The Body Contemplations:
A Six-Week Class on the First Foundation of Mindfulness
with nico + devon hase
Tuesdays — January 5, 12, 19, 26, February 2, 9, 2027
5:00–6:30pm Pacific time
Online via Zoom
Most of us think mindfulness of the body means following the breath. Perhaps we learn the four postures. Then we move on. But the Buddha didn't.
The first foundation of mindfulness includes the contemplation of the body's parts, the four elements, and the charnel-ground contemplations. These practices are often treated as archaic, morbid, or optional. They aren't. They are among the Buddha's most direct trainings for loosening our attachment to the body as beautiful, permanent, controllable, or self.
This six-week class, taught by nico + devon hase, is a careful study and practice of kāyānupassanā as it is presented in the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta. It is intended for practitioners who have an established meditation practice and are ready to engage the parts of the first foundation they may have overlooked—or never been taught.
What We'll Cover
Week One — How to Practice
🪴 Before turning to the body itself, we'll examine the framework that governs every contemplation: the refrain, clear comprehension, continuous mindfulness, and the spirit in which these practices are undertaken.
Week Two — Breath and Posture
🪴 Mindfulness of breathing and the four postures—not as the whole of mindfulness of the body, but as the ground from which the remaining contemplations unfold.
Week Three — The Thirty-One Parts
🪴 Contemplating the body's constituent parts as a way of softening vanity, desire, and identification with the body.
Week Four — The Four Elements
🪴 Earth, water, fire, and air. Learning to experience the body as changing processes rather than a fixed possession.
Week Five — The Charnel Ground Contemplations
🪴 The nine cemetery contemplations. Reflecting on decay and death until one thing becomes unmistakably clear: this body, too, is of the same nature.
Week Six — Where It Leads
🪴 How these contemplations cultivate impermanence, disenchantment, and the gradual ending of clinging—and why the Buddha begins the path of mindfulness with the body.
What's Included
Six weekly 90-minute live sessions with nico + devon hase
Recordings of every class
Guided contemplations for home practice
A private online community for ongoing support
What Past Students Say
“With his PhD in counseling psychology and his decades-long commitment to meditation and dharma practice, nico brings a unique depth and perspective to his mentoring and teaching. Working with him can help you make real changes, right now, in the midst of your busy life.”
— Judson A. Brewer, MD PhD, Director of Research and Innovation, Brown University Mindfulness Center
“Devon radiates compassion, joy, and deep inner peace and wisdom. She listens with attentive care, and provides gentle guidance that goes to the heart. Each morning I wake up filled with gratitude for her teaching.”
— Meir Stampfer, MD, DrPH, Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Course Details
Dates: January 5, 12, 19, 26, February 2, 9, 2027
Time: Tuesdays, 5:00–6:30pm Pacific
Format: Online via Zoom (all sessions recorded)
Registration
This class is offered on a dāna (generosity) basis. A suggested contribution of $180–540 helps support this work and makes future offerings possible. No one will be turned away for lack of funds.
nico hase is a Buddhist teacher, psychologist, and guiding teacher of Refuge of Belonging. He has practiced Insight meditation since 1994, trained for many years in a Zen monastery, and completed a traditional three-year Tibetan retreat. He teaches in Joseph Goldstein's One Dharma lineage and is the co-author, with devon hase, of This Messy, Gorgeous Love: A Buddhist Guide to Lasting Partnership.
devon hase has practiced intensively in the insight and vajrayana traditions since 2000. After a decade bringing mindfulness into high school and college classrooms, she completed several years of silent, solitary retreat in the mountains of Oregon. She teaches at the Insight Meditation Society, Spirit Rock, and the Forest Refuge, and serves as co-guiding teacher of Refuge of Belonging, with an emphasis on relational practice and connection to the natural world. With her partner nico, she co-authored How Not to Be a Hot Mess and This Messy, Gorgeous Love: A Buddhist Guide to Lasting Partnership.