What’s New At Insight Meditation Center
June 1st marks the one-year anniversary of taking possession of the new home of the Insight Retreat Center! We’re two months into the renovation and things are progressing well. This is a brief informal video of Gil when he visited IRC last week:
On March 31, IMC held its first IPO (Insight Practice Opportunity). If you were unable to attend or if you want to hear it again, you can listen to the event on Audio Dharma: http://www.audiodharma.org/talks/audio_player/2956.html
The April – June 2012 Newsletter is now available.
Buddhist practice involves engaging in actions on a path to freedom and awakening. Action, in other words, is key. Reading about Buddhism is not the same as taking up the practice. If we learn about Buddhist practice but don’t change any of our behaviors, we won’t experience the benefits of the practice. Unless we actually take up the activity of mindfulness, mindfulness practice will have no role in our lives. If we decide we want to meditate but fail to…
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by: Gil Fronsdal At the Insight Meditation Center, and soon, at the new Insight Retreat Center, we offer our residential retreats freely at no cost to anyone who participates. We do so because we believe Buddhist practice unfolds best in a field of generosity, gratitude, and goodwill. We also believe the freely given aspect of retreats exemplifies the remarkable inner freedom that Buddhism champions. By demonstrating an alternative to the dominant materialism and acquisitiveness of our culture, we hope these…
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The March 2012 Insight Retreat Center Newsletter is now available for reading.
Thursday evenings 7:30-9pm, May 24-June 21 Insight Meditation or Vipassana, is a simple technique, beginning with focusing the attention on the breath. The practice concentrates and calms the mind. At the heart of Insight Meditation is the practice of Mindfulness, a practice of moment-to-moment observation which cultivates a clear, stable and non-judgmental awareness. While mindfulness practice can be highly effective in helping bring calm and clarity to the pressures of daily life, it is also a spiritual path that gradually dissolves…
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Samish Island, Washington State April 12-21, 2013 With Andrea Fella and Heather Martin In the sytle of Sayadaw U Tejaniya Sponsored by Bellingham Insight For further information: http://bellinghaminsight.org
At the Forest Refuge, Barre, MA February 1 -28, 2013 with Andrea Fella and Akincano Marc Weber For further information:
At Spirit Rock Meditation Center, Woodacre, CA August 13 -22,2012 With Sally Armstrong, Phillip Moffitt, Andrea Fella, and Tempel Smith For further information see: http://www.spiritrock.org/
Cloud Mountain Retreat Center, Castle Rock, Washington July 20 – 27, 2012 With Andrea Fella and Greg Scharf For further information: http://www.cloudmountain.org
At Spirit Rock Meditation Center May 13 – 20, 2012 With Gil Fronsdal, Andrea Fella, Mary Grace Orr, John Travis For further information see: http://www.spiritrock.org/
At Jikoji Retreat Center in Los Gatos CA June 24 – July 8, 2012 With Andrea Fella Taught in the style of Sayadaw U Tejaniya Space is limited. Prerequisite: one week long silent Vipassana retreat. For information contact Dan Acland at dan@danacland.com
by Andrea Fella When we go on a residential retreat, we often hope that our meditation will result in a deepening of concentration: a quality of composure, collectedness, of settled attention. But unfortunately, we can’t force concentration to happen! We can, however, support the conditions that allow it to arise. This simple fact has been really helpful for me to remember. In our meditation practice, we often bring along the cultural baggage of an “I’m going to do this” mentality,…
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