The Art of
Dancing with Life
A Transformative, Relational Path of Practice
Unlocking the liberative potential of the Twelve Insights of the Four Noble Truths
What You're Stepping Into
- 8 months of live online sessions with expert teachers
- The Twelve Insight Practices of the Four Noble Truths
- Guided meditations & written reflections
- A living inquiry through your direct experience
- Community & Q&A sessions each month
One-time enrollment
Reserved for the first 50 students — save $200
Have you ever imagined the possibility of a radical inner shift?
What if the very challenges of your life are the real opportunities for greater empowerment, resilience, meaning, and freedom?
A Living Inquiry —
Not a Course You Take,
But a Practice You Become.
Watch the introduction from Ying Chen, Alex Haley, and Phillip Moffitt
Life dances and you must dance with it
Yes, life is challenging, but what becomes possible in how you meet it?
Can you imagine experiencing each moment — small or profound — with depth and aliveness? Living with the richness of joy and sorrow without being flooded by them. Dancing with life in a more easeful, harmonious, peaceful and loving manner.
The Twelve Insight practices of the Four Noble Truths teach you the art of dancing with life with less and less dependence on conditions being a certain way.
You have an opportunity to make a radical inner shift in how you view your existence.
This radical inner shift is possible.
This is why the Buddha taught the Dhamma. This is why these teachings have been practiced and preserved. This is why you might be called to explore them now.
This is the necessary price and mysterious gift of being incarnate—alive in a body.
Whatever the source of your suffering may be, this inner shift will provide a new, deeper context for interpreting your experiences.
The result of this inner transformation is that your life — with all its pain, disappointment and uncertainty, as well as all that you cherish, love, and work hard for — is radically enriched.
Freedom and wellbeing is possible here and now in this life.
Every heart and mind longs for freedom
It is not
A self-improvement workshop
It is
An opportunity to ignite new possibilities in your practice
It is not
Learning a new skill of how to control what is uncontrollable
It is
A radical reorientation and a deeper understanding of wellbeing
It is not
Just about mindfulness of objects
It is
Mindfulness of your whole relationship to life, such that liberative potential is available to you
It is not
A study of ideas
It is
A living inquiry through your direct experience
Over Eight Months, You Will Learn To:
Choose a more intentional values-based life
Stop measuring life just by how many immediate needs are met and begin to feel the possibility of a deeper wellbeing
Develop a deeper understanding of the nature of life's ups and downs
Learn to experience life from within life as it unfolds rather than through our reactivity to life
Gain insights into the nature of your experience and existence
Recognize and gradually free yourself from patterns that entangle and limit you
Course Progression
An 8-Month Journey
Through a contemplative, experiential, and reflective approach, this course invites you into a process to look deeply within.
Each month includes a 120-minute main session, two optional 90-minute question and response sessions, asynchronous teaching videos, guided meditations, and written reflections to support your practice.
Months
Insight Practices
Noble Truths
Online Hours
Months 1–2
The Opposite of Suffering Is Not Happiness
In these first months, we will experientially practice with how suffering got a “bad name” and explore what suffering really means from the perspective of the First Noble Truth and the three associated insight practices.
Months 3–4
The Paradox of Desire
We will explore how desire itself is not the problem—rather it’s the demand that our preferences become reality that creates the deeper suffering. We begin to live from a place of caring without demanding and loving without imposing conditions.
Months 5–6
Now that You Know, What Is It That You Know?
Life becomes our field of practice. Our sincere intention and wise attention provide an abundance of opportunities to grow and mature on a lifelong path of Dhamma. Do you dare to be happy?
Months 7–8
It’s Personally Realized and It’s Nothing Personal
We are opening to the immensity of possibilities available to each of us. The Buddha’s teachings on the four ennobling truths open us to the taste of freedom through non-clinging.
This course is for you if…
You are ready for deep transformation, not just more content
You are curious and ready to explore
You want sustained practice, not a quick checklist-style course
You seek a radical reorientation that invites sustained inquiry in daily life
Meet Your Teachers
Ying Chen
Ying Chen is a first generation Chinese immigrant who took refuge to become a Buddhist with Venerable Ji Ru in 1995. Since 2020, Ying has practiced the Naturally Arising Practice Method with Phillip Moffitt and Dana DePalma. She is a graduate of the Chaplaincy program from the Sati Center for Buddhist Studies and completed a four-year Dharma Teacher training from Insight Retreat Center. She has been teaching in Dharma Ground since 2023. Ying holds a Ph.D. in computer sciences and is inspired by the possibility of freedom and well-being in the midst of everyday life.
Alex Haley
Alex Haley is Director of Programs and a full-time teacher at Dharma Ground, practicing the Naturally Arising Practice Method with Phillip Moffitt and Dana DePalma since 2019. He has studied and practiced meditation for more than 25 years, including many multi-month retreats. He completed a four-year training program through IMS, Spirit Rock, and IRC under Joseph Goldstein and Guy Armstrong. He holds a Ph.D. in Cognitive Science and is passionate about community-based healing and technology for wellbeing.
Phillip Moffitt
Phillip Moffitt is a Buddhist meditation teacher and writer based in the San Francisco Bay Area. He served as Co-Guiding Teacher at Spirit Rock Meditation Center from 2010–2018. Phillip is an honorary co-founder and creator of the practice method that is the focus of Dharma Ground. He is the founder of Life Balance Institute and the author of Awakening through the Nine Bodies, Emotional Chaos to Clarity, and Dancing with Life.
“The result of this inner transformation is that your life—with all its pain, disappointment and uncertainty, as well as all that you cherish, love, and work hard for—is radically enriched.”
What's Included
Main Session Dates — First Thursday of each month
Question & Response Sessions
Each month includes two optional 90-minute Q&R sessions — one with each teacher — giving you space to deepen understanding, bring questions from your practice, and receive direct guidance.
Also Includes
- Guided meditations each month
- Written reflections
- Asynchronous teaching videos
- Access to recordings
Join the Course
8-Month Online Course • Starting October 1, 2026
Pay in Full
8-Month Online Course
Save $200 — reserved for the first 50 students
- 8 live 120-minute main sessions
- Monthly Q&A sessions with each teacher
- Guided meditations & written reflections
- Asynchronous teaching videos
- Access to recordings
Payment Plan
8-Month Online Course
9 monthly payments • Total: $693
- 8 live 120-minute main sessions
- Monthly Q&A sessions with each teacher
- Guided meditations & written reflections
- Asynchronous teaching videos
- Access to recordings
Questions? Reach out—we’re happy to help.
FAQ
This course is suitable for anyone who has completed at least one 4-night silent residential Insight Meditation retreat and/or been meditating consistently for two years.
Yes. All main sessions and Question & Response sessions are recorded and made available to enrolled students. We encourage live attendance when possible — being present with the community is a meaningful part of the practice — but we understand that life doesn't always allow it.
Most meditation courses focus on technique — learning to observe breath, body, or thoughts. This course goes further. It is a relational practice: mindfulness of your whole relationship to life, not just objects of awareness. The aim is a radical reorientation — a living inquiry that continues between sessions, in the texture of daily experience, offering liberative potential in each moment.
Scholarships are very limited and reserved for those who are truly experiencing financial hardship. Please reach out to us directly to inquire.
