At Home Retreat - Centering Body & Mind: Yoga & the Four Sublime States

Both Yoga and Buddhism invite us to quiet the mind, expand our awareness, reduce our suffering, and tap into our inner wisdom. This retreat will blend hatha yoga asana with the teachings of the Four Immeasurables—friendliness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity. Practicing yoga with a focus on these inter-related states or qualities can open a doorway to awakening, clarity, and freedom.

Yoga helps us move into our bodies, sit still, and feel and regulate the breath. The poses build flexibility and endurance, which allows us more ease in sitting meditation. Body awareness is essential to Buddhist practice because the four qualities of consciousness we are cultivating are partly experienced through the body.

When you move into a yoga pose, can you find joy and contentment? Can you move your attention throughout your entire body to discover the places where you hold dissatisfaction? Can you release into friendliness towards self and others? By honing and practicing these qualities on the yoga mat, you learn to transfer them to daily life to become more peaceful and accepting—independent of external circumstances.

Each day will include periods of silent and guided meditation, mindfulness exercises, and the practice of yoga postures and breath awareness. In mindfulness training and in yoga postures, we learn to be present—to show up in every moment of our lives, whether on the yoga mat, on the meditation cushion, or on the road of life.

Preliminary Retreat Schedule

Letter from Cindy