 – November 18, 2025

All sessions on Tuesdays from 4:00pm – 6:00pm US Pacific Time.
Session 1: September 9
Session 2: September 23
Session 3: October 7
Session 4: October 21
Session 5: November 4
Session 6: November 18

Open to: Everyone

Prerequisite:

For experienced students – must have at least 2 years of insight meditation practice

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

Based on Diana’s book, The Little Book of Being, this course is an opportunity to take your meditation practice to the next level. It offers a comprehensive overview of what author & teacher Diana Winston calls “The Spectrum of Awareness”: a map that teaches us multiple ways to meditate, from focused to investigative to spacious to awareness of awareness.

The course will introduce us to the effortless and spacious states of resting in the depth of our being, called Natural Awareness. We will explore the history of these techniques and how they are taught in Buddhist and mindfulness contexts. We will offer teachings on expanding your mindfulness meditation practice and the implications and practical applications for daily life. Diana reminds us that there is no hierarchy: no practice is superior, each component of awareness—from focused to natural—can be used skillfully. We will offer guidance on how to choose as you broaden your understanding of your meditation practice, move out of meditation ruts, and enter varied and profound states of being.

Classes will meet every two weeks with home practices to explore between sessions.

PROGRAM COMPONENTS

Session 1: The Spectrum of Awareness

• Introduction to a spectrum of awareness practices: focused, flexible, open, and natural, how they show up in your meditation and in your daily life

Session 2: Focused Awareness

• Cultivating Concentration—a focused awareness practice
• Ways of cultivating concentration through breath meditation
• Practices

Session 3: Investigative Awareness

• Investigative Awareness: Exploring our thoughts, emotions, body through mindfulness to bring wisdom and clear seeing
• Practices

Session 4: Open Awareness

• Open or Choiceless Awareness (letting go of the anchor and moving to a broader spacious practice)
• Practices

Session 5: Natural Awareness

• Natural Awareness as awareness of awareness
• Ways of Inviting Natural Awareness into meditation practice
• Glimpse Practices

Session 6: Natural Awareness in Daily Life and Wrap Up

• Cultivating Natural Awareness in Daily Life
• Glimpse Practices for Daily Life
• Wrap Up