Level 3: The Fundamentals of Nondual Coaching

Are you ready to take your coaching journey to its deepest level yet? In Level 3 of the Advanced Coaching Program (ACP), you will unlock the transformative power of Nondual Work, a profound and practical approach to awakening and integration that is essential for this era of planetary change.

Your path has already brought you far:

• In Level 1, you laid the foundation with Parts Work, Process Work, and Presence Work, learning how to facilitate transformative coaching conversations.

• In Level 2, you deepened your practice with somatic unfoldment, practicing the art of breathwork and bodywork.

Now, in Level 3, you will embark on the most profound journey yet: Nondual Work — a practice that integrates every facet of your personal, professional, and spiritual development into a unified whole. You will integrate your personal life with planetary unfoldment as you uncover and embody the depth of what it is to be human.

ACP Level 3 is a two-year journey of deep and profound transformation and wisdom cultivation.

Nondual REALIZATION IS AN Essential SUPPORT FOR Planetary Transformation

In a world marked by rapid change, uncertainty, and fragmentation, Nondual Work offers a rare and powerful antidote. Historically, Nondual practices were closely guarded secrets within spiritual traditions. At Aletheia, we make these transformative teachings accessible, pragmatic, and necessary for navigating the challenges of a rapidly transforming world.

Here’s why Nondual Work is so crucial in today’s world:

• Groundedness in True Nature Amid Uncertainty: Nondual Work anchors you in an unshakable sense of presence, even during times of profound change.

• Dissolving Separation to Realize Unity: Nondual Work heals fragmentation and reconnects us to a shared, unified reality by dissolving the illusion of separation.

• Awakening Planetary Consciousness: Nondual Work reveals the innate interconnectedness and co-emergent nature of all life, inspiring care for the whole rather than just “my part.”

• A Secure Base in Uncertain Times: Nondual Presence offers the ultimate security foundation, helping you navigate personal and global challenges with clarity and ease.

• Tending to and Holding the Depth of Collective Suffering: The mass of collective suffering is impossible for anyone to face and hold. It is even impossible for any collective to face and hold. When this suffering isn’t tended to and held, we continue to hurt each other. This is the source of all forms of persecution, oppression, and exploitation. It is only possible to fully tend and hold the depth of our collective suffering as a Nondual Presence.

• Facing the World Fully, Without Fear: Nondual realization empowers you to engage with the world exactly as it is—with Understanding, Love, Compassion, and Support — while simultaneously embodying innate liberation and freedom.

• A New Myth for a Transforming World: Nondual Work within the Aletheia framework offers an overarching mythos, helping you navigate the complexities of this transforming planet with wisdom and purpose.

As the world faces unprecedented challenges, leaders, coaches, therapists, and change-makers are increasingly recognizing Nondual Work as essential for guiding themselves and others into the new ways of being called for in these times.

The Empowerment of Nondual Realization

People sometimes ask what results they can expect from Nondual practice. In other words, what is Nondual realization good for? This is a tricky question because the premise of the question - that Nondual realization is just another tool that can be leveraged to create a result - is flawed. To disarm the questioner, some Nondual teachers might answer “It has no use.” Indeed, genuine Nondual Work must be practiced for its own sake. Nondual Work is an unfolding of innate value, fulfillment, and contentment (and so much more).

In essence, Nondual Work supports the realization of True Nature, the nature of the self and reality. A clarity emerges from this that can have a wide range of effects. Clients find new clarity and understanding about life, relationships, work challenges, social dilemmas, and seeming intractable problems. Paradoxically, you practice Nondual Work without any expectation of a particular outcome yet what unfolds always has relevance to your life situation.

Nondual Realization is a Continuum

Newcomers to Nondual practice often take the view that one is either realized or not. This is an ego view. No separate self actually wakes up. Awakening unfolds through the realization that the separate self cannot be found. Yet the experience of selfhood persists even beyond this recognition. Through this, Nondual Presence awakens to its nature as Nondual Presence.

A more mature view is that everyone is both realized and blocked from realization simultaneously. Deepening into a realized state will tend to surface the exact blockage to the deeper unfoldment of that realization. As the blockage is worked through, with the approach of Aletheia Nondual Coaching, it spontaneously releases. In the wake of this release, the state of Nondual realization expands and deepens until it bumps into the next blockage. As this practice is repeated Nondual realization unfolds. As blockages are released, Nondual realization becomes more continuous.

Newcomers to Nondual practice often believe that there is only one Nondual state. A more seasoned understanding is that there are an infinity of Nondual states. An initial glimpse into Nondual Presence can unfold its boundless bounty endlessly.

Four Styles of Transformation in Aletheia meta-psychology

In the Aletheia framework, transformation is practiced through Four Styles of Transformation—each a unique path with its own practices and realizations. Together, they form a robust, integrated, and practical ecology of transformative practice:

1. Transmutation: The gradual path of unfoldment that deepens concentration and absorption into Nondual boundlessness, timelessness, and identitylessness.

2. Transparency: The sudden path of awakening, where you see through self-constructions to the underlying, unconstructed reality of Nondual Mind.

3. Transfiguration: The embodied path of realization, where Spirit and matter are integrated, and Nondual Presence becomes the basis of living in the world.

4. Transcendence: The luminous path of profound illumination, awakening to the absolute freedom of the Nondual Absolute.

What you will learn in level 3 - A Two-Year Journey

1. A Comprehensive Meditation System: A progressive series of core and peripheral practices for each stage of meditation that supports the practice of Transmutation, Transparency, and Generation Stage Transfiguration.

2. Deepening Secure Attachment: Learning to access the ultimate secure base of Nondual Presence within relational contact.

3. Introduction to Nondual Coaching: How to offer Nondual Work in a coaching context integrated with Parts Work, Process Work, and Presence Work within the Aletheia framework.

4. The Art of Transformative Failure: Each style of Nondual Work is intentionally designed to reveal the limitations of the ego-self by making it impossible for the ego to ‘succeed’ at the practice. This deliberate failure creates an opportunity for the deeper realization of True Nature—as Nondual Presence.

5. The Transformation of Normal Narcissism into Nondual Self-recognition: You will learn how to unfold the normal (not pathological) narcissistic aspects of the ego-self into Nondual self-recognition. This is the portal to the realization of all dimensions of Nondual boundlessness.

6. A Turbo-charged Practice of Unfoldment: The addition of Nondual Work opens the option of practicing unfoldment across all Four Depths simultaneously. We call this Diamond Unfoldment.

7. How to Integrate Nondual Realization into Everyday Life: Through right living, you will learn how to live your realization of Truth, Beauty, and Goodness at your current depth.

8. Allow Yourself to be Meditated by the Nondual Absolute: At the beginning of the journey, you practice meditation. In the Completion Stage of the journey and beyond, the Nondual Absolute meditates you. Through this, the realization of your nature as the Nondual Absolute deepens in profound ways.

9. Refine and Deepen Your Practice of Diamond Unfoldment: Nondual realization is not “all or nothing”—it’s a continuum. Learn how to work with your current depth of realization to uncover and release the blockages preventing further deepening. By leveraging your existing awareness, you will open new layers of Nondual insight and embodiment.

10. Navigate the Dark Night: The descent of the Deep Darkness, the first sub-stage of the Completion Stage—can feel like a total dissolution of everything you’re attached to, leaving a sense of profound absence. You’ll learn how to navigate this challenging yet transformative phase with wisdom and grace, whether it arises from great loss, a psychedelic experience, Nondual practice, or anything else. Learning to help clients navigate their dark nights is an essential skill for coaching mastery.

11. Navigate the Luminous Night: Following the Dark Night comes the ascent into Clear Radiance, often called Enlightenment or Theosis (union with the Divine). In this luminous night, everything previously dissolved is returned in a redeemed, deified form. You’ll directly realize that you—and everything around you—are a manifestation of the radiant Divine.

12. Unite Personal Will with Universal Enlightened Intent: Discover how to align your personal will with Universal Enlightened Intent, embodying this alignment as the ethical foundation for how you live and serve the world.

13. Open Up to Other Nondual Dimensions: Explore and attune to Nondual dimensions, such as Love, Clarity, Peacefulness, and Grace. You’ll refine your ability to access and explore these and other Nondual dimensions.

14. Deepen Your Understanding of the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) in Meditation:
    Most meditation styles focus on calming the parasympathetic nervous system. However, awakening also requires activating the sympathetic branch of the ANS. You’ll learn how different meditation styles work with both branches to balance calming down and waking up.

15. Access the Divine Source of Ethical Living: Profound spiritual realization naturally unfolds a deep, unshakable foundation for ethical living. You’ll learn to access and embody this source in your life and work.

    
    

The intricate dance of work and grace

The path of Nondual Work is not a journey of effort alone. It is an intricate dance between work and grace—where every step you take is met by the effortless support of grace itself. At Aletheia, we offer a progressive path of meditation that helps you open more deeply to this effortless unfolding, letting grace guide your journey.

FAQ 

What is the structure of Level 3?

Level 3 consists of 28 2-hour sessions held approximately every three weeks (with longer hiatuses for vacation and holidays). Each session includes a blend of teaching, guided practice, and group discussion to help you deeply integrate and apply Aletheia Coaching techniques with your clients. You'll work with practice pods between sessions to refine your skills and share your experiences. An online workspace will also be available for you to submit experience reports, ask questions, and engage with fellow participants.

Level 3 is composed of:

• Twenty-eight 2-hour Sessions: These occur approximately every 3 weeks and include teaching, transmission, group exercises, coaching demonstration, and discussion.

• Twenty-eight Exercises: Between sessions, you will work with practice partners, share experience reports, and participate in discussions online.

• Four Weekend Practice Retreats: The course will be punctuated with practice retreats that will deepen your practice in profound ways.

• Eight Private Coaching Supervision Calls with Faculty: These occur at scheduled intervals throughout the course to support your integration of the teachings and deepening of your development.

What is the Cost of Level 3?

The fee for Level 3 Year 1 is $3,699 USD. The fee for Level 3 Year 2 is also $3,699 USD, which is due at the beginning of Year 2. Installment plans are available.

WHEN DOES THE NEXT LEVEL 3 COHORT START?

Please visit the schedule page on this website to find the application deadline for the next cohort and all session dates.

WHAT TIME OF DAY ARE THE SESSIONS HELD?

Each cohort is offered in two sections (10 AM-Noon and 4-6 PM Pacific time), allowing participation from around the world in different time zones. A typical cohort will include people from Asia, Australia, North America, and Europe.

HOW LARGE ARE THE COHORTS?

The cohorts typically consist of 15-20 people. Because each session is offered twice, fewer than 10 people attend a typical session.

WHO TEACHES THE LEVEL 3 COURSES?

The primary leader for this course is our founder, Steve March, who created Aletheia Coaching. Steve has been coaching since 2000, mentoring coaches since 2003, and teaching coach training programs since 2006. He has held senior faculty positions since 2009. Steve launched Aletheia in 2013 as a platform for creating and offering a next-generation approach to coaching and development. Often, Steve is joined by a co-leader and a teaching assistant.

Steve’s 35-year (and counting) spiritual journey started with Zen meditation in the mid-90s. Currently, he practices in the Tibetan Buddhist Mahamudra and Kalachakra traditions. In the interim, he was a A. H. Almaas’ Diamond Approach student for 14 years. He has studied with masters in the Kashmir Shaivist, Daoist, and Sufi traditions and has a tremendous appreciation and respect for all wisdom traditions. In 2009, he completed a Nondual Teacher Training program with Peter Fenner, and in 2017, he qualified as a Realization Process Spiritual Psychotherapy Practitioner with Judith Blackstone.

Steve is among the many contemporary Nondual teachers who believe that Nondual states of consciousness are open and available to everyone rather than rare states realized by a select few.

Does the practice of Aletheia Meditation require adherence to any religious doctrine?

No. Aletheia Meditation is an integrated practice that cultivates the mind, body, and heart, helping you awaken to and realize your True Nature. No particular belief system is required, and this teaching does not define True Nature. Our experience shows that these practices can complement and support anyone on any spiritual path.

WHAT IS THE TIME COMMITMENT OF LEVEL 3?

The typical time commitment during the course is ~5-6 hours per week. This time is spent participating in the online sessions, practicing meditation daily, practicing with your partner, and studying materials.

WHAT IF I NEED TO MISS A SESSION?

We encourage you to make every effort to attend each session live. However, there may be times when you need to miss a session. All sessions are recorded on video. If you can’t be there in person, you can catch up by watching the video at your convenience.