Students will benefit from a meditation program that encourages direct insight into the changing, selfless nature of reality while cultivating heart qualities. In fact, it will become clear that the result of embracing impermanence and imperfection is the compassionate wish to be of benefit to others. A major focus will therefore be bringing our path of practice into relationships, work, and family life. We'll look at how we can creatively engage with the world around us and how we might find wise responses to the problems and crises of our time.

When we begin meditating we might have conceptual knowledge of impermanence, imperfection, and conditionality. We understand intellectually that things end, that they depend on cause and effect—but this understanding may not inform our emotional habits or behavior.

As the contemplative life unfolds, we intuit impermanence and imperfection a little more deeply. However, we may misapply these teachings: "Oh, that's life. Things are impermanent. Too bad."

This course offers a more empathetic route for our development. When we really grasp impermanence, compassion arises. We become comfortable with impermanence and imperfection, and so can turn to face our problems and those of others with compassion, equanimity, and wisdom.

Martine studied Zen Buddhism under the guidance of the late Master Kusan at Songgwang Sa monastery until 1984. Her Zen training also took her to nunneries in Taiwan and Japan. From 1981 she served as Kusan Sunim's interpreter and accompanied him on lecture tours throughout the United States and Europe. She translated his book The Way of Korean Zen. Following Master Kusan’s death she returned her nun’s vows and left Korea.

Martine is the author of Principles of Zen, Meditation for Life (an illustrated book on meditation), The Path of Compassion, Women in Korean Zen, and Let Go: A Buddhist Guide to Breaking Free of Habits. Her latest book is The Spirit of the Buddha. She is the teacher of the online courses, Knowing How it Feels: Creatively Engaging with Habits and, with Stephen Batchelor, Secular Dharma.

Laura began meditating in her early teens and ordained as a Buddhist nun in 1995. She was resident at Amaravati and Chithurst monasteries under the guidance of her teachers Ajahn Sumedho and Ajahn Succito. Laura left the monastic tradition in 2015 and is now Staff Support Teacher at Gaia House, a retreat center in Devon, England. She has spent extended periods practicing with the Burmese teacher Sayadaw U Tejaniya. Laura taught Beyond the Inner Critic, a Tricycle Online Course, with Gavin Milne.

Gavin has been practicing Insight Meditation since 2004 and was invited to train as a teacher under the guidance of Yanai Postelnik in 2015. Inspired and influenced by other paths, Gavin is particularly interested in exploring practice wherever we find ourselves—whether in the midst of family life or responding to the wider issues of our era. Together with Laura, he is a co-teacher of Beyond the Inner Critic, a Tricycle Online Course.