Life Practice Program (LPP) with Shinzen Young

The Life Practice Program is an online meditation program led by Shinzen Young, the mindfulness teacher behind Unified Mindfulness. It meets weekly, with Shinzen and a guest each session, and it is meant for people who want to take their practice beyond the cushion and into daily life. You attend from wherever you are, so no travel is needed.

What to Expect

Each weekly session brings Shinzen together with a guest for that week's program. The emphasis is on applying meditation in the rest of your life, not only during formal sitting. The program runs on a regular weekly rhythm throughout the year, which makes it easy to build into an ordinary schedule and return to week after week.

The Life Practice Program sits alongside other offerings from the same community. These include the Home Practice Program, a weekend of meditation retreat offerings held by conference call from your own home, and virtual retreats hosted in partnership with Vipassana Support International. If you want a longer stretch of practice after the weekly sessions, these are natural next steps.

About Shinzen Young

Shinzen Young is an American mindfulness teacher and neuroscience research consultant. He is known for Unified Mindfulness, his systematic approach to categorizing, adapting and teaching meditation. That work has led to collaborations in contemplative neuroscience with Harvard Medical School, Carnegie-Mellon University and the University of Vermont. He is also co-director of the Science Enhanced Mindful Awareness (SEMA) Lab at the University of Arizona.

His interest in Asia began at 14, when he chose to attend a Japanese ethnic school in his native Los Angeles. He majored in Asian languages at UCLA, then entered a PhD program in Buddhist Studies at the University of Wisconsin. For his thesis research he lived for three years as a Shingon (Japanese Vajrayana) monk at Mount Koya, Japan, where he received the name Shinzen.

Before You Go

The program takes place entirely online, so all you need is a way to connect from home. The sessions are framed around practice in everyday life, which suits anyone who already meditates and wants to bring it into work, relationships and the ordinary hours of the day.