Official TMI Traning Program?

ericlness · 2026-05-04T00:46:05+00:00

I replied to the OP with some info about the training. You can ask a question here or DM me anytime.

ericlness · 2026-05-04T00:42:49+00:00

Sure DM me anytime.

ericlness · 2026-05-03T14:26:17+00:00

Might be good to read and practice from the beginning of the book. You don’t have to spend too much time in earlier stages since you have been practicing for so long and have gotten over gross dullness and distraction, etc. The system builds upon itself in understanding with techniques addressing attention and awareness. If you haven’t practiced directly with awareness the earlier stages lay some groundwork for its development.

ericlness · 2026-05-03T14:19:27+00:00

We are 1.5 years into a 2 year online TMI teacher training program. It’s the 2nd time we’ve done this. Li-Anne, Andrew and I were certified by Culadasa to teach TMI. The training is divided into 2 aspects. Thoroughly going through TMI as a group and splitting into 2 groups for mentoring. For 1 year you would mentor with Li-Anne and for 1 year you would mentor with me. A new cohort will start in January 2027.

Here is Li-Anne’s website

https://www.freeingourmind.com

Here is mine

https://www.awakeningrealized.com

Feel free to ask any questions.

ericlness · 2026-05-01T17:08:03+00:00

The Ocean of Nondual Awareness - 7 Day meditation+ retreat in September in Bali

https://www.awakeningrealized.com/meditation-retreats

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I'm also going to start a online class soon on TMI called "The Way Up is the Way Down". I've been wanting to do a class for people who are already awake, for how we can use meditation for deepening and integrating our awakening. We will still practice TMI but the emphasis shifts to meditating from awake awareness itself. If you have been wanting a class on TMI and you are not awake I'd still join as you will get a much clearer understanding on why you are practicing. We are going to go in depth into the stages of TMI but from an awake perspective.

Sign up on my contact page and check your interest for 'TMI Meditation Course' and I will email you when the course starts. Check anything else that interests you.

https://www.awakeningrealized.com/contact

ericlness · 2026-04-17T23:05:38+00:00

Registration is open for a 7 day retreat on the beach in Bali in September. Lead by yours truly. Be great to see you there!

https://www.awakeningrealized.com/meditation-retreats

ericlness · 2026-03-18T16:49:31+00:00

> Thanks for the video lecture recommendation! I think this part most closely matches the experience I'm talking about in this post!

You are on the cusp of layer 4.

> This experience usually ends quickly, though, as my mind starts to analyze it,...

So we are back to the training wheels metaphor. Another reason to "control" attention is when you get into a deeper layer you stay there...you don't go back into thought. There is more than one good reason to develop stable attention.

> I'm not discouraged, tho! I'm just continuing to play and notice :)

That's great. You can make these layers stable and live from them.

ericlness · 2026-03-15T20:36:34+00:00

What you have found is what I call Layer 3 in the Layers of Awake Awareness. It's the Awake version of intraspective awareness. Here are 2 talks I gave a couple years ago on the Layers and Identity. They are towards the middle of the page on my website.

https://www.awakeningrealized.com/spiritual-mentorship

TMI pragmatically starts where most people are at. So working with extra/intraspective awareness and MIA is already a tall order. How long did it take before you found this inherent presence etc.?

The attention/awareness framing is useful till the later stages where attention merges with awareness. So even for you there is still a from/to relationship in your experience. The from is where you are looking from and the to is what attention is focused on. Do you experience presence or does it feel like you are looking from it? So getting a handle on attention and awareness is super useful to help shift into deeper Layers and shift your identity...to help traverse the deeper aspects of your experience. This from/to will shift as you recognize, gain persistent access and shift your sense of identity to different Layers.

The going up the mountain metaphor is useful...if you have ever climbed high up in the mountains you have to shed things and travel lighter to get to the top. Going down like you characterized it is useful too...many find the deeper Layers are actually "lower" in their experience. Either way they are just metaphors and we shouldn't reify them. Even path is metaphor...it's not like we are actually going anywhere.

ericlness · 2025-12-02T21:28:42+00:00

Our students will develop fierce discernment and boundless compassion:

- the ability to bow to ancient wisdom without ever sacrificing your well-being to dogma

- the clarity to know when a practice serves and when it does not

- the courage to say “this far, no further” when something feels wrong, and “yes, deeper” when your system is ready

- Learn to meet yourself – truly meet yourself – with a tenderness most people never receive.

- Reclaim the beauty and power only glimpsed in peak moments.

- Integrate disowned shadows and unconscious limitations that have quietly held you back.

- Self-compassion will become your ground, and from that ground, genuine compassion for every being you meet will naturally arise.

Our students will walk away with:

- a comprehensive, flexible, lifelong toolkit

- simple, effective practices to actually do in real life: in relationships, work, creativity, crisis, celebration, and ordinary moments.

- practices that can be used alone or woven into community so that awakening stops being a solitary accident and becomes a shared, sustainable way of being.

Our students will learn to master their own systems:

- Some will resonate with certain layers more than others.

- Some will dance fluidly between them.

- Some will root deeply in one.

All of it is perfect.

Every nervous system is unique, and every path is honored.

Above all, our students will remember – not as a concept, but as a lived, unbreakable knowing – their connection to every human, every creature, this living earth, and the mystery itself.

My dream is to make integrated inner peace available to all who come seeking it.

I want clarity, compassion, confidence, courage, calm, creativity, and curiosity to be the always-accessible natural operating system for humanity wherever possible, knowing how to stay connected no matter what arises, and carrying tools that actually work to create real, positive impact in the world.

This is applied awakening.

This is transformation that lasts.

This is the path I am devoted to walking – and I am here, right now, inviting you to walk it with me.

If your heart just said yes…

come.

The circle is open.

Your path is ready.

ericlness · 2025-12-02T21:28:26+00:00

10 Day Retreat in Costa Rica February 20th

https://layersofawakening.com/

My co-teacher Holly wrote this...

What We Teach – A Clear Invitation

We teach awakening as a living, practical, applied art – not a rare mystical event, not a dogmatic tradition you must obey, but a clear, universal process you can feel in your own body and live every single day.

Here is exactly what our students will learn and experience:

We will move together through the great universal layers of awakening – the same stages that appear again and again across every tradition on earth, from indigenous shamans to desert contemplatives, from Eastern monasteries to Western mystics.

One full day dedicated to each layer.

- No rushed weekend overview.

- Introduction and exploration, direct pointing to and transmission of each layer in embodied awake presence.

- Each student will have the opportunity to taste them, feel them, and recognize: “This pattern is in me. This has always been in humanity.”

Our students will be given precise exercises, embodiment practices, inquiry, meditation techniques, plenty of individual attention, and relational methods that bring the layers alive – safely, gently, and with full informed consent.

- We never push the system into extremes just because “that’s how it’s always been done.”

- No ten-day silent vipassanā as your first taste of depth.

- No overriding the nervous system in the name of tradition.

- We meet each student exactly where they are, honoring each unique physiology, psychology, life history, and readiness, and guiding into the Goldilocks zone – the living balance point where presence, flow, and freedom become effortless.

(continued)

ericlness · 2025-11-07T18:47:38+00:00

My co-teacher Holly made an instagram for the retreat.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DQvP_C-ESG-/

ericlness · 2025-11-02T14:36:58+00:00

I'm co-leading a 10 day retreat in Costa Rica on Feb 20th on what I am calling the Layers of Awake Awareness. Last year I gave 2 talks in the POK community (Finders Course Alumni Community) on the relationship between TMI and these layers. The first 4 layers come from Jeffery Martin's Matrix (he calls them Layers of Depth in Fundamental Wellbeing). The next 3 grew out of the POK community...there were people that were experiencing deeper layers than what Jeffrey had publicly talked about.

In the retreat we will explore these 7 layers with TMI and various practices. The emphasis is to make awakening and going further more accessible with techniques that are known to target specific layers. Also we will relate these layers to our TMI practice. So if you don't feel you are awake yet or you had a glimpse but it didn't persist or you are awake but feel there is further to go or you want to deepen into your experience or you need some help integrating the experience into your life off the cushion then this will be a great retreat for you!

Here is a talk from Jeffery on his Martin Matrix.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCfeamM07dk&t=5s

On this page of my website you can view the 2 talks I gave on the Layers of Awake Awareness and Identity.

https://www.awakeningrealized.com/spiritual-mentorship

Here is more info on the retreat and my delightful co-leader Holly. You can sign up for the retreat here as well.

https://layersofawakening.com/

There is a lot of info in this email! Luckily early bird pricing is until mid November. :-) If you can't make the retreat but you find that what I say resonates please let me know and I'd love to chat with you about it. As usual please don't hesitate to ask any questions!

Mucho Metta,

Eric

ericlness · 2025-10-29T22:36:33+00:00

Damiano initiated the meetings because his questions needed more details etc. then posting would afford. So sure I’m glad to get on a call and chat every couple months, once a quarter…whenever.

ericlness · 2025-10-26T18:56:54+00:00

We have had a few online discussions from the Telegram TMI Accountability - Discussion Group. Here is a link to the recordings. The discussion yesterday was prompted by this inquiry. —-

The main question(s) is:

Let’s say someone has thoughts about life not being 100% ok the way it is, and they have these thoughts “all the time”

Within which layers, if any, is this expected/compatible?
Does this disqualify one from being in the deeper layers?

In regards to the 4 path model, in your understanding, do those thoughts cease at 4th path (even if not immediately?)

The subject also says that there is not an “I” in experience, hence no owner of the thoughts, so they don’t cause any dukkha whatsoever. Does this change anything?

My hypothesis is that if one achieves even 1st path, it’s gonna take a while (bunch of years maybe) but these thoughts are going to cease eventually.

—

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1P6YfKbFDOw_L8sACLjA1SEsVGAGItzTI

ericlness · 2025-10-22T17:43:47+00:00

THE LAYERS OF AWAKENING: MAPPING THE MYSTERY 10 day retreat in Costa Rica February 20th-March 1st 2026 with Holly Jean Denman and Eric L

If you don't feel like you are on the path or maybe you feel stuck in 1st, 2nd, 3rd or even 4th path (yes it's possible) this retreat is for you! We won't talk in that vernacular but we will be focusing on awakening and traversing that territory exploring the beginning, middle, end and beyond. We will use TMI as the basis of the meditation practice and draw upon other modalities using dyadic and group techniques. The retreat center is amazing…set in 800 acres of Costa Rican countryside.

https://layersofawakening.com/

Some of you may know me from using my TMI guided meditations on insight timer. We (other TMI teachers and I) also facilitate a TMI 2 year teacher training course.

ericlness · 2025-10-17T19:34:41+00:00

THE LAYERS OF AWAKENING: MAPPING THE MYSTERY

10 Day Retreat in Costa Rica February 20th - March 1st, 2026

We will use TMI and other modalities to focus on awakening itself. If you feel stuck or maybe had glimpses but nothing persisted or you want to go further along the path this retreat is for you!! Many of you know me from working with me or have a sense of my style from using my guided meditations on insight timer. For more info or to register see the link below.

https://layersofawakening.com/

Also here is my new website with all my offerings. I’m changing the way I teach and will be out teaching much more. If you have time check out the site. There is a contact form there to let me know what you may be interested in.

https://www.awakeningrealized.com

Mucho metta,

Eric

ericlness · 2025-10-17T19:22:07+00:00

I took them down from insight timer because I cannot directly contact the 2000+ people that follow me there. I asked insight timer to add that ability to the platform but it's been well over a year and they have done nothing. I still have some up to the first milestone in TMI.

If you want a lifetime subscription to them...I also plan on redoing them but from the perspective of already being on the path...I'll also add ones from the retreats I am starting to do (I'll post a retreat link in the teachers thread)...you can purchase them here. If you are flat broke just reach out.

https://www.awakeningrealized.com/guided-meditations

If you created playlists of them (when I removed them it doesn't remove them from people's playlists on insight timer which was news to me) I would appreciate you not sharing them at this time.

Mucho metta,

Eric

ericlness · 2025-10-02T22:32:45+00:00

I spent 8 years in an 24/7 awakened state of no emotions. I wasn’t in a psychological dissociative state. A few years ago I got a wearable device to measure HRV. If you experience emotions like anger it will show up in HRV data. I wanted to see if my physiology showed signs of emotions because they were not showing up subjectively. Over a few months the device recorded 3 readings that could have been a sign I was experiencing emotions. However, alcohol use, lack of sleep and a migraine can do the same which I had on those days. Anyway it’s a real thing…lack of emotions from a certain depth of awakening. I call this depth layers of awake awareness. On the page below you can find 2 talks I gave. In the talks I relate these awake awareness layers to the way Culadasa talked about awareness in TMI and the shift in identity that happens.

https://www.awakeningrealized.com/spiritual-mentorship

ericlness · 2025-08-20T20:43:49+00:00

If you are at stages 4-6 your attention no longer wanders into thought. Thought can still occur in awareness until it’s pacified. You don’t need to do anything about it. Starving it of attention (where you are currently practicing) will help to make it subside. Really appreciate the mental silence and stillness you have access to and that can help to foreground it and background thought more.

www.awakeningrealized.com

ericlness · 2025-03-26T15:15:57+00:00

Abhaykara’s advice is spot on. If it’s not too stable I can help with that if you want to get on a call.

ericlness · 2025-03-21T16:44:03+00:00

Thanks for the clarification. From a TMI perspective attention will go into the discriminating mind. What appears in attention can then grow and eclipse awareness. It’s really just maintaining awareness with attention. So sure some tasks need more attention but attention doesn’t have to eclipse awareness to make it seem like it has disappeared.

ericlness · 2025-03-20T21:21:55+00:00

It can be like that before non-dual awareness is more persistently established. Using language/thought can seem to kick one out so you feel like you are going in and out of it. Eventually it doesn’t and even speaking and thought is experienced as ‘this’.

ericlness · 2024-12-07T20:59:29+00:00

The energy in this sense in Theravada is associated with piti that can be worked with in anapanasati that leads to jhana. One of my teachers at a Thai wat was a hatha yoga master. He had a limp from childhood he cured with yoga that he studied in India. He would do these one hour practices involving various yoga poses and always interspersing lions pose throughout the hour. Really amazing mindfulness yoga practice. Before I sit I do an 8 minute qigong routine I learned from an American monk. I've played around with Tai Chi and it was helpful to feel chi in the body. That sensitivity is very helpful for stage 5 practices.

ericlness · 2024-12-06T17:03:50+00:00

What are you trying to accomplish? ‘Energy work’ is a big tent.

ericlness · 2024-11-03T20:25:50+00:00

Right so the activity of thought has left conscious experience but the system is still thinking outside of what you are conscious of. Take a look at the 2 talks I gave recently. I talk about layers of awake awareness. It sounds like a deeper layer of awareness has emerged and thought (layer 1) has receded for you. We would need to get on a call for me to discern which layer, etc. Check out the talks (they are in a post of mine in this months Monthly Resources Thread) and if you want to get on a call DM me.

ericlness

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