The Heart of Mindfulness: A Year-Long Course and Community with Yong Oh and Kate Siber
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The Heart of Mindfulness: A Year-Long Course and Community
Exploring the Four Foundations of Mindfulness & the Brahma Viharas
with Yong Oh & Kate Siber
November 2026 - October 2027 IN PERSON
This year-long practice program, the first of its kind for the Dharma Center, will weave together two fundamental Buddhist teachings: the four foundations of mindfulness and the four boundless heart qualities. This program offers a unique opportunity to deepen practice, build confidence in your understanding of the teachings, build community, strengthen friendships, and live the Dharma more fully and joyfully in the midst of everyday life.
Progressively moving through mindfulness of the body, feeling, mind and phenomena, we can learn, step by step, how to bring awareness to all aspects of our lived experience. Seamlessly weaving in the brahma-viharas, or the boundless qualities of loving-kindness, compassion, appreciative joy, and equanimity, suffuses our days with balance, warmth and responsiveness.
Together, these teachings, which include some of the classical Buddhists lists, such as the five hindrances, the five aggregates, the six sense bases, the seven factors of awakening and the four noble truths, support us in living in peace and freedom moment-to-moment—not as an abstract ideal but in the beauty and messiness of our very lives here and now, just as they are.
This study and practice program will place a special emphasis on community and friendship. For this reason, we are limiting our group to 25 people. This means that your presence in the program is both for your own enrichment and also supports the learning and deepening of others. We wholeheartedly invite you to join us if, upon reflection, you feel ready and available to show up fully, heartfully and consistently over the course of 12 months, both for yourself and for others.
At the end of the program, our sincere aim is for you to emerge with a deeper understanding and sense of kalyana mitta (spiritual friendship), a sense of confidence and groundedness in the fundamentals of the Dharma, and a more suffusive integration of mindfulness and the brahma-viharas in your day-to-day life.
Our primary texts will be Bhikkhu Analayo’s Satipatthana Meditation: A Practice Guide and Christina Feldman’s Boundless Heart: Kindness, Compassion, Joy, and Equanimity. We will also engage with the Satipatthana Sutta directly. Other readings and supplemental resources will be offered to support our learning together.
LOGISTICS
The program will consist of two monthly meetings on Wednesday evenings (6:00-7:30 p.m.):
One session will include dharma reflections, guided meditation practice, discussion, and questions and responses.
The other session will center on quiet practice time, integration and community connection.
At least six of the latter meetings will be peer-led. Willing volunteers within the cohort will take turns co-facilitating, with the support and guidance of the teachers.
We will begin and end the program with a Sunday afternoon retreat (noon-6).
There is no online option and no recording. We will practice together in the moment, with whatever arises, as the teachings have been passed down orally for thousands of years.
NUMBER OF PEOPLE: 25
TIME COMMITMENT
3 hours of class time together monthly (7.5 on the first month and last month)
1.5-2 hours of reading and reflection monthly
Daily practice time
HOW TO APPLY: Please fill out the application by following this link: https://forms.gle/QZKmx8yyXK7fegRJA. Applications will be due by August 7 and notifications will go out by the end of August. If there is space left after that, applications will be welcomed on a rolling basis.
COST: The Dharma Center operates on the gift economy and the cost of this year-long course is on a two-part sliding scale. The fee that you offer through the registration system supports our non-profit and pays the costs of the website, administration, building, etc. These fees are on a sliding scale of $385, $559, $733, $907, or $1079. Scholarships are readily available upon request and no one will be turned away for lack of funds. In keeping with our 2,600-year-old tradition, the teachers of the retreat are not compensated but rather share the teachings freely. In turn, you are invited into the practice of dana, or generosity, a gift economy system that has been alive since the time of the Buddha. At the end, you are invited to make a donation to support the teachers in continuing their valuable work. Donations in any amount whatsoever are gratefully received, and the practice of generosity is always elective.
DATES: November 2026 - October 2027
QUESTIONS: Please email Kristin at [email protected] or call 970-426-8983 to leave a voicemail.
LOCATION: Durango Dharma Center, 1800 E. 3rd Ave, Ste 109, Durango CO
ABOUT YONG AND KATE: Yong and Kate both serve on the Dharma Council for the Durango Dharma Center. Visit durangodharmacenter.org to learn more about them.
Exploring the Four Foundations of Mindfulness & the Brahma Viharas
with Yong Oh & Kate Siber
November 2026 - October 2027 IN PERSON
This year-long practice program, the first of its kind for the Dharma Center, will weave together two fundamental Buddhist teachings: the four foundations of mindfulness and the four boundless heart qualities. This program offers a unique opportunity to deepen practice, build confidence in your understanding of the teachings, build community, strengthen friendships, and live the Dharma more fully and joyfully in the midst of everyday life.
Progressively moving through mindfulness of the body, feeling, mind and phenomena, we can learn, step by step, how to bring awareness to all aspects of our lived experience. Seamlessly weaving in the brahma-viharas, or the boundless qualities of loving-kindness, compassion, appreciative joy, and equanimity, suffuses our days with balance, warmth and responsiveness.
Together, these teachings, which include some of the classical Buddhists lists, such as the five hindrances, the five aggregates, the six sense bases, the seven factors of awakening and the four noble truths, support us in living in peace and freedom moment-to-moment—not as an abstract ideal but in the beauty and messiness of our very lives here and now, just as they are.
This study and practice program will place a special emphasis on community and friendship. For this reason, we are limiting our group to 25 people. This means that your presence in the program is both for your own enrichment and also supports the learning and deepening of others. We wholeheartedly invite you to join us if, upon reflection, you feel ready and available to show up fully, heartfully and consistently over the course of 12 months, both for yourself and for others.
At the end of the program, our sincere aim is for you to emerge with a deeper understanding and sense of kalyana mitta (spiritual friendship), a sense of confidence and groundedness in the fundamentals of the Dharma, and a more suffusive integration of mindfulness and the brahma-viharas in your day-to-day life.
Our primary texts will be Bhikkhu Analayo’s Satipatthana Meditation: A Practice Guide and Christina Feldman’s Boundless Heart: Kindness, Compassion, Joy, and Equanimity. We will also engage with the Satipatthana Sutta directly. Other readings and supplemental resources will be offered to support our learning together.
LOGISTICS
The program will consist of two monthly meetings on Wednesday evenings (6:00-7:30 p.m.):
One session will include dharma reflections, guided meditation practice, discussion, and questions and responses.
The other session will center on quiet practice time, integration and community connection.
At least six of the latter meetings will be peer-led. Willing volunteers within the cohort will take turns co-facilitating, with the support and guidance of the teachers.
We will begin and end the program with a Sunday afternoon retreat (noon-6).
There is no online option and no recording. We will practice together in the moment, with whatever arises, as the teachings have been passed down orally for thousands of years.
NUMBER OF PEOPLE: 25
TIME COMMITMENT
3 hours of class time together monthly (7.5 on the first month and last month)
1.5-2 hours of reading and reflection monthly
Daily practice time
HOW TO APPLY: Please fill out the application by following this link: https://forms.gle/QZKmx8yyXK7fegRJA. Applications will be due by August 7 and notifications will go out by the end of August. If there is space left after that, applications will be welcomed on a rolling basis.
COST: The Dharma Center operates on the gift economy and the cost of this year-long course is on a two-part sliding scale. The fee that you offer through the registration system supports our non-profit and pays the costs of the website, administration, building, etc. These fees are on a sliding scale of $385, $559, $733, $907, or $1079. Scholarships are readily available upon request and no one will be turned away for lack of funds. In keeping with our 2,600-year-old tradition, the teachers of the retreat are not compensated but rather share the teachings freely. In turn, you are invited into the practice of dana, or generosity, a gift economy system that has been alive since the time of the Buddha. At the end, you are invited to make a donation to support the teachers in continuing their valuable work. Donations in any amount whatsoever are gratefully received, and the practice of generosity is always elective.
DATES: November 2026 - October 2027
QUESTIONS: Please email Kristin at [email protected] or call 970-426-8983 to leave a voicemail.
LOCATION: Durango Dharma Center, 1800 E. 3rd Ave, Ste 109, Durango CO
ABOUT YONG AND KATE: Yong and Kate both serve on the Dharma Council for the Durango Dharma Center. Visit durangodharmacenter.org to learn more about them.
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Where is it happening?
1800 E 3rd Ave, Ste 109, Durango, CO, United States, Colorado 81301
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
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Host or PublisherDurango Dharma Center