The Four Noble Truths that form the heart of the Buddha’s teaching invite us to examine our relationship to dukkha: stress, distress, unsatisfactoriness, suffering. Most of us though, have an instinctive resistance to suffering, so we need to practice working skilfully with the different levels of fear that often show up along the path to freedom. As we learn how to release ourselves from the confines of these fears, we’re able to live with greater ease, happiness, and peace, and to connect with the wisdom and compassion that are our true nature.
NOW ONLINE - Due to the lockdown in Auckland, our planned nine-day retreat at Te Moata next week has had to move online. As a result, we're able to slightly increase the number of participants, and include people who otherwise might not have been able to attend.
If you haven't done an online retreat before and are wondering what it might be like, here are a few comments from previous online retreat participants:
I took up your suggestion to explore and enjoy and developed significant insights as well as really enjoyed taking mindfulness into my everyday life.
It was very helpful to have further practice in insight dialogue which I found to be extremely helpful in my professional work.
We would be only too happy to do a virtual retreat again. ...
Thanks again, a wonderful retreat full of insights both large and small. I look forward to catching up again soon in an online format. It really does open such a huge door. ...
I found the retreat in online format a wonderful experience. I would say surprisingly rich, but that undersells through flavouring with expectation: the rewards for me were great, and I would opt to do a similar format retreat again.
During this nine-day retreat, each day, there will be three online sessions that everyone is asked to attend, plus two or three small-group meetings with the teachers to check in about your practice.
Apart from these sessions, the rest of the schedule is optional. In fact it is intended to be flexible, allowing you to do however much formal practice you can, so that you have an opportunity to practice integrating meditation into whatever your current life circumstances are.
More info here
Time and dates: 7:30 p.m. Friday 21 August - 12:00 p.m. Sunday 30 August 2020
Location: online using Zoom
Cost: $100 + dana*
To register: https://events.humanitix.com/insight-meditation-nine-day-retreat-2020-online
Teachers: Jill Shepherd and Julie Downard
Jill Shepherd began practicing insight meditation in Thailand in 1999, and since that time has lived and worked at several meditation centres and monasteries in the US, Australia, England, and Thailand. She recently spent seven years on staff at the Insight Meditation Society (IMS) in Barre, Massachusetts, and is a graduate of the IMS / Spirit Rock teacher training program in the US, under the guidance of Joseph Goldstein and Gil Fronsdal.
Julie Downard has been practising meditation since 1991 when she was living in England. She has practised intensively with teachers in both the Insight and Zen traditions in India, England, California, Australia, France and New Zealand. Julie has been teaching on retreats and Dharma Gatherings since 2007. She lives in Christchurch, and is a co-founder and trustee of Southern Insight Meditation.
*Dana
In most Buddhist traditions the teachers are not paid to teach. Instead, the teachings are given on a ‘dana’ basis – dana being the Pali word for generosity or giving freely. At the end of the course, participants are invited to reciprocate this generosity by offering dana to support the teacher.
Jill is an independent meditation teacher and is not financially supported by any meditation centre or Buddhist organisation. She relies on dana for her livelihood, and often pays for the expenses incurred in offering a retreat, including most international airfares, herself.