The Open Path is an invitation to awaken — awaken to our true nature and to our seamlessness with all of reality. At the same time, the Open Path is an invitation to live free, open-hearted, and fully-embodied lives.

The Open Path is “open” — it does not require belief in a specific spiritual tradition or adherence to a series of esoteric practices. Rather it is a living path of natural “enlightenment” that belongs to all of us. The Open Path is dedicated to the direct experience of our “natural state”, a state known as pure awareness, selflessness, nonduality, Oneness, rigpa, original spirit, and many other names. As recognition of our natural state comes alive for us, we experience release from our insecurities, self-doubt, and judgments of others, and are better able to respond spontaneously to whatever comes up for us in life with equanimity, creativity, and a kind heart.

About the Training

This online program consists of 10 intensive sessions with Pir Elias held twice each month on Sundays, from January 17 to May 16, 2027. Each session will consist of talks, guided meditations, and Q & A interactive exchanges. The Sunday sessions will be recorded so that if one is missed it can be experienced as soon as convenient.

In addition to these sessions, there will be five “Open House” sessions for participants to work on the material together. During these sessions participants will also have the opportunity to form small work groups to meet at other times if they wish.

Pir Elias’s book, The Open Path – Recognizing Nondual Awareness, will be a primary resource during the training. The Sunday sessions will weave together elements of the book’s chapters as the program proceeds. In addition, there will be additional readings and practices made available on the training’s learning platform.

Throughout the program we will be reminded of our natural state through a series of “pointings-out” by Pir Elias, along with practices that serve this fundamental recognition. However, even to say it like this implies that it is a revelation we don’t already know, and we do know it — for after all, it is our natural state, our basic nature. In a way it’s like remembering something that’s always been here but that we’ve been too distracted by the confusion and fears of our lives to notice. We will be helped in our remembering by guided meditations, practices, and by the words of luminous people from many traditions.

In addition, a number of the sessions will be devoted to practices of self-inquiry and the release of fixations and self-stories that tend to obstruct recognition. This can be challenging for us because many of these fixations have their roots in early traumas and long-held habits of mind, and have become part of our neural anatomy. But this is not to say they are intractable. Rather than trying to eradicate them, we open to them, and learn the subtle ways by which we can dis-identify from their stories. In a wonderful way, opening into openness is a particularly sensate experience — our bodies give us cues to help free us from the habitual contractions of our fixations and identities.

Finally, we will focus on what all this means for how we live our lives — in our intimate relationships, our work and service life, parenting, aging, and dying. Here we will open to the essence of what it is to love and to “doing the beautiful” — as in Rumi’s phrase: “Let the beauty you love be what you do.” This is not a matter of exhorting ourselves to be “good” or to improve ourselves. Being human means fully embodying our clear, open presence as we live our lives, coming from the natural source of the loving awareness that we are, and responding to all our relations with sensitivity, intimacy, humor, and kinship.

2027 Dates

The Sunday sessions will be held at 5:00 PM GMT | 7:00 PM EU | 12:00 PM EST on:

January 17, 31
February 14, 28
March 14, 27 (a Saturday, as Easter Sunday is on the 28th)
April 11, 25
May 9, 16

The Friday Open House sessions will be held at 5:00 PM GMT | 7:00 PM EU | 12:00 PM EST on:

January 22
February 19
March 19
April 16
May 14

What’s Included:

• Ten 1 ½ hour online live sessions with Pir Elias and the community of participants, with talks, practices, guided meditations, and Q & A sessions.

• Recordings of the Sunday sessions available on the training’s “learning platform.”

• Five 1-hour online Open House sessions for participants to work on the material together, and also to form small work groups if desired.

• A series of suggested practices throughout the training, posted on the learning platform.

• A series of additional readings posted on the learning platform.

• Opportunity to submit written questions which will be responded to either in writing or during the online sessions.

Required: All participants are asked to purchase and read Pir Elias’ book The Open Path – Recognizing Nondual Awareness, available in English, French, Dutch, German, and Italian versions.

Tuition Fee:

• Standard Fee for the training is $750 (€645; £550.) A limited number of scholarships will be available for those on low income.

• Supporter’s Fee for the training is $900 (€770; £660). The excess of the Supporter’s Fee will be applied to scholarships.
  
  Our hope is that no one will be prevented from taking this program for financial reasons. To apply for a scholarship, please write to Pippa at pippa@sufiway.org with a brief description of your financial situation.