A Special Kind of Courage: Reflections on Manual for the Awakening Warrior

Joel & Michelle Levey share insights from the U.S. Army’s secret Jedi Warrior Training Program in a talk and book signing at Fremont Abbey Arts Center

About this event:

Join Joel and Michelle Levey for an inspiring evening exploring the themes of their new book, Manual for the Awakening Warrior: The Special Forces Secret Mind-Body-Spirit Training Program. Drawing from their work on the U.S. Army’s elite Jedi Warrior Training Program, the Leveys reveal powerful practices for cultivating courage, patience, compassion, and “heart-power” in the face of life’s greatest challenges.

This unique event will blend personal stories, profound teachings, and practical tools to help you heighten focus, strengthen resilience, and navigate uncertainty with wisdom and grace. The talk will be followed by a Q&A and book signing.

Note: If you plan to attend and would like to purchase a book, pre-purchasing through Eventbrite will help us plan on the number of books to bring. You may also purchase a book via the publisher here: https://www.innertraditions.com/manual-for-the-awakening-warrior

Note from the Authors:

It may be interesting to note that the notion of “a special kind of courage” is inspired by Kyabje Zong Rinpoche’s advice to us that the most important thing for us to teach these men —who might possibly someday be in a position to start or stop the next world war—was courage. His response stunned us and was a koan of sorts for us throughout the program. This theme that echoes throughout this book as our soldiers struggled to find the courage to look deeply into their own hearts and minds. This led to many profound insights such as during the month-long silent meditation retreat, after a meditation and Dharma talk on interdependence one night, one of the men asked, “if all this is really true, then how could we ever kill anyone?”

Years later we learned that the actual Tibetan word that Rinpoche most likely had used, nyingthob, and that was translated for us then as “courage,” could have also been translated as: “patience”; “forgiveness”; “compassion”; or “heart-power”.

About the Authors:

Dr. Joel and Michelle Levey pioneered the integration of contemplative science, deep resilience, optimal performance, and collective wisdom into leading organizations around the globe for five decades. Founders of Wisdom at Work and Bodhi Tree EcoDharma Sanctuary, they have dedicated their lives to personal transformation as a catalyst for profound social change.

They have worked with tens of thousands of leaders in organizations around the globe including: NASA; NOAA; U.S. Surgeon General’s Office; U.S. Army Special Forces; U.S. Navy; Google; Microsoft; Boeing; British Parliament; National Institutes of Health; National Health Service; Intel; MD Anderson Cancer Center; World Bank; West Point Military Academy; Compassionate Action Network; Compassion Games International; Stanford Research Institute International; Washington Athletic Club; St. Francis Hospice; MIT; Clinton Global Initiative; World Government Summit (Dubai); and the World Business Academy.

Joel directed the Biofeedback and Stress Management Clinic and Pain Center at Group Health Cooperate (now Kaiser Permanente), and Michelle ran the Adolescent Outpatient Stress Clinic at Children’s Hospital in Seattle. They have lectured widely at U.W. medical and nursing schools, and guided the local Meditation and Medicine Community in Seattle. Joel started the first mindfulness meditation center in Seattle in 1976.

The Leveys have served as faculty at Antioch and Bastyr Universities locally, University of Minnesota Medical School, the Indian Institute of Management (Ahmedabad), Mahidol University (Thailand), and Antioch University, and as core faculty for the International Center for Organization Design (ICOD). They were chairpersons for the Center for Corporate Culture and Organizational Health at the Institute for Health and Productivity Management (IHPM). Honored to participate in the Mindfulness All-Party Parliamentary Group at British Parliament, they served as advisors for the historic Mindful Nation UK report, and presented at the parliamentary hearing on the vital role of mindfulness in the military and emergency blue-light services. Michelle & Joel served as Stewards of Collective Wisdom and Contemplative Science for the First Earth Battalion.

The Leveys have been fortunate to study deeply with many of the most respected researchers of extra-ordinary human potential and contemplative science teachers of our times. The Dalai Lama, an advisor on several of their projects, encouraged the Leveys in their work, saying: “You are presently engaged in work that has great prospects for bringing the inner sciences of transformation to a very wide section of people who may not under ordinary circumstances come into contact with these teachings.”

Learn more at: http://WisdomAtWork.com/MindfulnessPioneer/

@ Fremont Abbey Arts Center

6p doors, 7p event

All ages, some seating available, bar w/ID

ABBEY ARTS EVENT INFO:

Fremont Abbey is ADA accessible on either level.
For most events we have a mix of padded chairs and standing room.
Seating is not guaranteed or reserved unless noted.
To respect the performing artists and your fellow attendees, please refrain from talking during the performances
Please limit photos during the show so as to not distract other attendees from the experience.
Phone and video may be permitted for some shows, from the standing area only please.
No professional cameras or cameras with shutters allowed in the venue
We are an all ages venue. Kids 10 & under are free at Abbey Arts concerts & arts events unless noted.
Equity & Inclusion - Entering the venue indicates agreement to adhere to the Abbey Respect Policy. www.fremontabbey.org/respect
Service animals as defined by the ADA are allowed. Service animals are defined as dogs that are individually trained to do work or perform tasks for people with disabilities.