September 4 - 11; 7 days with Rodney Smith

Vipassana for Experienced Students

It is the intention of this retreat to serve the needs of the more experienced student and to encourage the next step in your growth. The retreat format will include silent sitting and walking meditation, meetings with the teacher and evening dharma talks. The prerequisites for this retreat are: three or more years of vipassana meditation used as your primary spiritual method; plus a total of three or more retreats of one week or longer in the insight tradition; plus a willingness to challenge oneself.

Rodney Smith has been practicing Insight meditation since 1975 including several years as a Buddhist monk in Asia. He has been teaching meditation since 1984 and worked in hospice care for 16 years. He is the guiding teacher for the Seattle Insight Meditation Society, is a Senior Teacher for the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, MA, and author of the book, Lessons From The Dying.

Retreat cost: $420 plus dana offering.  Register Here
Note: Please include a comprehensive resume of your retreat experience along with your standard registration materials.

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September 25 - 30; 5 days with Heather Martin

Vipassana

Insight or Vipassana meditation is the simple practice of observing one’s direct experience in this very moment, with a gently relaxed, open and careful awareness. By learning to be present with this attitude, we are able to access our natural qualities of a spacious, calm, clear mind, and a kind and peaceful heart. As we develop this way, we respond to the inevitable joys and sorrows of life with increasing sensitivity, stability and love. Metta or Loving Kindness meditation cultivates connecting with and caring for ourselves and others. It is true friendliness. We can deliberately nurture our heart’s natural capacity for peacefulness and kindness, acceptance and forgiveness. These practices intertwine and are mutually supportive.

This retreat will take place in Noble Silence, and the format will include: specific training in both Vipassana/Insight and Metta/Loving Kindness meditation; daily Dharma talks; periods for questions and answers; and opportunities for discussion with the teacher. It is suitable for both beginning and experienced students of meditation.

Heather Martin has practiced meditation since 1972, finding the dhamma in 1981 by studying with S. N. Goenka for 8 years. Since then she has been influenced by both Burmese and Thai streams of the Theravada tradition, having studied with many of the senior western teachers, and more recently by Tibetan Dzogchen with Tsoknyi Rinpoche. She is training with Jack Kornfield and leads retreats in Canada and the US. She worked for 20 years as a midwife, continues to prepare parents for Childbirth, and lives on Saltspring Island, B.C.

Retreat cost: $300 plus dana offering.  Register Here

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