5-week online course

Sundays, April 24 and May 1, 8, 15, 22
3 - 5 pm Eastern (NYC) time
$165 ($145 for $5/a month and above Patreon members)

PLEASE NOTE: All classes be recorded and archived for students who cannot make that time

In the Western world, we tend to see our mind—the intellect—as our identity. From the perspective of the Eastern non-dualistic worldview, the mind is simply one way of accessing the world. In order to perceive reality, and one’s true nature, it is essential to move beyond the mind. This class will draw on techniques developed over the centuries to do just that.

In this five week course, led by Eastern-Trained Meditation Teacher Bryan Melillo, participants will learn a preliminary practice of perception. Not aesthetic “seeing,” rather, seeing in a way that allows one to navigate the inner and outer world as taught by the ancient seers of the east.

The course explores the Eastern conception of how we move through our lives as awareness and as consciousness, and the dynamic play between these two states. Using vedic science, we will engage in an experiential investigation of our day to day lives as we establish an understanding of the earth elements, chakras, and what Patañjali referred to as the three strands of being: sattva, rajas and tamas, known as the gunas.

This class combines lectures, readings, a weekly observation checklist, and a breathing, pranayama technique, taught to gently strengthen each participant's physical and energetic system. Each class will include a 30 minute guided meditation designed to establish feeling based awareness (beyond mind), as well as an additional supplement for those interested in learning to chant the ancient mantra, the Gayatri, a chant that honors the Goddess who created the universe, drawn from the Rigveda, one of the oldest spiritual texts, dating as far back as 1700 BCE.

SCHEDULE

• Class 1 (24 April): Awareness and Consciousness

• Class 2 (1 May): Chakras and Elements

• Class 3: (8 May): Three Strands: Lucidity, Action, Inertia

• Class 4: (15 May): Discrimination (Buddhi Yoga)

• Class 5: (22 May): Imprints and the Subconscious

Bryan Melillo has studied meditation in the Jñana and Bhakti yoga traditions for the last 23 years. Having experienced a classically identifiable Kundalini experience in 1997 his path eventually led to Tiruvannamalai, India, where he has studied with the same teacher since 2001. Here, he began learning (and eventually teaching) a variety of breathing (pranayama) and mantra techniques. His exposure to many esoteric practices opened him to insights around the great eastern traditions on the death and dying process. Bryan recently completed an End of Life Doula certification training as his goal is to integrate eastern understandings of death with the growing western end of life care, death with dignity movement. Bryan has an active art studio and is an assistant professor at NYC’s Parsons School of Design.

Image: Vishvarupa, Opaque watercolor on paper, ca. probably 1700-1800