The Practice of Presence: A 4-Part Meditation Workshop Series

The Practice of Presence: A 4-Part Meditation Workshop Series
Each session explores a unique dimension of our mind that can be explored through a meditation practice, gently guiding participants from focused presence toward opening up to the presence and sacredness in everyday life. Sessions consist of a series of breathwork, internal energy cultivation practices, and meditation practices designed to cultivate clarity, vitality, and expansiveness of the mind. Instructions for each meditation practice will be provided, followed by group sit. The workshops will conclude with a Q&A covering any topics related to practice, instructions, wisdom traditions, and more.



Workshop 1: Anchoring the Mind: Focused Attention Meditation

Date: June 29, 2025 3:00-4:30pm

Theme: Cultivating concentration and stability of the mind

Practices: Breath awareness, breath-based counting, gazing

Focus: Strengthening mental clarity, steadying the inner observer, building foundational presence

Description: In this foundational session, we explore practices that stabilize the mind and center attention. Through breath awareness, breath-based counting, and focused gazing meditation practices, we train our mind to direct and sustain attention on a specific object and cultivate steady presence. This workshop is ideal for those seeking clarity, grounding, and an anchor in a fast-moving world. When the mind learns to rest, the presence begins to open.

Workshop 2: Opening to the Presence: Open Awareness Meditation

Date: July 13, 2025 3:00-4:30pm

Theme: Resting in spacious presence

Practices: Noting, choiceless awareness, sound/space meditation

Focus: Letting go of effort, cultivating fluid awareness, building spaciousness and clarity of mind

Description: This session invites participants to soften effort and open into the natural flow of awareness. Through choiceless awareness, noting, and space-based meditations, we cultivate the capacity to rest in what is - without grasping or resisting. This style of meditation expands perception, cultivates spaciousness of the mind, and reveals the freedom that comes with presence.

Workshop 3: Living From the Heart: Heart-Based Meditation

Date: July 27, 2025 3:00-4:30pm

Theme: Awakening compassion, love, and inner warmth

Practices: Loving-kindness (metta), heart-centered sensations, feeling of Self in all beings

Focus: Connecting to the heart’s intelligence, softening self-judgment, opening to intimacy with life.

Description: In this session, we focus on reconnecting with the heart’s innate qualities - love, tenderness, warmth, and compassion. Through metta (loving-kindness), heart-centered sensations practice, and gentle inquiry, we awaken the emotional and energetic intelligence of the heart. This workshop helps soften the inner critic, nurture tenderness, and restore intimacy with life.

Workshop 4: Embodied Presence: From Practice to Sacred Living

Date: August 10, 2025 3:00-4:30pm

Theme: Meditation in daily life activities, the Imaginal Realm, and internal energy cultivation

Practices: Energy cultivation (breath & subtle body), micro-meditations, embedded meditation in daily activities, imaginal practice

Focus: Making daily life the practice; awakening energy; attuning to the sacred in ordinary moments.

Description: In this session, we explore how to carry meditative presence into daily life - not as a technique, but as a way of being. We engage with breath-based energy cultivation, subtle body awareness, and moment-to-moment presence practices that root us in presence.
In addition, practitioners will be introduced to imaginal practice as a doorway to presence and mystery of life— using symbolic and archetypal imagery to deepen connection with inner wisdom, innate qualities of presence and the unseen. Together, we learn to experience the sacred not as something separate, but as something quietly pulsing through the ordinary.

Location:
Carmel Plaza (3rd Floor), Ocean Ave &, Mission St, Carmel-By-The-Sea, CA 93921

Host: Website
Asyl’s journey spans over a decade of rigorous practice, beginning with the Kriya and Tantra yoga traditions and later deepening through samatha and vipassana practices rooted in Theravada Buddhism. After many retreats and years of dedicated training, he chose to fully devote himself to exploring the nature of the mind, undergoing intensive training in the Rinzai Zen tradition at Korinji - Rinzai Zen Monastery. Today, he continues to practice within the Zen tradition, enriching his path with training in the mystical teachings of Sufism, non-dual meditation teacher programs, and somatic teacher trainings.

His work is rooted in the psycho-spiritual domain, where he practices and teaches direct methods for engaging the whole being - body, mind, subtle energy system, and heart. Asyl’s approach is integrative, blending the rigor of disciplined practice with a deep sensitivity to the unfolding of inner experience and the natural flow of life. He invites practitioners into an embodied path of transformation – one that honors the intelligence of the body-mind, nurtures presence, and expands perception beyond the ordinary as a gateway to the Sacred and Divine.

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