With Dr. Broderick Sawyer

Overview

In this short course, attendees will come to understand Tantric practice as one potential key to developing a more embodied clinical practice, sustaining social justice work, and contributing to an enlightened society. In our four weekly sessions, psychologist-activist Dr. Broderick Sawyer will explain how we can work to awaken and embody the strong force of fierce compassion and altruism some call peace-warrior energy. This deeply engaged and skillful energy for disrupting harm and fostering the greater good is accessible to all with diligent practice in preparing — and continuously repairing — a grounding rooted in rigorous integrity and the de-materializing wisdom of selflessness.

We can practice meditation, helping others, and Tantric methods for years, but without preparing the psychological ground, the enlightened energy of altruism cannot find its proper “conductor” to sustain the force of fierce compassion we need to make change. Integrating Eastern wisdom into a daily practice of fostering psychosocial change and social justice can happen, but only when we learn to cut through the dominant Western cultural perspective of hyper-individualism. Eastern wisdom is experiential, and yet our contemplative practice is all too often confounded by our cultural conditioning to get lost in heady abstraction and spiritual bypassing, instead of dropping into a direct, 24/7 practice of a non-dual, open abiding in our heart center.

As Audre Lorde once said, “the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house,” and even more, the master’s psychology will never dismantle the master’s systems. Come find out how to engage the deconditioning process.

Schedule

Session One: Tantra: Peace-Warriorship is the Path to Real Healing and Justice

• Exploring Tantra as a “tuning” into Mother Nature’s instincts.
• Tantra as the “all-practice” method for an embodied practice of psychosocial change.
• What it means to prepare tantric ground with composure and egolessness.
• Q and A.

Session Two: Preparing the Ground for Tantra

• Cultivating the composure we need for psychosocial healing and transformation.
• Cultivating egolessness and psychosocial engagement through deconditioning our Western ego.
• Emptying concepts, soothing the conceptualizer, and emptying the conceptualizer.
• Q and A.

Session Three: Psychosocial Healing, Social Justice and Peace-Warriorship

• Direct action as chemical reaction: Nature protects Herself through the body.
• How compassion turns red: Addressing Mahayana hang-ups.
• Non-dual energy: Where peace aligns with wrath.
• Q and A.

Session Four: Warrior’s Attainment is the World’s Attainment

• Protecting our world as the life-world of Mother Nature.
• Karma as a vehicle: Ending self-limitation with critical self-analysis.
• Journey is goal: Surrender, self-inquiry, and conclusion.
• Q and A.

All sessions will include meditation and instruction for everyday practice.

Faculty: Dr. Broderick Sawyer

Schedule: Wednesdays: March 8, 15, 22, 29 from 6:30 – 8:00pm ET

Tuition: Regular fee: $120 / Supported fee: $90

The tuition is for all four evenings. (Can’t make all 4 dates? Each session is recorded and will be available for 6 weeks for those who registered.)

Location: Online via Zoom

Registration: Register here