Meditation Groups, Courses and Workshops
"In the woods, not quite out of the woods yet; nothing but bewilderment."
-Sabine Schulze-Steele
Special Elders Conference 2025
Instructor: Ralph Steele
Location: Internet / English
Dates: Mondays, October 6th to December 29th, 2025
Times: 6:15 PM to 7:30 MST
For those aged 60 and beyond.
Click "Register" below or contact for further information:
Suggested Donation/Dana $600; You Are Welcome to Give Less or More. Remember.
Description: Here are a few words about the Special Elders Conference focused on being In the Death Zone. We will meet through Zoom for 90 minutes every week starting October 6 until December 29. If you miss more than two classes, please be respectful and don’t return until the next course in 2026.
Most of us have thoughts about whether it’s okay to die or not during the process of our life cycle. Also, we have directly and indirectly experienced people dying. In the aging body, we increasingly experience the death of others as we near life expectancy. Thus, in my personal and professional experience, acknowledging that death is on the table is important for the management of the body, speech, and mind life cycle.
I had the privilege of associating personally and professionally with the pioneering community (Sogual Rinpoche, Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, Ram Dass, and Stephen & Ondrea Levine) that brought Death & Dying to the Western world; I decided to put this course/group together. When I organized the first educational hospice program in the country at a community college, I said to myself, “Ralph, you could have died, but that didn’t happen.” We all have precious and priceless wisdom about this subject. Therefore, I am facilitating a community that’s in the death zone.
In my life, I’ve frequently experienced this zone, as my Dad was killed by the KKK, living through the riots of 1968, being a soldier in combat, and experiencing various clashes with the police and people of hatred. This group/course will be about sharing and discussing what being in the death zone is like. We all know from the statistics that life expectancy is in the early seventies for all genders. The reality of the situation is that “we are in the death zone.” Also, you either ask me to enroll you or ask a question to get a reality about the situation.
Here are a few bullet points to stimulate us and suggested guidelines.
- Knowing your body will stop breathing at some point, if you have a choice exactly where you desire.
- Do you notice any difference in your body and mind from being in your fifties, sixties, or seventies?
- Do you wake up rested in the morning?
- Is there a stronger desire for knowing what happens when the body dies?
- Have you ever had an out-of-body experience?
- Do you appreciate your body?
- What is Heaven or Hell?
- Are we the only humans in our Universe?
- Who Dies?
- Your questions and responses about being in the Death Zone.
Embodying Emotions With Somatic Meditation 2025
Location: Online/English
Dates: Wednesdays, October 1st to November 12th, 2025
Times: 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM MST
Click "Register" below or contact for further information:
Cost: Click on Donate Now button below. Donation / Dana up to $400; people have given more and less... Remember.
Description:
- 7-week course that meets in weekly two-hour sessions.
- Classes are virtually conducted using Zoom software.
- Each group is limited to seven participants.
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.
Introduction to Buddhist Psychology: Four Noble Truths & Interdependent Origination, 2026
Location: Online/English
Dates/Times: Mondays, January 5 2026 to May 4 2026, 6:15 PM to 7:30 MST (1 hr. 15 min)
Breath Energy as Energy Medicine Meditation
Instructor: Ralph Steele
Location: Online/English
Date/Time: Sunday Mornings at 9AM MST
Registration is required; contact us to learn how to start.
Suggested donation: $15
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.
Meditation Retreat for Individuals and Couples
Instructor: Ralph Steele
Date/Time: Reservation Required
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 at info@lifetransition.com to apply. Suggested donation: $400 per day.
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 hours weekly at 6 PM, MST, starting Monday January 19th, ending April 27th.
To register, email rmitchell@lifetransition.com
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.
2026 Veterans Meditation Retreat
Friday September 25th - Monday September 28th, 2026
Applications are now available!
Free Veterans 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.
Other Retreats
Life Transition Meditation Center periodically offers retreats and meditation classes to the public, youth, family, and BIPOC.
Stay in contact with us as new events are posted regularly.
