The Buddha taught that you can search the entire universe for someone more deserving of your love and affection than yourself, and you will not find that person anywhere.

And yet, for many of us, it seems much easier for us to offer our care, compassion, and even forgiveness to others than to ourselves.

We tend to beat ourselves up, or give ourselves an unnecessarily hard time for our “perfectly human” imperfections.

During this 5-day meditation retreat, we’ll be deeply exploring and nurturing the heart practices of kindness, compassion, joy, and a sense of profound ease (or equanimity) – for the person we spend the most time with – ourselves.

In the Buddhist tradition, these four essential qualities of heart are called the Divine Abodes, or the Bhrama Viharas, which translates as the “dwelling places of the gods.” And the idea is that, through our practice, we can not only nurture these qualities, but eventually, we can become these qualities … and “dwell there,” in the home of our body, mind, and heart.

Our silent retreat together will include dharma talks, periods of both guided and silent meditation, walking meditation, and Q&A sessions about these essential practices. Check-in will be from 4-6 p.m. Thursday, and the retreat will end at 12:45 p.m. Monday, followed by lunch.

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For thousands of years, the famous Satipatthana Sutra has been used as a powerful and profound spiritual road map. Contained within it are the rich teachings on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness, which the Buddha himself called the “direct path to enlightenment.”

In essence, this sutra is the very basis and ground of our entire practice, and diving deep into its teachings is exactly what can lead us out of suffering, and into more freedom, joy, and ease in our lives.

During this 5-day silent meditation retreat, we’ll be exploring each of these four in more depth by spending a full day on each – contemplating the body, feelings, mind states, and dharmas.

Our time together will include daily dharma talks, guided meditation, silent meditation, walking meditation, and q&a sessions about these transformative practices.

Some meditation experience might be helpful, but the practice and its teachings is applicable to all, and all are welcome.

In order to nurture a sense of stillness and deep listening, we have secured exclusive use of the full retreat center, and silence will be maintained throughout the retreat as we experience a variety of dharma talks, silent and guided meditations, and walking meditation on the beautiful grounds.

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