RAIN: The Nourishing Art of Mindful Inquiry


Learn an accessible, deeply freeing way to practice mindfulness.

What is RAIN?

RAIN stands for Recognition, Acceptance, Interest, and Non-Identification. These are the qualities that make up a moment of mindfulness. Because of its simplicity and power, RAIN has become recommended by meditation teachers worldwide as a helpful approach to steering us through challenging emotions and situations.

This 6-part online course is an opportunity to learn and deepen this practice under the guidance of Vipassana teacher Michele McDonald, who first coined the RAIN acronym.

Enroll now to start your journey with RAIN today.

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A Buddha statue surrounded by shells from a Hawaiian beach

A recipe for mindfulness

Emotions are so wrapped up with our everyday experience that the two often seem inseparable. RAIN, a widely used approach developed by Vipassana teacher Michele McDonald, offers practitioners of all skill levels a way to investigate our emotional lives, so we can better regulate the instinctive reactions that cause stress and confusion. 

What to expect

Each unit includes video teachings, guided meditations, prompts for reflection, opportunities for group discussion, and optional quizzes to consolidate what you have learned.

The RAINDROP Acronym

RAINDROP makes the wisdom of the Buddha's mindfulness available to us all. It is profoundly deep and yet easy to put into practice in the midst of living.

R Recognition What is really happening?
A Acceptance Can we accept that it's happening?
I Interest Can we bring genuine interest to what's happening?
N Non-identification Is this happening to "me," or is it simply happening?
D Distraction The opposite of recognition. Are we aware of our experience?
R Resistance The opposite of acceptance. Are we resisting reality?
O Obliviousness The opposite of interest. Do you care about what's happening?
P Personification The opposite of non-identification. Taking things personally.

About RAINDROP

Since creating the RAIN teaching, Michele has expanded the acronym to RAINDROP, which includes Distraction, Resistance, Obliviousness, and Personification. Rather than thinking of these factors as problems or enemies to combat, we can understand them as conditioned defenses that we can investigate. No matter how many hours we may devote to formal practice on the cushion, in reality, we spend most of our waking hours distracted, resistant, and somewhat oblivious to what’s actually happening around us. RAINDROP charts out a way for us to steer through the emotions that rattle us and to respond—rather than react—from a place of greater balance and grace.

Course Features

Michele McDonald
An expert teacher

Michele McDonald is a respected meditation instructor and creator of the RAIN and RAINDROP acronyms.

Wooden Buddha statue with prayer beads.
Guidance for personal practice

6 videos offering guided meditations and exercises to deepen your personal practice.

Michele McDonald teaching with hand gestures.
Video dharma talks

18 videos in which Michele describes the basics and nuances of mindful investigation with RAINDROP.

A tree with yellow blossoms.
Downloadable guided meditations

Feel your way into each aspect of RAIN with support from Michele. You can take these meditations with you anywhere.

Michele McDonald doing walking meditation along the coast.
Walking meditation instruction

RAIN can be a powerful tool to bring to walking practice. Michele guides us in this essential but often overlooked aspect of practice.

A cove at the shoreline
Clear guidance for living mindfully

Simple flowcharts, instructions, and diagrams give you the clarity needed for purposeful practice.


Michele McDonald

Meet Michele, Your Teacher

Michele McDonald co-founded Vipassana Hawaii in 1984 with Steven Smith and is now enjoying developing a small temple on the northern tip of Hawaii’s Big Island. She has taught Insight meditation for 32 years. Beyond her commitment to the Vipassana Hawaii Sangha, she teaches extensively throughout the United States as well as in Canada, Burma, and various locations around the world. Michele has been a quiet pioneer, having been the first woman to teach a formal retreat in Burma, side-by-side Sayadaw U Lakkhana, a master teacher and abbot of Kyaswa Monastery. 

Having worked with a wide range of Asian and Western teachers, Michele is most inspired by her practice with Dipa Ma and Sayadaw U Pandita and more recently in Burma with Mya Taung Sayadaw. She appreciates teaching at many levels of practice and has enjoyed leading three-month retreats for experienced students as well as developing meditation retreats for young people. Her style of teaching emphasizes helping individuals find entry points into stillness that are natural for them. She encourages an understanding of the path rooted in insight as well as a gentle strengthening of mindfulness and concentration so that people can ultimately access a deep sense of peace in every moment. Michele is thrilled when students begin to love their practice as their own.

A Note From the Editor

We've all heard the benefits of mindfulness many times over, but for many of us questions still arise, "How do you actually do it?" "What should I do once the mind is peaceful?" "How do I practice when mindfulness seems impossible?" Michele McDonald saw the real-world questions and difficulties that every practitioner has and created the RAIN acronym: a precise recipe for relating to our experience mindfully. In this online course, Michele unpacks and expands on this acronym, offering valuable insight into her approach.

This has long been one of my favourite Tricycle courses. Rarely has anyone offered a clearer account of the actual nuts and bolts of what mindfulness looks like in our moment-to-moment experience. And, while firmly grounded in the Burmese Mahasi tradition, the emphasis here is not on scholarship or esoterica. What Michele offers is a way to wholeheartedly live the teachings.

—Mark Cooper, Course Designer

Testimonials

What a great course! Michele is excellent. The resources were very helpful.
This was an incredible course experience with Michele. She offered a wide lens view of RAIN through the videos, guided meditations, charts, reflect questions and the two live calls. I feel like I have a much better understanding of RAIN as compared to before the course. I look forward to taking to this practice, as Michele suggests as a lifelong practice, and will be reviewing the materials as needed.
I really appreciated the course. I think this course suited my level of practice very much. The clarifications on technique and terminology was very helpful. I am also very grateful for and inspired by Michele's kindness in the way she presented the material.
I so enjoyed this teaching and Michele did an outstanding presentation of this concept of RAIN. These teachings are enhancing my daily practice and I am so grateful.
I gained many wonderful insights from your teachings.
Wow! Well presented, well organized, balanced use of written, visual materials and video recordings. I feel so grateful that this course offering came to my attention.

How the Journey Unfolds

U1: Introduction to RAINDROP

Welcome to the first unit of the course. In this session, Michele will...

  1. Explain the RAINDROP acronym
  2. Explore "R"—Recognition and three factors that support it
  3. Introduce soft mental noting and anchoring
  4. Touch on the importance of DROP
  5. Offer two guided meditations for you to practice with.

Unit 2: R is for Recognition

In Unit 1 we learned about RAINDROP and the factors that support Recognition. Now we're going to deepen our exploration of Recognition and its opposite, Distraction. Michele will...

  1. Recap the three R's: factors that support Recognition
  2. Explore body sensations and awareness of the body
  3. Explain skillful ways of relating to liking and disliking during meditation
  4. Explore options for relating to physical pain
  5. Look in more detail at Distraction, the opposite of Recognition
  6. Outline why it is we get Distracted, and why this is not a problem
  7. Offer a new guided meditation focused on physical sensations.

Unit 3: A is for Acceptance

Michele will break down the nuts and bolts of Acceptance (the "A" in RAIN), a practice that can help us counteract the deep-seated tendency to reject aspects of our experience such as anger, sadness, lust, loneliness, or grief. We will cover:

  1. Three categories of insight that arise from seeing things clearly
  2. Five hindrances that disconnect us from reality
  3. How to accept Resistance
  4. How acceptance can help us investigate unhelpful patterns of behavior
  5. The benefits of Acceptance
  6. In our practice, we'll explore bringing Acceptance to difficult emotions and experiences.

Unit 4: I is for Interest

By bringing curious observation and energetic interest to each moment of our experience, we can dismantle adverse habits of mind which take us away from the present moment. In this unit, we'll learn:

  1. The characteristics of Interest
  2. The difference between anchoring on the breath and mindfulness
  3. The importance of exploring sensations beyond our ideas about them
  4. That bringing an agenda to our practice kills our connection to experience
  5. Why we use Obliviousness as a protection when RAIN isn't present.

We'll also explore a few practices for cultivating Interest, and share a new guided meditation.

Unit 5: N is for Nonidentification

As we turn our focus to the last aspect of RAIN, Non-identification, we'll prod at the solid, separate self we cling to, only to see how we over-identify with feelings, emotions, thoughts, or opinions and attach them to the idea of who we are. In Unit 5, we'll find out:

  1. What is meant by "Nonidentification"
  2. What it feels like when we are strongly identified with our experience
  3. That Nonidentification is not indifference or disinterestedness
  4. How Nonidentification means there is less reactivity, and greater freedom and compassion
  5. About "soft readiness" and what it feels like when we don't "cherish our preferences"
  6. How to work with practices for exploring Nonidentification through a new guided meditation.

Unit 6: Walking Meditation & Practicing RAINDROP in Our Lives

This final unit is twofold: the first part involves a guided walking meditation that will open your senses to the world around you; the second section offers practical tips on cultivating wisdom and compassion without succumbing to passivity or indifference.

Part I includes:

  1. An introduction to walking meditation
  2. Taungpulu Sayadaw's walking meditation instructions
  3. Guidance on adjusting the practice
  4. Suggestions for integrating RAIN and walking practice
  5. Michele's thoughts on bringing walking practice into everyday life.

In Part II, Michele will offer parting thoughts on:

  1. What it means to practice RAINDROP in daily life
  2. The difference between RAIN and passivity
  3. An illuminating story about Mahasi Sayadaw
  4. Her support for interfaith dialogue and the Rohingya in Burma
  5. Her thanks for your participation in this course.

Detailed Curriculum

  Unit 1: Introduction to RAINDROP
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  Unit 2: Recognition
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  Unit 3: Acceptance
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  Unit 4: Interest
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  Unit 5: Nonidentification
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  Unit 6: Part I – Walking Meditation
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  Unit 6: Part II – Practicing RAINDROP in our Lives
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