A Special Kind of Courage:
Reflections on Manual for the Awakening Warrior
in the Light of the Dharma
Wednesday, December 3
7 PM Pacific
Online Only via Zoom
Donation: $20
Joel & Michelle Levey share insights from their new book, MANUAL FOR THE AWAKENING WARRIOR, revealing the story of their historic, once-secret Mind-Body-Spirit training program for the U.S. Army Special Forces, encouraged and supported by Kalu Rinpoche and other Dharma teachers.
Join Susan Shannon and Sukkhasiddhi’s hosting of a talk, dialogue, & practice session with Joel and Michelle Levey for an inspiring evening exploring the themes of the Leveys’ new book, Manual for the Awakening Warrior: The Special Forces Secret Mind-Body-Spirit Training Program. With the guidance & blessings of H.E. Kalu Rinpoche, Kyabje Zong Rinpoche, Brother David Steindl-Rast, and many other beloved teachers, this historic, once secret, “Jedi Warrior” Training Program for two teams of elite U.S. Army Special Forces troops sought to teach these warriors to recognize and befriend their inner enemies and to stop the war inside. This immersive training provided training in powerful practices for cultivating courage, patience, calm intensity, non-reactivity, clear presence, great compassion, and “heart-power” for the facing of life’s greatest challenges.
Susan will offer insights regarding the profound potential and value of such deep transformational Dharma work drawn from her ____ of years serving as the Buddhist Chaplin on Death Row at San Quentin prison.
This illuminating evening will offer a potent blend of personal stories, profound teachings, and skillful methods to help you awaken a special kind of courage, care, and dedication to living your life true to spirit with greater wisdom, confidence, creative compassion, and sacred presence for the benefit of all as you navigate the uncertainty and danger of these perilous times. There will be opportunities for deep reflection and Q & A.
This is an online event.
Note from the Authors:
It is interesting to note that the meme of “a special kind of courage” cultivated in this program was inspired by Kyabje Zong Rinpoche, former abbot of Ganden Monastery in Tibet, who had advised us that the most important thing for us to teach these men, who might possibly be in a position to start or stop the next world war someday, was courage. His response stunned us and was a koan of sorts for us throughout the program. This theme echoes throughout this book as our soldiers struggled to find the courage to look deeply into their own hearts and minds. This led to many profound insights, such as during the month-long silent meditation retreat when after a meditation and Dharma talk on interdependence one night, one of the men asked, “if all this is really true, then how could we ever kill anyone?”
Years later we learned that the actual Tibetan word that Rinpoche most likely had used, nyingthob, that was translated for us then as “courage,” could have also been translated as: “patience”; “forgiveness”; “compassion”; or “heart-power”.
"The Bodhisattva is like the mightiest of warriors;
But her enemies are not common foes of flesh and bone.
His fight is with the inner delusions,
The afflictions of self-cherishing and ego grasping,
Those most terrible of demons
That catch living beings in the snares of confusion
And cause them forever to wander in pain, frustration and sorrow.
Her mission is to harm ignorance and delusion, never living beings.
These he looks upon with kindness, patience, and empathy,
Cherishing them like a mother cherishes her only child.
She is the real hero, calmly facing any hardship
In order to bring peace, happiness and liberation to the world."
- The Thirteenth Dalai Lama from his "Discourse on the Great Lam Rim"
About Presenters:
Dr. Joel and Michelle Levey have been deep in the Dharma while pioneering the integration of contemplative science, deep resilience, optimal performance, and collective wisdom into leading organizations around the globe for over five decades. Founders of Wisdom at Work, they have dedicated their lives to personal transformation as a catalyst for profound social change.
The Leveys have been fortunate to study deeply with many of the most respected researchers of extra-ordinary human potential and contemplative science teachers of our times. The Dalai Lama, an advisor on several of their projects, encouraged the Leveys in their work, saying: “You are presently engaged in work that has great prospects for bringing the inner sciences of transformation to a very wide section of people who may not under ordinary circumstances come into contact with these teachings.”
They have worked with tens of thousands of leaders in organizations around the globe including: NASA; NOAA; U.S. Surgeon General’s Office; U.S. Army Special Forces; U.S. Navy; Google; British Parliament; National Institutes of Health; National Health Service; Intel; MD Anderson Cancer Center; World Bank; West Point Military Academy; Compassionate Action Network; Compassion Games International; Stanford Research Institute International; Washington Athletic Club; St. Francis Hospice; MIT; Clinton Global Initiative; World Government Summit (Dubai); and the World Business Academy. IONS, the Institute of Noetic Sciences, has recognized Michelle and Joel as, “leading teachers of transformation.”
The Leveys also serve as advisors for the development of Gelephu, Bhutan’s new “city of mindfulness,” and have served as faculty at University of Minnesota Medical School, the Indian Institute of Management (Ahmedabad), Mahidol University (Thailand), and Antioch University, and as core faculty for the International Center for Organization Design (ICOD). They were chairpersons for the Center for Corporate Culture and Organizational Health at the Institute for Health and Productivity Management (IHPM). Honored to participate in the Mindfulness All-Party Parliamentary Group at British Parliament, they served as advisors for the historic Mindful Nation UK report and presented at the parliamentary hearing on the vital role of mindfulness in the military and emergency blue-light services. Michelle & Joel also served as Stewards of Collective Wisdom and Contemplative Science for the First Earth Battalion.
Learn more about the Leveys and their Dharma teachers at: http://Wisdomatwork.com/MindfulnessPioneers/
About Susan Shannon
Susan Shannon, M. Div., BCC has been “married to the Dharma” since 1971, first studying Chinese Buddhism, then finding home with Tibetan Tradition. She took refuge with His Holiness the Dalai Lama in 1980 and in 1983 took refuge and teachings with His Eminence Kalu Rinpoche, the great master of the Karma Kagyu and Shangpa lineages. Over the years she’s also taken refuge with some of Tibet’s greatest masters in the Sakya, Drukpa Kagyu, Dudjom Tersar and Nyingma lineages.
In 1998 her lama Ven. Dhupthob Rinpoche introduced her to the State Oracle of Tibet, who requested Susan’s help in creating a Buddhist Center for local Tibetans. This led to the beginning of the Nechung Buddhist Center of the Bay Area, of which she is a founding board member.
In 2008, with the desire to be of service to a greater number of beings, Susan enrolled in an Interfaith Seminary and was ordained an Interfaith Chaplain and Minister in 2011, receiving a Masters in Divinity shortly after. She was endorsed by the Nechung Center as a Buddhist Chaplain in 2012, authorizing her to teach, provide services, and spiritually serve the men in San Quentin State Prison and Death Row.
Susan’s work is grounded in the fields of Restorative Justice and Emotional Literacy, working with several populations including inmates, at-risk youth, the homeless, and Tibetan refugees. In 2017 Lama Palden invited Susan to Sukhasiddhi. Her lively classes have engaged students ever since. Susan resides on Orcas Island, Washington, furthering her prison work through the Buddhist Prison Ministry, spreading the Dharma in prisons across the United States.