Explore how mindful awareness—the liberating quality that has been called "the Heart of Buddhist Meditation"—can, through care and attention and steady nurturing, become naturally and more continuously present in our lives.
Guided by Will Kabat-Zinn, we engage in formal and informal meditation practices, including sitting meditation, walking meditation, standing and lying down meditations, and movement-based practices. As mindfulness gains momentum, it allows us to see with penetrating insight into the nature of our own hearts and minds and to taste the freedom that the Buddha pointed to thousands of years ago.
We immerse ourselves in what are traditionally called the four foundations of mindfulness—mindfulness of body, feelings, mind, and the tendencies of mind that lead to suffering or liberation. This is a powerful practice methodology first taught by the Buddha for cultivating deep stillness and penetrating insight into the nature of experience itself.
During the retreat, we cultivate intimacy with our own experience as the days unfold, meeting our experience with loving awareness and letting life itself become the curriculum. There will be an emphasis on the cultivation of mindfulness in all daily activities to foster a seamless continuity of life and practice.
The application of mindfulness in the face of our full human condition—including stress, pain, illness, our own limiting beliefs, implicit biases and relational challenges, as well as joy, love, and connection—will be emergent themes.
