April 2019
April 13-20: co-teaching seven-day retreat with DaRa Williams
Bellingham Insight
Finding the Heart of Wisdom
This seven-day retreat will weave together a range of different insight meditation techniques to both strengthen the heart, and open the mind.
Building on a foundation of mindfulness and insight practice, we will cultivate the heart qualities of kindness, compassion, joy and equanimity, so that we can respond more wisely and compassionately to whatever life brings us.
Each day, there will be sessions of guided and silent sitting meditation, walking meditation, optional relational practice, individual meetings with the teachers and a period of optional, gentle mindful movement.
This retreat is best suited to people who have done at least one previous insight meditation weekend retreat.
Location: Camp Samish 11633 Scott Road Bow, WA 98232
Phone: +1 360 766 8125
More information: https://bellinghaminsight.org/retreats/
April 22 – May 31 : five-week personal retreat
I will be on retreat at the Forest Refuge, Barre, Massachusetts for five weeks and not available for teaching or individual meetings during this time, sorry.
June 2019
June 6: dharma talk – Austin, Texas
7:00 -830 pm Trinity United Methodist Church Sanctuary
4001 Speedway, Austin, TX 78751
Befriending the Mind, through an exploration of the Two Wings to Awakening
In this upcoming weekend workshop, we will be exploring ways to befriend the mind, to let go of unhelpful mental habits, and to cultivate helpful ones: mental states that lead to greater ease, happiness, and peace. As support for this process, we need to develop both of the “two wings to awakening:” wisdom and compassion. This evening’s talk will give an overview of how these two wings of wisdom and compassion work together, in service of the deepest possible freedom of heart and mind.
June 8-9: two-day Insight Meditation workshop (non-residential) – Austin, Texas
Befriending the Mind
One common misperception of meditation is that it aims to stop thinking. However, the aim of insight meditation is to develop a more skilful relationship to every aspect of our experience, including our thoughts and emotions.
During this two-day non-residential workshop, we will explore ways to befriend the mind, to let go of unhelpful mental habits, and to cultivate helpful ones: states of heart and mind that lead to greater ease, happiness, and freedom.
Each day, there will be sessions of guided and silent sitting meditation, walking meditation, optional small group discussion, optional individual meetings with the teacher and a period of optional, gentle mindful movement.
This workshop is suitable for people who have some familiarity with mindfulness and/or insight meditation practice.
Pre-requisite at least one previous insight meditation one-day workshop.
Location: Sol Healing and Wellness Center 13805 Ann Place North Austin TX
More information: Mariposa Sangha
https://mariposasangha.org/contact-us/
September – December 2019
September 7: one-day Insight Dialogue workshop – Redwood City, California
Insight Meditation Center
108 Birch Street Redwood City, California 94062
phone: +1 (650) 599-3456
insightmeditationcenter@gmail.com
Exploring Wise Speech through the practice of Insight Dialogue
Insight Dialogue is an interpersonal meditation practice that brings the mindfulness and tranquility of traditional silent meditation into our experience with others. Resting on the foundation of traditional Buddhist teachings, this practice offers a way to integrate wisdom and compassion into our relational lives through mindful speaking and mindful listening.
In this one-day non-residential workshop, we will use the power of relational meditation practice to understand the habits of heart and mind that lead to stress and distress, and how to free ourselves from those habits so that we can live together with greater ease and happiness.
Working together in pairs, we will explore the six guidelines of Insight Dialogue in conjunction with the classical Buddhist teachings on Wise Speech: speech that is “… spoken at the right time … spoken in truth … spoken affectionately … spoken beneficially … spoken with a mind of good-will.”
For more information about the practice of Insight Dialogue, please see https://metta.org/insight-dialogue-3/
This workshop is best suited to people with an established meditation practice, but previous Insight Dialogue experience is not required.
NOTE: Because the Insight Dialogue guidelines will be taught in sequence and much of the meditation is done in pairs, please plan to arrive on time and stay for the entire day
Time and dates:
9:30-4:30 p.m. Saturday 7 September 2019
September 10 – October 22: co-teaching six-week retreat – IMS, Barre Massachusetts
Insight Meditation Society 1230 Pleasant St Barre MA 01005
phone: +1 978-355-4378
Prerequisite is three silent retreats of a week or more with recognized insight meditation teachers. Please document this experience, including teachers’ names, dates and length of courses when registering.
Includes optional mindful movement.
A limited number of You Choose fee spaces are available for people of color and young adults (18-32 year olds) in financial need. This means you can establish your own retreat fee, based on your financial means. A minimum of $20 per night, or $840 for six weeks, is required.
Teachers:
Carol Wilson, Guy Armstrong, Annie Nugent, Brian Lesage, Jill Shepherd
Assistants:
Devin Berry, Dawn Scott
To register: https://www.dharma.org/retreats/529
November 1-30: co-teaching one-month retreat with Caroline Jones
Forest Refuge 97 Lockwood Road Barre MA 01005
phone: +1 978-355-2063
To register: https://www.dharma.org/retreats/forest-refuge/application/
December 3-8: five-day study and practice retreat
Liberation through Non-Clinging: An Exploration of the Five Aggregates
The goal of the Buddhist path is sometimes defined as “liberation through non-clinging.” But what is meant by clinging? In the First Noble Truth, the Buddha proclaimed that there is dukkha (suffering, stress, distress, unsatisfactoriness), and he defined dukkha in short as “the five clinging-aggregates” of form, feeling-tone, perception, formations, and consciousness. To have any possibility of experiencing the freedom of non- clinging, we first need to understand the nature of our clinging more fully. In this five-day retreat, we will explore the five clinging-aggregates through a combination of silent sitting and walking meditation, sutta study, and interpersonal practice in pairs and small groups using the guidelines of Insight Dialogue. Practicing in solitude and together, we can directly experience not only the dukkha of clinging, but the possibility of its release.
Learning Intentions:
To cultivate an experiential understanding of how clinging to the five aggregates causes suffering; how to free oneself from these different areas of clinging; to have new understanding about how clinging/identification constructs a sense of self; and how releasing clinging brings insight into anatta or not-self.
Location: Barre Center for Buddhist Studies
149 Lockwood Road Barre MA 01005
phone: +1 978-355-2347
Cost: Sliding scale
Sustaining: $895 Mid Level (Actual Cost): $695 Supported: $545 Non-Resident: $325
To register: https://www.buddhistinquiry.org/course/liberation-through-non-clinging-an-exploration-of-the-five-aggregates/
