Current Practitioners Group Descriptions

Practitioners groups are on-going groups for CSS members who want to dedicate themselves to practicing the teachings of the mystics from the major religious traditions. These groups meet once a week starting in October and ending in the summer. For exact meeting dates, times, and locations, please see the CSS calendar. Practitioners may sign up for multiple groups. The Foundation Studies course or Distance Studies Course is a prerequisite to attend other practitioners groups.

Practitioners groups are not "drop-in" groups. To attend a group, you should register in the Fall when making your membership pledge. If you need to take a leave of absence from a group, or need to be absent, please let the teacher know in advance. In addition to these on-going year-long practitioners groups listed below, CSS teachers may also offer shorter duration classes, workshops, or seminars, which last a few days or a few weeks.

 

2024-2025 Practitioners Groups

 (All times below are US Pacific time unless otherwise noted)

Foundation Studies Class

See the Foundation Studies Class page for details.

 

Distance Studies Course

The distance studies course is a self-directed course of study following a set curriculum, with guidance from a CSS mentor. This is an alternative to the Foundation Studies Class. For details, see Distance Studies Course.

 

Practitioners Group (Todd)

Location: CSS Meeting Hall with hybrid Zoom
Days and Times: Wednesdays from 3:00 - 4:30 PM Pacific, October 2 through June 11
Description: We will be reading and discussing excerpted manuscripts, with an emphasis on practices of meditation and precepts, and will begin with readings and practices to help us tap into our intrinsic wisdom nature of love and compassion. The tentative list of manuscripts for this year are as follows:

  • Joel- Be Grateful for Everything- from The Way of Selflessness
  • Rodney Smith- aligned with awakening from Stepping out of Self-Deception
  • Willa Baker- The Wakeful Body from The Wakeful Body
  • Elizabeth Mattis Namgyel- Beyond Appearances, from The Logic of Faith
  • Rodney Smith- The Sense-of-Self- from Stepping out of Self-Deception
  • Elizabeth Mattis Namgyel- Investigating Things- from The Logic of Faith
  • Rodney Smith- The View of Interconnection, from Stepping out of Self-Deception
  • Ken Mcleod- Explication of poem by Jigm’e Lingpa, from A Trackless Path
  • Pema Chodron- Being Comfortable with Uncertainty from Comfortable with Uncertainty
  • Aanon Thubten- Love that Embraces Everything, from Embracing Each Moment

I will be sending all readings out via email attachments to all participants, so there is no need to purchase texts.

 

Practitioners Group (Andrea)

Location: Zoom
Days and Times: Mondays from 6 - 8 PM, Sept. 30 through summer.
Description: This class will be a continuation of our study of 37 Practices of a Bodhisattva (a being who is on the path of awakening for the benefit of all sentient beings). For those continuing and for new students who can catch up and have a meeting time 5:30 - 6 PM, then 6 PM - 8 PM class continues. New students are welcome to listen to last years recorded teachings.

 

Practitioners Group East (David)

Location: Zoom
Days and Times: Tuesdays 5:00 - 6:30 PM Pacific (7-8:30 Central), starting Oct. 1
Description: See description below for David's other group.

 

Practitioners Group West (David)

Location: Zoom
Days and Times: Thursdays 6:30 - 8:00 PM Pacific (8:30-10 PM Central), starting Oct. 3
Description: Both groups have been reading and discussing Salvador Poe’s book “Liberation is…The End of the Spiritual Path”. We are getting close to finishing that book in both groups. It is the 2nd reading of the book for the Tuesday group, because after completing the first reading, the group expressed that they’d received so much from it, they wanted to read it again- to revisit what they didn’t “get” the first time. We’ve only briefly discussed which book comes next and have no consensus yet. The Tuesday group is willing to read the Poe book again if new members are interested, as the book has inspired many insightful dialogues. 

In a typical meeting, we meet & greet, meditate for 10 minutes, and then ask for any new topics for discussion.  If there aren't any, or after the new topics finish, someone (typically David) reads from the book aloud and we pause frequently for discussion -- it’s not unusual for the group to read a paragraph or two and engage in a lively discussion for the duration of the meeting.

Both groups have a wonderful synergy and encourage sharing and discussion.