Daylongs and Evening Programs and Workshops
Event
Care providing has obvious challenges—stress, energy demands, tension, and excess workload. And it has hidden costs—self-criticism, sacrificing self-care, and despair. In this day retreat, we focus on renewal and explore some of the 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, how to determine what your true responsibilities are, and how to recognize and respond to the confusion that arises around care providing.
The program includes guided meditations, dharma talks, self-care techniques, gentle stretching, and group discussion.
The Buddhist practice of mindfulness, called insight meditation in the Vipassana tradition, allows us to establish an empowering way of meeting life with all of its difficulties and challenges. The practice of insight meditation can bring ease to the mind and an opening of the heart. In this introductory daylong retreat, we will systematically go through the Four Foundations of Mindfulness that the Buddha laid out for how to be present for all aspects of our experience, even the most subtle parts. In the same manner, we will look at the Buddha’s key teaching of the Four Noble Truths in which he describes why we have tension, stress, and anxiety and his instructions for how to move beyond fear, uncertainty, and attachment.
The day will include instructions for sitting and walking meditation and there will be time for questions and discussion. This daylong is appropriate for students new to meditation as well as practitioners with some experience who would like a refresher course in basic instruction. All are welcome.
This is a Dana (donation) day. Phillip is offering the day as a gift to the Spirit Rock community. Spirit Rock’s regular daylong fee is waived for this event. The practice of generosity, or Dana, in all forms is considered a central pillar of Buddhadharma practice. Spirit Rock invites you to contribute what is appropriate for you.
Today’s fast-paced and uncertain times call for leaders to have minds that are incredibly focused and clear. In addition to the difficult and stressful demands on leaders today, more and more employees are unwilling to accept a purely top-down approach in the workplace. Plus, there’s now an emerging movement of employees looking for more meaning, happiness and connectedness at work. This requires a new way of leading, and a new, people-centered approach to leadership.
This is a results-oriented Summit designed to equip you with new perspectives, practical tools, and connections with other leaders who are facing the same challenges you are.
15+ Speakers
Talks & Panels
Intimate Roundtable Discussions
Unique Networking Opportunities with Other Leaders
Optional Day 2 of Leadership Training Intensives
All of us swim in a stream of constant changes, both large and small. The question is how do we gracefully flow with these changes? Some of the most sage advice for doing so is found in great poetry.
Using poetry as our inspiration and our guide, we will explore how it can deepen our understanding of the Dharma and help us meet each moment of life with awareness, intention and surrender. This daylong will consist of sitting and walking meditation practice interspersed with dharma discussions based on the collection of poems Phillip has selected for this day.
In this participatory day, you will have the chance to read aloud one of the selected poems to those in attendance. This is the 16th annual Dharma in Poetry Day. Come be part of a tradition!
The theme of this year's Poetry Day was inspired by the poem “Unfolding” by Carl Dennis, which appeared in the October 24, 2011 issue of The New Yorker. The poem begins like this:
If there is no spirit unfolding itself in history,
No gradual growth of consciousness
Beneath the land grabs and forced migrations,
The bought elections, the betrayal of trust
By party faction in the name of progress--
What about spirit in the personal realm
Unfolding slowly inside us, so slowly
That our best days seem like a holding action?
Each moment of life — both the ordinary and the extraordinary — is imbued with presence. Being awake to this presence gives us an immediate sense of life’s meaning. This feeling is what poets try to capture in verse. Using poetry as our inspiration and our guide, we will explore how it can deepen our understanding of the dharma and help us meet each moment of life with awareness, intention, and surrender.
During this poetry daylong, we will read and reflect on a selection of poems that capture the meaning of “Unfolding.” Periods of sitting and walking meditation will be interspersed with dharma discussions based the poems.
This daylong is suitable for both beginning and experienced meditation students. All are welcome.
Change is a fact of life and yet we can find ourselves ill-equipped to manage it
skillfully.
The normal concerns that change brings up can lead to confusion, apathy, or
poor decisions. In this workshop, you can learn skills to effectively respond to the
challenges of change.
• Gain insights about your strengths and challenges in dealing with change.
• Recognize habits of mind that undermine you and learn practices to disengage
from their influence.
• Create a strategy for effectively navigating your change.
Expect a weekend of dynamic inquiry and learn to meet change with
authenticity, confidence, and clarity.
In the midst of the world’s turmoil, we often find ourselves lathered with anxiety, fear, and confusion. As we witness both the suffering of the world and our own individual suffering, we realize the need to cool our minds and open our hearts.
During our half-day retreat together, we will explore our capacity to cultivate a cooling mind while feeling the intensity of our individual and global suffering. Join us as we share movement, meditation, and group discussion to further our path towards our common humanity and liberation.
Sponsored by East Bay Meditation Center
Time: (Fri) 7pm - 9pm (Sat) 9am - 5:30pm (Sun) 9am - 1pm
Location Details: InsightLA 14th Street
1826 14th St.
Santa Monica, CA 90404
Description: The one constant in our lives is change. How well you navigate change has a direct impact on the degree of well-being, purpose, and satisfaction you experience on a day-to-day basis. If you are considering a big change, or are in one now, or are still feeling the effects of a past change, this workshop will give you the personal understanding and tools to set a well-considered course for the next phase of your life.
Over the past 25 years, leaders, organizations, and groups have come to Phillip Moffitt for his wisdom, experience, and insight. During this weekend workshop, he will share his knowledge, time-tested mindfulness practices, and principles about the nature of change in human lives. He will focus on the specific challenges and opportunities that arise in your 50s and 60s.
Change naturally brings up concerns, fears, and questions that can lead to confusion, lack of motivation, or poor decisions. In this workshop, you will learn skills and strategies to effectively respond to the challenges of change such as:
Discover which areas of your life need attention, gain insights about your strengths and challenges in dealing with change, and begin to strategize about next steps.
Recognize habits of mind that undermine you and learn practices to disengage from their influence.
Identify your values and intentions so you have a basis for making wise decisions.
Receive individualized guidance from Phillip.
Expect a weekend full of dynamic inquiry and the opportunity to learn essential life skills for meeting your changes and transitions with authenticity, confidence, and clarity.
Please Note: There will be a 90 minute break for lunch around 12:30 pm on Saturday.
Cost: $375
Items to Bring: Please wear comfortable clothing and bring a brown bag lunch and something to write with.
Contact Information: programs@insightla.org or 310-450-1821 or 310-450-1821
The Nine Bodies teachings are an exploration of how to utilize the many dimensions and manifestations of consciousness in meditation. The teachings map out a journey that starts with the kind of consciousness that arises in the physical body and is directly observable, and then takes us through ever more subtle levels of consciousness.
In this three-day non-residential retreat, Phillip Moffitt will share his understanding of the Nine Bodies teachings that were transmitted to him by the Himalayan yoga master Swami Sri Premvarni Balyogi. Phillip will give specific instructions for accessing the various Bodies including how to recognize each Body, how to nourish it, and he will identify the consciousness capacities that come with each Body.
While there will be periods of meditation each day, this retreat will include a significant amount of background information and detailed instructions about the practices due to the subtle nature of this material. There will be ample time for questions and discussion.
If you practice mindfulness meditation, the Nine Bodies teachings offer you a new means for tracking and classifying meditative experiences, which can help you stay present with whatever arises. These explorations may also increase the clarity and specificity of your mindfulness and enable the arising of insight. However, in no way are these teachings a substitute for your lineage practice. Rather, they may help you be more effective in your lineage practice.
