Seeing Clearly, Opening Up: The Heart of Vipassana Practice

This retreat provides a grounding for beginners to Insight (Vipassana) Meditation and a re-grounding suitable for experienced students. We will cultivate direct awareness of breath and body, then open up step by step to encompass all that arises in the heart and mind. As taught in the Buddha’s Four Foundations of Mindfulness, Insight Meditation welcomes and includes every experience into present moment awareness. As we begin to recognize reactive patterns, we can disengage from those patterns and choose instead to cultivate compassion and contentment of body, heart, and mind. The habit of being awake begins to develop, healing the accumulated habits of a lifetime.

The daily schedule will include sitting and walking meditation, as well as practice cultivating mindfulness during daily activities such as eating, rest, yoga or other movement practices, listening and sharing in small groups, and work meditation. There will be an instruction period each morning, meetings with the teachers, question and answer periods, and a Dharma talk in the evening. Mr. Byrne will be assisted by Mary Linda McBride.

This retreat is open to all. Those who are relatively new to the practice of Insight Meditation are especially encouraged to attend, but experienced practitioners will benefit as well.