One World Mindfulness Insight Meditation Retreats are Grounded in the Foundational Teachings of the Buddha
The Buddha taught a direct way to alleviate suffering and discover peace, wisdom and happiness - and that was through cultivating the Four Foundations of Mindfulness within the framework of the Four Noble Truths.
In this unique, live, online retreat format, we co-create a container for continuity of practice supporting the development and deepening of your capacity for awareness. Participants cultivate wise understanding, and a balanced heart and mind, in the context of formal meditation practice and with the support of respected and skilled teachers in the Insight Meditation Tradition.
Practicing with the Four Foundations of Mindfulness
within a framework of the Four Noble Truths
allows us to awaken from suffering and find peace,
even in the midst of difficult experiences.
The Buddha began teaching the practices of Mindfulness over 2600 years ago, with the sole purpose of finding relief from the suffering we experience in our lives. He understood that the usual distractions and pleasant experiences did not offer a reliable refuge from difficulty - even contributed to it - and discovered a radically different way for alleviating suffering through the cultivation of Mindfulness.
Our retreats systematically explore each of the four foundations, and the supporting practice of Loving-Kindness:
The first foundation: Awareness of the experience of the body, breath, and the changing nature of sensations. Awareness of the body cultivates embodied present moment attention which supports our capacity to stay present and centered, and serves as a profound vehicle for awakening.
The second foundation: Exploring our response to pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral experience ("feeling-tone" or in the Pali, "vedana") with phenomena as they arise. Cultivating attention to the realm of feeling-tone and the building-blocks of our experience supports non-reactive presence to the ups and downs of life, and insight into our conditioned instincts and reactivity which allow us to break free of the patterns that cause our suffering.
The third foundation: Recognizing emotions and states of mind that cause stress and reactivity. Focusing on developing a wise relationship to thoughts, emotions and mind-states by recognizing their impersonal and changing nature; so that we may cultivate our capacity to respond rather than react.
The fourth foundation: Cultivating qualities that support, and working wisely with those qualities that hinder, our capacity for awakening from the trance of suffering. A culmination of the practices helps us to see the ways we become caught, as well as the ways we can free ourselves, through the common obstacles we encounter in our practice and the wholesome states that can be cultivated to support it.
Loving-Kindness (Metta) Practice: Metta practice is traditionally practiced to support a balanced heart and mind, and in order to cultivate the open-hearted and non-judgmental qualities that are necessary for a holistic mindful awareness. The cultivation of metta is a different practice from the cultivation of mindfulness, however once cultivated these qualities are mutually supporting and at their most developed, inseparable from one another.
Our Retreats Support You in Cultivating Mindfulness & Loving-Kindness Practice in the Framework of the Four Noble Truths:
The Four Noble Truths are the set of realizations that the buddha had about the nature of experience and the roots of suffering. These realizations serve as a framework for understanding the ways we get caught, as well as the roadmap for freeing ourselves.
The First Noble Truth: The Buddha realized the truth of 'suffering'. This is the word that is most often used to translate the Pali word 'dukkha'. Dukkha can be understood as the suffering that is caused by seeking relief in the inherently unreliability of continuously changing nature of experience.
The Second Noble Truth: Because change is a constant, we suffer when we try to cling to any currently arising experience, and we leave ourselves off-balance when we base our happiness on something not immediately present. Whether we try to hold onto experience we want, or seek to push away experience we don't like, we are inevitably unsatisfied. The Buddha pointed to our confusion about the nature of suffering; that we keep searching for what will make us happy instead of realizing that it is already here.
The Third Noble Truth: The Buddha shared his discovery, directly experienced, that there is a way to be free of this confusion, and released from this kind of dis-ease.
The Fourth Noble Truth: The Fourth Noble Truth provides the path that the Buddha traveled to the end of suffering. Laying out the attitudes, understandings and practices that lead to freedom. This path is the Eight-Fold Path:
1. Wise View
2. Wise Intention
3. Wise Speech
4. Wise Action
5. Wise Livelihood
6. Wise Effort
7. Wise Mindfulness
8. Wise Concentration
When participating on retreat in the Insight Meditation Tradition, mindfulness is taught and practiced as part of the whole set of teachings, where its nuance and depth are more readily comprehended, resulting in the arising of insight; insight into our own nature, and the nature of our experience. Mindfulness held in the context of the full teachings is far more powerful than just learning a few techniques. Taking a retreat in the Insight Meditation tradition also offers the container for practice necessary to explore the many dimensions of practice that one couldn't experience in the context of daily life distractions, and without the support of a community of practitioners and experienced teachers.
Retreats support an establishment of, and deepening into, the practice of mindfulness for a greater capacity to meet whatever challenges our inner and outer world experience may bring, and to connect more intimately with that which nourishes us. One World Mindfulness provides a sacred retreat setting for online participation, and provides the supports that enable you to create the conditions at home that imitate the rarefied environment most closely resembling what one might experience visiting a retreat center. Attention to these conditions, both online and off, enables a profound reconnection with your own inner balance and the capacity to hold all of the joys and sorrows of life. One World Mindfulness Retreats are appropriate for anyone wishing to learn and practice mindfulness: serving as a solid introduction for those new to practice, providing the essential teachings, and an opportunity to refresh and strengthen practice for experienced practitioners.
ONE WORLD MINDFULNESS RETREATS INCLUDE:
-
All Retreats are 4 nights in the Insight Meditation Tradition (Mindfulness)
-
Four 2-hour Modules of live practice daily, as well as an opening and closing Module on the first and last day of the retreat.
-
Small group teacher meetings to receive personalized feedback and support.
-
Flexible Schedule Options: Participate according to your own circumstances and intentions; with support for either a full schedule intensive retreat, or to integrate your daily life responsibilities into more moderate schedule that suits your needs.
-
Module times support practitioners in most time-zones around the world
-
Fulfillment* of the pre-requisite retreat requirement for the Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program (MMTCP) & Continuing Education (CE hours)*must meet attendance requirements and completion requirements.
-
Cost: Tiered Registration Fee options. Registration includes Teacher Support.
-
Financial support available (limited availability)