We are excited to announce a 10-Step program to our Shangriballa community. Are you tired of constantly searching for inner peace, only to feel like you’re continually fighting your own mind or body? Maybe you've tried meditation, but you still feel like there's a separate "you" inside, stressed, anxious, and trying to keep it all together. You're ready to move beyond basic coping and address the fundamental source of that struggle. The best part? This entire 10-Step journey is entirely FREE for the Shangriballa community! This is our gift to help you experience a seamless, effortless life directly. That's precisely what this program, led by Patrick Boulan and Lisa Silva, is designed for. Whether you're a complete beginner or an experienced meditator, this journey is your next essential step. Introducing: The 10-Step Journey into Pure Awareness This isn't another course on fixing yourself. It’s an experiential inquiry into the simple, liberating truth of Non-Duality—the realisation of not-two. Over 10 steps, we’ll dismantle the core illusions that create suffering, using your own direct experience as the guide. Each session includes a core conceptual teaching, immediately followed by a custom-guided meditation designed to create an expansive and profound experience for all levels. **The Secret to True Freedom** Step 1 focuses on the course's foundation, introducing basic non-dual teaching and meditation practices. It will include our anchor-setting program, which will serve as a foundation for the rest of the course. We are establishing your Unchanging Container (Step 2)—the spacious awareness that is already whole and peaceful. Everything else happens in this space. Then, we systematically lighten the grip of your deepest identifications: - You'll Bypass the Mind: We’ll spend a crucial week at The Doorway of the Senses (Step 3), tuning into raw, unlabelled input. You see the world vividly, free from the mind’s usual commentary. - You'll Drop the Story: We’ll examine The Narrative of Self (Step 7) and identify the subtle, constant thought that creates the "me." When the I-thought stops, you discover the vast, silent dimension of your being. - You'll Dissolve the Body: A massive shift happens in The Myth of the Body (Step 8), where we stop seeing the body as a fixed object and realise it's just a dynamic flow of pure, shifting sensation. When you stop identifying with the body, the pain and limitation instantly become less personal.

« The precious tree of nondual mind spreads through the universe; it bears compassion flower and fruit, though there is no “other” and no “doer of good.” » —Tilopa

Wow. First time I follow the track from thought, to story, to imprint in the nervous system/body. As usual I was running on the traidmill and listening to Patrick. Despite his suggestion, I could not let a thought occupy the field and kick me out of a near to blissful state I thought I was experiencing (my favorite story). Then a guy talked real loud nearby, and that upset me. A story started where I had to admonish the culprit, but at that very moment Patrick gave us the suggestion to accompany the story and its somatic effects. That's when I identified that the story, the pain it generates were not mine, but just another brick in the wall.

Its beautiful to discover The Shangriballa Method, wonderful stuff. Just what I needed to hear. But I would like to add some nuance... I've personally gone far down the rabbit hole of awareness/concentration meditation training (much more the Shamatha side of the Vipassana/Shamatha duality), without much regard to embodied trauma. But I'd push back on the ominous framing of "Pitfall of Spiritual Bypassing" cited in the introduction... concentration meditation has brought huge benefits. Our monkey mind thoughts (Default Mode Network) create a huge amount of noise that AMPLIFIES underlying trauma... by focusing on cultivating stable concentration and awareness, reducing the overall noise of the ruminating mind, then you are in a stronger and SAFER foundation to tackle the underlying trauma. Case in point, I've practiced Vipassana hardcore the last weeks since my Bufo retreat (to maximise the neuroplasticity from the medicine I've gone all in). I believe I've made significant initial progress in beginning to heal from trauma with a 2+ hour daily Vipassana meditation (predominantly manifested as tightness/heat in the chest) ... I likely could not have done this if I had no previous ability to direct my mind to where it needed to go (equanimous concentration/awareness) to focus on bodily introspection. Arguably, cultivating concentration meditation first, because it is pleasurable and earned safety, is an equally excellent and less destabilizing route to take - avoiding Dark Night of the Soul situations. You're not running headlong into deep trauma with a fragile mind. Which comes first, the chicken or the egg? ;) Both approaches hand in hand, body and mind, is likely the optimal path.

I am sure all of us who are on this path have had the experience of trying to put into words our experience and finding we can't. It can be frustrating. This short video explains why we can't really describe our experience with this medicine. It reminds me of the quote from the Tao Te Ching: "The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao" (trans Stephen Mitchell)