Befriending the Unwanted Within

We all carry parts of ourselves we would rather not have – the impulse for revenge, the sting of resentment, the pull of greed, the subtle arrogance that colors our thoughts.

These are not signs of failure, but what the Buddha described as stains on the cloth of our heart-minds: real, consequential, and (with the right tools) workable.

Drawing on the Buddha’s “Simile of the Cloth” and other classical teachings from the Pali Canon, this month-long course with insight meditation teacher Ulla Koenig offers a structured, compassionate journey into the inner shadows most of us avoid.

At the heart of the course is a middle path, grounded in the Buddha’s invitation of non-identification: these patterns are not who we are. And yet they are real, in the sense that they shape our own well-being and the well-being of those around us.

Together, we’ll explore difficult inner dynamics – malicious joy…