{"title":"Upcoming Meditation Labs","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eA monthly half-day retreat to find your feet and open your mind. Choose from \u003cstrong\u003eindividual sessions\u003c\/strong\u003e or register for the \u003cstrong\u003efull-series.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"26-july-the-eco-system-of-the-self","title":"Meditation Lab: Empathy \u0026 Boundaries (21 Jun 2026) Live-Online","description":"\u003ch5 class=\"p1\"\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eEmpathy \u0026amp; Boundaries\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cem\u003eWhere do we draw the line?\u003c\/em\u003e\n\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eEmpathy is essential—it's how we connect and care. But we live in a time flooded with suffering at a scale no human nervous system was designed to hold. Without practices to work with this, we can shut down, numb out, or exhaust ourselves trying to feel everything for everyone.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eIn this retreat, we'll explore how true empathy doesn't mean absorbing others' pain or abandoning our own needs. We'll distinguish between healthy resonance (feeling with) and tricky enmeshment (losing ourselves in). We'll look at how boundaries aren't walls against caring—they're what make sustainable connection possible.\u003cspan class=\"Apple-converted-space\"\u003e  \u003c\/span\u003eEven an amoeba knows this.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eDrawing on biology, sociology, and practices from insight and compassion meditation, we'll explore how to hold our own sovereignty while staying open-hearted.  \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"OpenGround","offers":[{"title":"Standard","offer_id":48416578011391,"sku":"STA-RAT","price":80.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Scholarship","offer_id":48416578044159,"sku":"SCH-RAT","price":50.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0791\/1987\/6351\/files\/LARGE-GREEN-3Artboard_7.png?v=1777386877"},{"product_id":"meditation-lab-the-eco-system-of-the-self-26-july-2026","title":"Meditation Lab: The Eco-System of the \"Self\" (26 Jul 2026) Live-Online","description":"\u003ch5 class=\"p1\"\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eThe Eco-System of the \"Self\"\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003eSelf as open process\u003c\/em\u003e\n\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eWe can feel trapped in a rigid sense of self - solid, separate, defended. But both science and the wisdom traditions tell us something different: we're not a fixed thing but an open process, moving through and completely intertwined with others and the natural world.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eIn this retreat, we'll work with practices from insight, compassion, and non-dual mindfulness to loosen this rigidity. As we sense our fluidity and inter-being more directly, isolation diminishes. In its place, an empowering sense of responsibility to care for the whole can spontaneously emerge.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eWe'll practice becoming more like a river - creating our own unfolding by the way we flow.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"OpenGround","offers":[{"title":"Standard","offer_id":48417724891391,"sku":"STA-RAT","price":80.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Scholarship","offer_id":48417724924159,"sku":"SCH-RAT","price":50.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0791\/1987\/6351\/files\/LARGE-GREEN-1Artboard_35.png?v=1777386876"},{"product_id":"meditation-lab-our-more-than-human-world-30-aug-2026","title":"Meditation Lab: Our More-Than Human World (30 Aug 2026) Live-Online","description":"\u003ch5 class=\"p1\"\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eOur More-Than Human World\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eRecognition, awe and care\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eAs a culture, we've become alienated from our place in the natural world. What once was understood as a generative, co-dependent system - where we belonged alongside other beings - has been reduced to \"resources\" for extraction. We take what we need while creating havoc for plants, animals, and the very biosphere we depend on to survive. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eIn the practice this month, we will move into being more present to nature - not as backdrop or commodity, but as kin. This presence can open us to awe, to a vastness big enough to hold our struggles lightly. It can loosen the grip of identity and reconnect us to the humbling feeling of being part of a great mystery.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eMay we restore our belonging to the more-than-human world, and discover what emerges when we remember we’re not separate from what sustains us. If we had energy, what might we want to restore or protect in the natural world? \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"OpenGround","offers":[{"title":"Standard","offer_id":48417726234879,"sku":"STA-RAT","price":80.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Scholarship","offer_id":48417726267647,"sku":"SCH-RAT","price":50.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0791\/1987\/6351\/files\/LARGE-GREEN-1Artboard_7.png?v=1777386877"},{"product_id":"meditation-lab-mortality-4-oct-2026","title":"Meditation Lab: Mortality (4 Oct 2026) Live-Online","description":"\u003ch5 class=\"p1\"\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eMortality\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cem\u003eBecoming part of the whole\u003c\/em\u003e\n\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eIt's hard to get your head around the reality of your own death. But amazingly, it's coming for all of us. What good can come from contemplating this?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eIn this retreat, we'll work gently with mortality - not morbidly, but honestly. Facing our impermanence can radically shift perspective. What matters when we're just passing through? It can connect us to the responsibility of our legacy - what do we want to leave for the children coming after us? And it can bring a profound letting go of trying to manage so many made-up problems, protecting a self that is not a fixed thing but an open process.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eThe contemplation of death, held wisely, can bring aliveness, presence and appreciation for our brief time here and more generosity for all our fellow travellers.  \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"OpenGround","offers":[{"title":"Standard","offer_id":48417838792959,"sku":"STA-RAT","price":80.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Scholarship","offer_id":48417838825727,"sku":"SCH-RAT","price":50.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0791\/1987\/6351\/files\/LARGE-GREEN-3Artboard_17.png?v=1777386877"},{"product_id":"meditation-lab-the-biggest-picture-15-nov-2026","title":"Meditation Lab: The Biggest Picture (15 Nov 2026) Live-Online","description":"\u003ch5 class=\"p1\"\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eThe Biggest Picture\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cem\u003eWho is knowing all of this?\u003c\/em\u003e\n\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eWe spend most of our lives caught up in what we know - our thoughts, stories, plans, and problems. But we rarely turn attention to the knowing itself. Who or what is aware of all this?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eIn this retreat, we'll draw on contemporary understanding of human consciousness and experiments in awareness from meditation traditions to ask some fundamental questions: Who am I? What am I? What is “spiritual life”, and of what value is it? How do I make more space for this way of knowing?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eThese aren't abstract philosophical questions -they're invitations to directly investigate the nature of awareness itself. To discover what remains when thoughts settle. To rest in the space that holds it all.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"OpenGround","offers":[{"title":"Standard","offer_id":48417840169215,"sku":"STA-RAT","price":80.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Scholarship","offer_id":48417840201983,"sku":"SCH-RAT","price":50.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0791\/1987\/6351\/files\/LARGE-GREEN-1Artboard_27.png?v=1777386877"},{"product_id":"the-full-series-of-meditation-labs-5-sessions-1","title":"Meditation Lab: Full Series (Jun-Nov 2026) Live-Online","description":"\u003ch5 class=\"p1\"\u003e\n\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e \u003cstrong\u003eIn this series, we'll work with both wings of the meditation path\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e: \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\n\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eCultivating transformative and nourishing states of being (like kindness, compassion, patience, and curiosity) and investigating with precision the nature of experience and how we construct our world.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eEach half-day retreat offers a \u003cstrong\u003ebreathing space\u003c\/strong\u003e - a place of sanity and safety where we can feel what's here, explore what matters, and find steadier ground. We'll draw on mindfulness, insight meditation, somatic practices, science, philosophy, and the wisdom of people who've faced hard things before us.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eThis listing includes all 5 sessions of The Meditation Labs. For more details on each session, see individual listings \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/openground-3233.myshopify.com\/collections\/register-for-meditation-labs\"\u003ehere\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"OpenGround","offers":[{"title":"Standard","offer_id":48474510491903,"sku":"STA-RAT","price":495.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Scholarship","offer_id":48474510524671,"sku":"SCH-RAT","price":195.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0791\/1987\/6351\/files\/ICONS-BLUE-3Artboard_6.png?v=1777387202"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0791\/1987\/6351\/collections\/sunflower.jpg?v=1778151760","url":"https:\/\/openground.com.au\/collections\/upcoming-meditation-labs.oembed","provider":"OpenGround","version":"1.0","type":"link"}