At Spirit Rock with Tuere Sala, Dawn Scott and Matthew Brensilver, PhD

Beneath the fragmentation and pain of this time, something is rumbling deep in our minds. It is as if the tectonic plates are moving inside us, but we don’t know exactly where everything will land. How can we stabilize ourselves and leverage the moment to understand the Dharma more deeply and soften our hearts more fully?

This Insight retreat will explore the power of goodness amidst the intensity of our human condition. The pāramīs serve to guide our hearts: generosity, morality, renunciation, wisdom, energy, patience, truthfulness, resolution, lovingkindness, and equanimity. These forces of goodness do not erase suffering, but guide us towards wisdom and compassion.

Traditional meditation instruction will be combined with a spirit of lovingkindness and silent sitting and walking meditation, Dharma talks, and small group practice meetings with teachers. This retreat is open to new and experienced meditators.

Teachers: Phillip Moffitt, Dana DePalma, and Tuere Sala

As a support for Insight meditation, the Nine Bodies teachings and meditations presented in this online retreat offer 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. In this time of great uncertainty, strengthening our practice in these ways allows us to respond skillfully to the challenges that confront us and our world.

This Nine Bodies retreat will systematically explore a set of teachings about the nature of consciousness that were first transmitted to Phillip Moffitt by the Himalayan yoga master Sri Swami Premvarni Balyogi twenty years ago. They are the basis for Phillip’s book: Awakening through the Nine Bodies. The practice starts by focusing on the consciousness that arises in the physical body and then presents a series of meditations for exploring ever more subtle levels of consciousness. These teachings and meditations are intended to help you be more empowered in your Insight meditation practice.

This retreat is specifically designed as an online offering. It combines the dedicated practice time of a residential retreat while supporting yogis with family members and/or other responsibilities. The format is configured to maximize its effectiveness as a virtual retreat during this extraordinary time of shelter-in-place. It provides each of us the opportunity to integrate formal meditation and daily life practice. Each day there will be two guided meditations, time for walking/daily activities, independent sitting in the communal virtual hall, and a dharma talk. During the course of the retreat, there will be two small group practice meetings and a limited number of individual sign-up opportunities.

Please note that each teaching session and guided meditation of the retreat is a building block for the next teaching session and guided meditation. Due to this progressive building process, please plan on attending all teaching sessions. We understand that due to the home retreat aspect of this offering, you may need to skip a walking meditation or other non-essential part of the retreat. We ask that you consider carefully whether you can commit to attending all of the active teaching sessions and one small group practice meeting each day of the retreat.

This retreat is for yogis that have a committed practice and the ability to sit multiple times a day over a seven-day period. We strongly suggest that as a prerequisite, you have attended a minimum of two 5-night retreats or one 9-night retreat. This retreat is not recommended for students who are experiencing acute depression or grief or other strong mental challenges.

Normally, we meet Sundays, 6:00-8:00 p.m. in the Bayview Room of the St. Luke Presbyterian Church. During The Pandemic, all meetings are live-streamed.  Please click here for details on how to connect to our Virtual Sangha.