Meditation Groups, Courses and Workshops
"In the woods, not quite out of the woods yet nothing but bewilderment."
-Sabine Schulze-Steele
Embodying Emotions With Somatic Meditation
Location: Internet / English
Dates: Wednesdays from January 15 - February 16, 2025
Time: 11AM to 1PM or 6PM to 8PM
Cost: Click on Donate Now button below. (Donation / Dana up to $400; people have given more and less...Remember)
Registration and Further Information:
Description:
- 7-week course that meets in weekly sessions of two hours each.
- Classes are virtually conducted using Zoom software.
- Each group is limited to seven.
We have all experienced what happens when we can’t get a handle on difficult emotions. Sooner or later we find ourselves adrift in an ocean of toxic stress, with adverse effects impacting our physical and mental health, our performance at work and our family life. Everyone has a different constitution, genetic makeup, and upbringing that influence our stress hardiness and conflict literacy. Working with our emotions takes more than a healthy diet, exercise, spiritual practice and regular medical check-ups. Our bodies bear the burden of trauma and resulting stress and this needs to be addressed directly.
In this class, you will learn to work mindfully with emotions and physical sensations through therapeutic awareness, breath practice, and other tools/skills in order to gain insight into embodiment and transcend difficult emotions. 


This meditation-based group will be open to seven participants. We will meet once a week for seven consecutive weeks for 2 hours each meeting. This will be a closed group that’s not about telling or sharing your story. 14 Continuing Education Units are available from New Mexico Counseling Therapy & Practice Board.
 

Facilitator:
Ralph Steele, LMFT, SEP, ISP


Ralph has been teaching Insight Meditation since 1987. As a marriage, family and individual therapist his specialty is treating complex trauma & teaching advanced meditation practices. He is certified as a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner and in Integral Somatic Psychology by the founder, Raja Selvam, Ph.D. Since 2014, Ralph has been assisting Dr. Selvam in advanced trainings. In 1988, Ralph founded the first Elizabeth Kübler-Ross Hospice training program at Northern New Mexico Community College. Ralph is currently the Guiding Teacher for the Life Transition Meditation Center, a meditation-based trauma & meditation center, which he founded in 2003. 2023 he began hosting a annual Veterans Meditation Retreat. His first book, Tending the Fire, an autobiography, explores his years as a Buddhist monk in Thailand and Myanmar
Meditation Retreat for Individuals and Couples
Instructor: Ralph Steele
Date/Time: Reservation Required
Course Details:
Do you need to exhale? The silence of the high Mesa country awaits. Just a 15-minute drive from downtown Santa Fe, our meditation casita offers breathtaking views of the Sangre de Cristo Mountain range and a serenade by the Coyotes.
Your retreat can be specifically designed to fit your needs. An experienced former Theravada Monk/ Psychotherapist can co-design your schedule, guide your practice, and support your healing journey. His wife is available for Somatic Experiencing Trauma Treatment bodywork sessions and Yoga instructions.
Enjoy a structured or unstructured stay, from five days to three months.
Application required, contact us on how to apply.
Suggested donation: $400 per day
Breath Energy as Energy Medicine Meditation
Instructor: Ralph Steele
Date/Time: Sunday Mornings at 9 am
Location: Life Transition Institute & Meditation Center
Course Details:
Pranayama (breath of life) is an ancient breath practice that is culturally universal and, under various names, associated with many meditation systems. Our meditation combines the methods of two venerable traditions practiced in the forest wilds of Southeast Asia.
Sunlun Sayadaw (1878-1952) was influenced by Ledi Sayadaw, the most prominent meditation teacher of 19th century Burma and founder of a forest lineage. In 1999, only eleven of Sunlun Sayadaw’s original students were still living. Ralph Steele had the opportunity to study with U Vinaya Sayadaw, who was 90 years old at the time. Sunlun breath meditation practice begins with rapid breathing in order to quickly develop deep concentration, followed by extended periods of silent sitting that foster insight (Vipassana).
In Thailand, Ajahn Chah (June 17, 1918 - January 16, 1992) studied with Ajahn Mun Bhuridatto (1817-1949), the founder of the Forest meditation lineage and the most influential meditation teacher of the 19th century in Thailand. Ajahn Sumedho was Ajahn Chah's primary student who founded at least six monasteries in the USA & UK; the most senior Western Monk and a USA military Veteran. A USA Military Veteran, Ralph Steele, studied with Ajahn Jayasaro, who advised him to practice what works best. This breath technique begins with the coarse breath sensations at the nostrils, leading to an expansive awareness of the refined breath sensations and energy within and around the body. This process deepens insight, compassion, tranquility, joy, wisdom and purification of the body, mind and Chakra systems. This is one of many skills within the Forest Tradition that goes back to the time of the Buddha.
Registration is required; contact us to learn how to start.
Suggested donation: $15
Annual Study Groups
The Four Noble Truths & The Great Discourse On Causation, also known as Dependent Origination or The Twelve Links
Cost: Donation / Dana to $400; people have given more and less…Remember
Click on Donate button below.
18-Weeks
The online study group will be 1.5 hrs until May, starting Monday January 13th @ 6 PM, MST.
To register: Email [email protected]
We will first study The Noble Truths:
- Illness/Uneasiness
- Diagnosing/What’s the Cause
- Stopping/Tending to it
- Eightfold Path/Cultivating an Approach.
Afterward, we will use The Noble Truths as a frame of reference to dialogue with the Great Discourse On Causation (translator: Bhikkhu Bodhi, Ajhan Amaro, Ajhan Sumedho), also known as Dependent Origination or The Twelve Links. Our consciousness will be our resource.
Other Retreats
Life Transition Meditation Center periodically offers retreats and meditation classes to the public, youth, family, and BIPOC.Â
Stay in contact with us as new events are posted regularly.
Veteran Meditation Retreat
August 29 - September 1, 2025
Applications will be available in early 2025
Free Veteran’s Retreat at The Clyde Hotel in Albuquerque, where participants will learn simple yet powerful healing tools and coping mechanisms for stress, no prior meditation experience is required.