Midnight Path

Illuminating Wisdom in Uncertain Times

New program starting April 2025

Inspiring the inner promise

In an era of unprecedented uncertainty, we stand just 90 seconds from midnight—the closest humanity has ever been to apocalypse. This moment calls us not to turn away, but to illuminate within ourselves the very best of our compassion, wisdom and capacity for action. Midnight Path is an online course that invites us to discover how we might walk with purpose in uncertain times, honoring the emergence of a new kind of moral compass for ourselves, for one another and for the earth.

Journey into the reasons of the heart

The path ahead requires more than intellectual understanding. It asks us to journey into the reasons of the heart and the wisdom of the body, where we can discover a different kind of resilience—one born from embracing both shadow and light. Through Midnight Path, we learn to shift from states of overwhelm, nervous system dysregulation, and reactivity into a grounded presence that can hold complexity and uncertainty.

The living practice of the paramitas

This 6-month course explores the ten paramitas, from the Pali canon, as gateways to understanding change in ourselves and the world. Rather than presenting these as idealized virtues to attain, we will approach them as embodied practices for navigating the full spectrum of our human experience.

  • Exploring what we can truly offer when we feel depleted. Working with scarcity wounds and the shadow of giving to receive.

    In Pali: Dana

  • Meeting our confusion and uncertainty. Practicing deep listening to body wisdom when the mind is clouded.

    In Pali: Sila

  • Facing what we must let go of. Working with grief and attachment.

    In Pali: Nekkhamma

  • Acknowledging our not-knowing. Integrating head and heart intelligence.

    In Pali: Panna

  • Understanding our patterns of activation and collapse. Finding sustainable engagement.

    In Pali: Viriya

  • Staying present with discomfort and working with the body's timeline for transformation.

    In Pali: Khanti

  • Bridging personal and collective shadows. Exploring what we hide from ourselves.

    In Pali: Sacca

  • Meeting fear in the body and finding courage in vulnerability.

    In Pali: Aditthana

  • Extending compassion and loving-kindness to our shadows. Working with judgment and rejection.

    In Pali: Metta

  • Finding balance without bypassing and trying to stay regulated during chaos.

    In Pali: Upekkha

What makes this course unique?

Shadow work

Learning how to define and recognize the shadow in each paramita so that we may move closer to our truest expression.

Focus on the collective

Learning how our inner environment relates to our outer environment so that we may apply the practices in our community.

Your working ground

Learning how to identify your unique way of service and to develop the tools for applying them in your community.

You will walk away from this course with the tools to…

  • Regulate your nervous system for sustainable engagement

  • Access both body and mind wisdom in decision-making

  • Track and work, somatically, with emotional patterns in the body

  • Build capacity to stay present with difficulties

  • Develop resilience in body and mind

  • Transform reactive patterns into responsive presence

Course details and registration

Timing

  • April 15 to September 16, 2025

  • Live classes on Tuesdays, twice a month

  • Classes run 11:30 am to 2:00 pm EST

  • Recordings available

Pricing

  • Full price: $950 USD

  • Interest-free installments available

  • Scholarships upon request, read FAQs below for more info

  • Get 20% off with code EARLY20, expires Jan 31

Format

  • Live online classes with recordings

  • Online group discussion forum

  • Peer-to-peer mentoring

  • Weekly homework and final project

  • Lifetime access to all course materials

* Clicking Register Now takes you to the payment page on Circle, the online course platform for Midnight Path. After payment, you'll complete a short application form and build your student profile.

Individual class structure

  • Opening ritual to ground in present moment awareness.

  • Meditation practice to embody each paramita.

  • Dharma teaching on historical wisdom and contemporary applications.

  • Somatic exercise for nervous system regulation in threatening realities.

  • Group practice for exploration and authentic dialogue with an intergenerational cohort.

  • Applying the class teachings to daily life.

  • Closing ritual to anchor our learning.

Meet your teachers

*Other teachers will be joining and will be added throughout the next few months

  • Dr. Larry Ward

    PRIMARY TEACHER

    Dr. Larry Ward (he/him) is the co-founder of The Lotus Institute, a senior teacher in Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh’s Plum Village tradition of Engaged Buddhism, and the author of America’s Racial Karma: An Invitation to Heal. Dr. Ward holds a PhD in Religious Studies with an emphasis on Buddhism and the neuroscience of meditation. As a spiritual teacher, Dr. Ward interweaves insights with personal stories and resounding clarity that express his Dharma name, “True Great Sound.”

  • Dr. Peggy Rowe Ward

    CO-TEACHER

    Dr. Peggy Rowe Ward (she/her) is the co-founder of The Lotus Institute, a senior teacher in Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh’s Plum Village tradition of Engaged Buddhism, and the author of Love’s Garden: A Guide To Mindful Relationships. She has her doctorate in adult education and an MA in counseling psychology. Through meditation, movement, and art, Peggy offers a path of deep insight that enables her students to discover and embody their most creative and authentic selves.

Who is Midnight Path for?

Those who sense a deep potential inside, ready for kind attention and nourishment.

Those who feel called to water seeds of peace, ignite creativity, and foster liberatory practices on a profound level.

Those who seek to heal misperceptions, instability, and fear in themselves and putting this into practice within the wider community.

Those who are ready to confront and integrate personal and collective shadows with courage and compassion.

FAQs

  • We will have an opening and closing session. The rest of the classes will be centered around the teachings of each of the 10 paramitas.

    Between each class, there will be opportunities to meet with other students and to practice the learnings. There will also be homework throughout the modules and a final project.

  • We hope that Midnight Path, and all of our Lotus programs, are rooted in intergenerational learning. It is when different generations gather to listen and share wisdom and lived experiences that we can wholly move forward together.

    For people who feel a call to participate in collective change and liberation and are looking for some guidance to identify their unique way of participating.

    For people who have been deep in activism work and are feeling despair or on the brink of burnout.

    For those who are interested in weaving/building a community centered around our current world reality.

    For anyone interested in embarking on a journey of seeing their own shadows and how they relate to the shadows of the collective, so we can move to a new way of being together.

  • We encourage you to sign up whether you plan to attend all or some of the classes live, or if you need to watch the classes through the recordings because of work or school.

    All of the course materials (recordings, homework, resources, discussions) will be accessible online. If you know ahead of time that you won’t be at a live class, please try to be active and engaged in the online discussion spaces so that your reflections and questions on the materials can be shared and heard by others.

  • We have a limited number of partial and full scholarships.

    Scholarships are primarily reserved for emerging adults (ages 18–29), BIPOC, and those from Latin America, Africa and Asia.

    As a guideline to support you in deciding whether or not you should apply for a scholarship, please review this model.

    Those who are within Tier 1 and 2 are invited to apply for a scholarship by emailing us at support@thelotusinstitute.org and letting us know if they’re requesting a full or partial scholarship.

  • If you sense that you have a unique gift to offer this world in our steps towards collective liberation, in whatever capacity, this course will give you the tools to bring this gift to the surface and learn to nourish it.

    You will be guided in how to sustain yourself and this offering in these trying, seemingly impossible times, and will be supported in bringing these learnings into practice through your own project within your community.

    Everything you learn will be applicable to your individual and relational experience.

  • Send us an email at support@thelotusinstitute.org.

  • Please share this program with your friends, family and communities. Thank you!

“These actions are not dictates from the outside of ourselves, but rather realizations of the greatness inside of ourselves that's only waiting for our kind attention and nourishment. This nourishment has a unique capacity to shift us from states of overwhelm and reactivity to a kind of calm yet powerful resilience in daily life. Together, we will explore the essential questions: How do we direct our energy? Where is our time best spent? What is our aspiration in our short lives?”

Dr. Larry Ward, course teacher