Olivia Cooper is a teacher of embodied Nonduality. With a practice of Tibetan and Zen Buddhism spanning 15 years, she guides individuals on the path to liberated authenticity and inner wholeness of being. She works with individuals, offering 1:1 guidance sessions and meditation instruction, and leads retreats. She teaches that awakening is not an elusive state for an elite few but a radical intimacy with ourselves and with life that we all can cultivate. She works with individuals, offering 1:1 guidance sessions and meditation instruction, leads retreats, and facilitates a weekly sangha.
Olivia side-steps culturalism and dogma, and cuts straight to the absolute heart of the Buddhist teachings. Described as a “rogue tantrika” by one of her first teachers, her spiritual journey began at sixteen in Ladakh India, leading to a profound nondual awakening at twenty-four.
Fiercely committed to integrating her nondual awakening into all levels of her humanity, Olivia now combines the grounded simplicity of Zen, and a trauma-informed western psychological lens, with the study of tantra. With those she works with, she is dedicated to a practical, gentle, and holistic approach to “whole human awakening” which honors soma, sex, psyche, and spirit equally.
Her Background
Olivia studied yogic philosophy and contemplative psychology at Naropa University, the yoga sutras at Alandi Ayurveda Gurukula, is a trained death doula through Inspired Endings and published poet, and is certified in contemplative arts through The Mukpo Institute. She is initiated into a ningma-kagyu Tibetan lineage and has studied for years under the tutelage of two Zen Roshis. She is committed to living and sharing the path of liberated authenticity and inner wholeness of being. She is also a goofball, dancer, and wild woman with a special appreciation for the sacred absurdity of life.
How Olivia Works
Olivia’s approach to whole human awakening is that of radical honoring, not fixing, welcoming, not transcending. It is only through a total embrace and celebration of the whole authentic self, she teaches, that a genuine transcendence may occur.
Through her making wholly approach, which she uses in her 1:1 guidance work, Olivia invites banished aspects of the self into the light of loving-awareness. Here, their innocent nature can be seen clearly, reclaimed, and venerated. This making wholly approach calls forth liberated authenticity, inner wholeness of being, and vital innocence.
Olivia teaches that it is essentially our perception that needs purifying, not our nature. Through the making wholly process, individuals can directly taste a fresh and extremely intimate experience of reality without the distorting lens and numbing agents of dualistic concepts of pure/impure good/bad worthy/unworthy etc.
Olivia rejects the notion of fast tracks to awakening and believes in a gradual process of liberation that necessitates both hard work and surrender. She also weaves humor and a light touch into her work.
She holds the fruitional view that we are each sacred, whole, and yes, fully enlightened already! While simultaneously, she is devoted to continual illumination, and attending to this tender process with great care.
UPCOMING 2024 OFFERINGS
The Feminine Path of Embodied Awakening Retreat, all women’s meditation retreat. Twain Harte, CA. June 13th – June 18th, 2024. More info coming soon.
Sweet Searcher
There is nothing More deadly Than true Curiosity There is nothing More Life-giving Than true Curiosity Search Endlessly Look under Every single crater And pebble Swim to the floor Of each river Coursing through your veins Find yourself Amidst the reeds Stop transcending Instead, become a curious Small child A passionate lover An impeccable scientist See your flaws With precious eyes Look softly And keenly Lick every curve And edge Of your human existence How do the stones feel Against the soft insides of your cheek? Dance wildly And sit quietly In the muck Of your muck Build a castle Amidst the reeds Tell me then, Sweet searcher, Have you truly found Anything That is wrong?
Whole Spectrum Living 