Daylongs and Evening Programs and Workshops

Despite our best-laid plans, life can often be difficult, disappointing, and stressful. Consequently, when things don't go right, we are often left in a state of emotional chaos, dealing with feelings like anger, anxiety, frustration, and doubt, which can cloud our perspective and negatively affect the way we live our lives. In his new book Emotional Chaos to Clarity: How to Live More Skillfully, Make Better Decisions, and Find Purpose in Life, Phillip Moffitt shows us that we need not be at the mercy of our emotions. By cultivating a responsive mind rather than a reactive one, we can achieve a state of emotional clarity that allows us to live skillfully and act with wisdom even in the face of obstacles or unhappiness.
In this meditation and dharma talk based on the book, Phillip will lead an exploration of Buddhist teachings and practices that can help you develop a set of life skills – such as identifying intentions and setting priorities - that can profoundly improve your ability to respond to any difficult life situation and help you discover a renewed enthusiasm for life. He leads us on a path that takes us from being caught in old, self-defeating habits of mind to a place of clarity where we can act from the wisdom of our intentions, allowing us to move through life's challenges with a calm, clear mind and a peaceful, loving heart.

The teachings of mindfulness include an emphasis on awareness of objects (experiences) that arise in the mind and the actual experience of awareness itself —"that which knows. As students deepen their practice, the importance of awareness as a phenomenon that is to be understood becomes increasingly important for the development of insight. In this daylong retreat, we will explore the nature of awareness and its implications for liberation. The aspiration is for students to develop their own direct experience of awareness and to be able to skillfully access it both in their formal practice and in daily life.

Care providing has obvious challenges — stress, energy demands, tension and excess workload. And it has hidden costs — self-criticism, sacrificing your own self-care, and falling into despair. This is true for professional care providers and for those who are caring for ailing family or friends.

In this daylong, we will focus on renewal and look at both the apparent and hidden demands that care providers experience through the lens of the Buddha's psychology of mindfulness and intentional cultivation of attitude. We will explore how to apply mindfulness to meet the particular needs of the care provider and discuss some of the other skillful means the Buddha taught that can mitigate the stress of care providing.

You will learn the importance of placing attention, the art of letting go of expectations and attachments, how to determine what is yours and not yours to own in the way of responsibility, and how to recognize and respond to the confusion of mind that arises around care providing.

The day will include guided meditations tailored for care providers, dharma talks, self-care techniques, gentle stretching, and time for group discussion. The teachings are appropriate for therapists and other healthcare professionals and are applicable in therapeutic settings as well as for personal care.

We all need compassion and time for renewal, so this will be a day for taking care of you. Brief individual interviews will be offered with assistant teachers.

Teachings are appropriate for the general public as well as health care professionals. Health care professionals will be able to incorporate the tools and practices offered in this program when working with clients. Continuing Education (CE) credit available.

NEW PROCEDURE for Dana Days: To help us better support teachers, staff and you; and to plan for this day, we would prefer you register ahead of time online. You may make dana offerings at the same time you register online and you may make dana offerings as the door.

Each moment of life — both the ordinary and the extraordinary — is imbued with "alive" presence. Being awake to this alive presence gives life an immediate sense of meaning. This feeling is what poets try to capture in verse. Using poetry as our inspiration and our guide, we will explore how mindfulness and gratitude can help us experience a more continuous sense of alive presence during this 13th annual Spirit Rock Poetry Day. This daylong will consist of sitting and walking meditation practice interspersed with dharma discussions based on a selection of poems. It is suitable for both beginning and experienced meditation students.