About the Event:

This event will be donation-based, open to all, and held via Zoom.

If you'd like to explore Tibetan Buddhism in more depth, how do you start? Join us to learn about traditional ways to begin a serious practice -- and what they look like in 2022. No, you don't have to become a monk or nun; yes, it will be a commitment of time. Bring your questions!

About Claire:

Claire Villareal is a Buddhist dharma teacher with a focus on bringing Tibetan wisdom into modern life. She began meditating in 1997 and has spent much time in both personal and group retreat since 1999, making trips to Thailand, India and Nepal to study and meditate in traditional settings in those countries, with pilgrimages to Tibet. She earned her doctorate in Religious Studies from Rice University in Houston with a dissertation that explored contemplative ways of knowing and how they speak to the contemporary academic study of mysticism. Claire is a former Programs Director for Dawn Mountain Center for Tibetan Buddhism in Houston; TX and she is also a former board member for Compassionate Houston. She is currently a member of the Gen X dharma teachers’ community and a faculty fellow at the Jung Center in Houston, TX.

About the Event:

This event will be donation-based, held via Zoom, and open to all.

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM Eastern Time

This workshop will focus on the most fundamental parts of Chan Buddhism. By attending, you will be equipped with the building blocks needed to develop a strong foundation for any future practice. We will learn the basics of meditation in motion, with a focus on bringing relaxation of the body into everyday life. We will also focus on developing a deep and sustained meditation practice, learning how to overcome some of the basic obstacles all practitioners will face.

About Guo Gu:

Guo Gu (Dr. Jimmy Yu) is the founder of the Tallahassee Chan Center, the founder of the socially engaged intra-denominational Buddhist organization, Dharma Relief, and a professor of Buddhism and East Asian religions at Florida State University. He was a monk for nine years and one of the late Master Sheng Yen’s senior and closest disciples. He is the author of Silent Illumination (2021), The Essence of Chan (2020), and Passing Through the Gateless Barrier (2016).

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About the Event:

This event is donation-based, will take place via Zoom, and is open to all ages. The Zoom link will be sent 24 hours before the event upon registration.

In modern life, we often live in our head, absorbed in thinking, planning, or evaluating. The conceptual mind easily gets out of touch with the rhythms of the body, the heart, the natural world. We may think the remedy is to disregard or “transcend” the thinking mind, but the Early Buddhist teachings offer a more nuanced and realistic view. This session examines the process of integrating head, heart, and body through meditation and contemplation, leading to liberation. As practice matures, a new kind of “Dharma intelligence” emerges that draws upon the deeper wellsprings of heart and mind.

About Kim:

Kim Allen has been practicing Insight meditation since 2003, training intensively in the US and Asia. Her root teacher is Gil Fronsdal, and she has also practiced with Theravadan monastics and masters of other Buddhist traditions. She offers Dharma programs, sutta study, and retreats in the US and Canada. Dedicated to a contemplative life of study and practice, she draws from a background in science, meditation, and creativity to offer classical Dharma in a modern context.

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About the Event:

This event is donation-based, will take place via Zoom, and is open to all ages. The Zoom link will be sent 24 hours before the event upon registration.

Rinzai Zen is an intensely yogic path harnessing body, breath, subtle energetics, and mind within a direct approach to awakening. Join us for this comprehensive introduction to the Rinzai Zen way. Instruction will transmit techniques of recognizing intrinsic clarity, formal seated meditation, and internal energetic cultivation. Afterward, you will have the tools you need to begin your own daily practice of Zen.

About Roshi Meido Moore:

Meido Moore Roshi is the abbot of Korinji, a Zen Buddhist monastery in Wisconsin, and guiding teacher of the Korinji Rinzai Zen Community. He is the author of The Rinzai Zen Way: A Guide to Practice and Hidden Zen: Practices for Sudden Awakening and Embodied Realization (both from Shambhala Publications).

Meido Roshi began Zen practice in 1988 and trained under three teachers in the line of the great 20th century Rinzai master Omori Sogen Roshi. He has completed the koan curriculum of this lineage, and in 2008 received inka shomei or "mind seal": recognition as an 86th-generation Zen lineage holder empowered to transmit the full range of Rinzai Zen practices. 

Aside from Zen, Meido is also ordained in the Mt. Koshikidake tradition of Shugendo, and works to establish Shugendo practice places in natural areas of North America. For many years he was a professional martial art teacher, and is certified as a shihan (master-level teacher) by the Aikido World H.Q. in Tokyo. He travels widely, conducting retreats and other events across the United States and Europe.

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About the Event:

This event is donation-based, will take place via Zoom, and is open to all ages. The Zoom link will be sent 24 hours before the event upon registration.

In the style of Theravāda Buddhist monastic practice, Ayyā Medhānandī will guide us on a brief sojourn into the solitude and silence of deep inner listening. With profound awareness, we learn to see our true condition, opening the inner Dharma gates to a fearlessness and a fount of joy from which great compassion and unshakeable peace arise. As we bring the low and high tides of the heart into balance, we shall resonate with the exquisiteness of all things.

The event schedule will be as follows:

SCHEDULE:

2:00 – 2:30 pm Sign-in to Zoom, Welcome & Precepts

2:30 – 3:00 Guided Sitting Meditation

3:00 – 3;30 Walking Meditation: Instructions & Practice

3:30 – 4:00 Sitting Meditation

4:00 – 4:10 Break

4:10 – 5:15 Dhamma talk, Q & A

5:15 – 6:00 Loving-Kindness Practice & Closing

About Ayyā Medhānandī:

Ayyā Medhānandī is the founder and guiding teacher of Sati Sārāņīya Hermitage, a Theravāda forest monastery for women, established in her native Canada in 2007. Her meditation experience spans 51 years, 33 of them as an alms-mendicant nun. Ayyā was ordained as a sāmaneri (novice) by Sayadaw U Pandita in Myanmar in March, 1988. Nearly 20 years later, she fulfilled her long-held wish for full ordination as a bhikkhunī in Taiwan, thus joining a wave of pioneer women restoring the Theravāda Bhikkhunī Sangha in our era.

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About the Event:

This event is donation-based, will take place via Zoom, and is open to all ages. The Zoom link will be sent 24 hours before the event upon registration.

Meditation teacher Beth Upton will be leading a series of events exploring the interrelated themes of truth and suffering. We will be looking at how these two forces play out in our meditation practice, in our daily lives, in our relationships, and in society as a whole. Ultimately we will be looking at how these two forces can be used in our paths to liberation. Part three of this series will focus on the relationship between our personal practice and our collective, cultural, and global interconnectedness.

About Beth Upton:
Beth was born in 1982 in London. She graduated from Cambridge University with a degree in Economics, then in 2008 ordained as a Buddhist nun at Pa Auk Meditation Centre in Myanmar. She spent five years training diligently in meditation in the Theravada tradition under the guidance of Pa Auk Sayadaw, then a further five years training in other meditation methods and doing long solo retreats. In 2014 Beth founded Sanditthika Meditation Community in the caves of Almeria, Spain. In 2018, after ten years of monastic life, Beth decided to disrobe in order to integrate some of the challenges of western life into her Dhamma practice. Beth has been teaching meditation since 2014 both in Almeria and in meditation retreats around the world.

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About the Event:

This event is donation-based, will be held over Zoom, and is open to participants of all ages.

Please join Corey Hess to discuss touching the source of our awareness. Bring your questions and concerns about the physical and internal alchemy aspects of practice, what it is like to practice in the energetic oven of a Japanese Rinzai Zen monastery, as well as the long process of integrating that practice into life. Corey will also lead a short practice in Zhan Zhuang (standing meditation), which he has found especially potent in opening up the body for zazen (seated meditation in the Zen tradition), as well as zazen in action. This event is suitable for beginner’s

About Corey:

“After spending my twenties doing intense internal healing and embodiment work in Japan, I came back to the States with unique insights to share about healing, pain, meditation, and internal energetic process. After fifteen years ripening and learning to communicate these insights through hands on touch therapy, teaching movement, and discussion, I now offer classes, workshops and private sessions, including classes in Qigong, Zhan Zhuang, non-directed body movement, and meditation instruction. I also run The Energy Collective, an online group of committed practitioners. “ - Corey

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About the Event:

This event is donation-based, will take place via Zoom, and is intended for a younger audience although all are welcome.

Meditation teacher Beth Upton will be leading a series of events exploring the interrelated themes of truth and suffering. We will be looking at how these two forces play out in our meditation practice, in our daily lives, in our relationships, and in society as a whole. Ultimately we will be looking at how these two forces can be used in our paths to liberation. Part two of this series will investigate the relationship between our personal practice, compassion, and interpersonal relationships.

About Beth Upton:
Beth was born in 1982 in London. She graduated from Cambridge University with a degree in Economics, then in 2008 ordained as a Buddhist nun at Pa Auk Meditation Centre in Myanmar. She spent five years training diligently in meditation in the Theravada tradition under the guidance of Pa Auk Sayadaw, then a further five years training in other meditation methods and doing long solo retreats. In 2014 Beth founded Sanditthika Meditation Community in the caves of Almeria, Spain. In 2018, after ten years of monastic life, Beth decided to disrobe in order to integrate some of the challenges of western life into her Dhamma practice. Beth has been teaching meditation since 2014 both in Almeria and in meditation retreats around the world.

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About the Event:

Hector Marcel has been studying and practicing Tibetan Buddhism for 20 years. He is a master teacher of meditation and eastern philosophy, linking ancient Asian ideas to modern western systems for individuals and teams. Hector has recently emerged from a 5-week personal retreat and has graciously offered to share his insights from the experience. Through humor and his generous wisdom, he'll invite you to investigate your particular reality, hypothesize that love is the most powerful force in the universe, and explain why he believes that meditation opens the door to every personal achievement.

About Hector:
Hector serves on the board of the Asian Classics Institute, he is the director of the 108 Lives Project and is the president of Three Jewels, a studio dedicated to helping people reach their highest potential through meditation, yoga, dharma, and community outreach. Students can study directly with Hector at the upcoming Three Jewels virtual 200-hour Meditation Teacher Training.

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About the Event:

Meditation teacher Beth Upton will be leading a series of events exploring the interrelated themes of truth and suffering. We will be looking at how these two forces play out in our meditation practice, in our daily lives, in our relationships, and in society as a whole. Ultimately we will be looking at how these two forces can support us in finding greater degrees of freedom. This will be the first of three events, which you are welcome to attend as a series or individually.

About Beth Upton:
Beth was born in 1982 in London. She graduated from Cambridge University with a degree in Economics, then in 2008 ordained as a Buddhist nun at Pa Auk Meditation Centre in Myanmar. She spent five years training diligently in meditation in the Theravada tradition under the guidance of Pa Auk Sayadaw, then a further five years training in other meditation methods and doing long solo retreats. In 2014 Beth founded Sanditthika Meditation Community in the caves of Almeria, Spain. In 2018, after ten years of monastic life, Beth decided to disrobe in order to integrate some of the challenges of western life into her Dhamma practice. Beth has been teaching meditation since 2014 both in Almeria and in meditation retreats around the world.

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About the Event:

From radical self-love to boundless compassion the practices of metta, forgiveness, and gratitude can restore balance in our own bodies and begin to heal the collective. During this retreat, we will move through traditional metta practice sequences and unlock our potential for transpersonal states of unconditional love and compassion. This retreat will be a combination of guided meditation, teaching, and interpersonal meditation. The intention is that you will develop a sufficient understanding and experience with the methods such that you can use and apply them in your own personal practice/daily life.

About the Instructor:
Kisei Costenbader, Sensei is an ordained Zen priestess, monastic and Zen teacher in the Zen Community of Oregon. She currently lives at Great Vow Zen Monastery where she is the Director of Training. Kisei has the heart of a mystic and poet. She is deeply committed to the monastic path and the role of monasteries as seedbeds of collective awakening within a culture and society. Kisei is part of the Engaged Buddhism Committee and is the President of the Board of the Zen Community of Oregon. She is interested in the intersection of waking up and justice-making. Her teaching is inspired by the poetry and writings of the Women Buddhist Ancestors and the Zen koan tradition. She is an embodied teacher with a passion for the truth.

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About the Event:

Mindfulness meditation is both simple and complex. The power of mindfulness meditation is that when practiced even at the simplest level it eases the stressed and anxious mind. However, the development of the more complex levels, the truly life changing elements of this practice such as ongoing training of the mind and study and investigation -- are minimal at best. In this One-Day Retreat, Theodore will guide participants in basic mindfulness practices and speak about the need to return to the original teachings to help students deepen their daily practice. 

About Theodore:

Theodore Tsaousidis’ meditation exploration began as a teenager and then formally in 1983 as a Buddhist student. Today his work is informed by over four decades of traditional Buddhist studies, meditation and social/ecological activism. In 2006, he was authorized by his teacher to teach mindfulness meditation and Buddhist studies. Desiring to teach with depth but without dogma, Theodore took facilitation training for the MBSR/MBCT Programs in 2007.  He believes that mindfulness informed by science, psychology, and medicine, as well as traditional Buddhism, provides a foundation to facilitate secular meditation practices that can be useful to everyone in their everyday lives.

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About the Event:

This event is intended for people under the age of 34 and will take place via Zoom. All times in EST.

In this session, Ali will address the role of contemplative practice in transcending and transforming greed, anger, and ignorance - leading to broader social change. When is it time to sit on the cushion and when is it time to take action? How can every action and thought be a step closer to awakening rather than an example of one's own foolishness? How can the realization of our own foolishness be our guide to becoming unbreakable in our view? This session will begin with a talk, followed by discussion and break-out rooms. She looks forward to lively engagement and playfulness.

About Ali:

Hoji Alexandra Tataryn is a 10+ year practitioner in Tibetan and Zen lineages of practice. She is proficient in many arts of the sambhogakaya. She is also an expressive arts and bio-emotive facilitator. She is the founder of Bio-Emotive Circling. Hoji experienced profound insight in Zen retreat under the guidance of Junpo Roshi in Green Bay, Wisconsin in a Church Cathedral in 2015.  The understanding she gained there has informed her work in communication, emotional clearing and meditation practice. Her experience is that any claim to try to save the world, without specific meditative insight is ultimately fueling greed, anger, and ignorance, rather than illuminating and transforming it. She also believes that you must be radically honest with yourself about why you are meditating, so you may choose the appropriate practice(s) for your journey.

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About the Event:

This event is intended for people under the age of 34 and will take place via Zoom. All times in EST.

Participants at this event are invited to consider what they care most about changing in the world. What social or cultural issues call to you most deeply? What kinds of cultural shifts do you see as necessary for humanity to be more caring, or grow in the ways you would like to see? What do you want to do? Participants will share their thoughts in preparation for the event, at which Dr. Monica Sharma will lead a facilitated discussion based on the group’s response. Dr. Monica Sharma pulls from decades of experience working with the United Nations and as the author of Radical Transformational Leadership: Strategic Action for Change Agents.

About Dr. Sharma:

Monica Sharma, trained as a physician and epidemiologist, worked for the United Nations more than twenty years. Currently, she engages worldwide as an international expert and practitioner on leadership development for sustainable and equitable change. She works with United Nations, universities, management institutions, governments, businesses, media, and civil society organizations. She has generated results worldwide on select sustainable development goals. She has published and presented over 250 articles in journals and international forums. Monica Sharma created and uses a unique response model based on extensive application—a conscious full-spectrum model—which is for simultaneously solving problems, shifting systems, and creating new patterns sourced from individual inner capacity and transformational leadership. This model has generated sustainable results worldwide.

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(Note: the date of this event was changed from Nov. 7th to Nov. 21st)

About the Event:

These times call for real skills in conversation. Whether we are talking lightly about the topics we agree about, or heavily about those we don’t, every conversation has the potential to transform our understanding and deepen our relationships; that is if we have the skills to do it.  

Diane Musho Hamiton will introduce you to Compassionate Conversations: How to Speak and Listen from the Heart that can help guide us through all kinds of conversations. Compassionate Conversations explores topics like the soothing power of listening, the excitement that difference creates in the nervous system, and how to work with strong emotions. It also includes important issues like power, privilege, and human resilience. This session will include:

• An overview of skills for compassionate conversations as a practice.

• A practice for genuine listening.

• An exploration of the exciting energy within our differences.

• Time for Q&A

About Roshi Diane:

Diane Musho Hamilton is an award-winning professional mediator, author, and teacher of Zen meditation. She has been a practitioner of meditation for more than 30 years and is a lineage holder in the Soto Zen tradition. As the first Director of the Office of Alternative Dispute Resolution for the Utah Judiciary, Diane established mediation programs throughout the court system and won several prestigious awards for her work in this area. She is the Executive Director of Two Arrows Zen, a practice in Utah, and offers training programs oriented to personal development and advanced facilitator skills. Diane is the author of Everything Is Workable and The Zen of You and Me. Her latest book is Compassionate Conversations: How to Speak and Listen from the Heart, co-authored with Gabriel Wilson and Kimberly Loh.

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About the Event:

This event is intended for people under the age of 34 and will take place via Zoom. You are welcome to join for part of the event. All times in EST.

Affirm the freedom of your authentic self. Recognize your interconnection with all that lives. During this half-day meditation retreat we will explore meditation techniques of breath, body awareness and loving kindness to help connect us to our inherent stability, confidence, clarity and compassion. Meditation is essential as it opens the mind and heart to meet the challenges of our personal lives, community and global society from a broader more loving perspective. Connect with fellow practitioners as we awaken together through guided and silent meditation, dharma teachings, and Q&A.

About Kisei:

Kisei Costenbader, Sensei is an ordained Zen priestess, monastic and Zen teacher in the Zen Community of Oregon. She currently lives at Great Vow Zen Monastery where she is the Director of Training. Kisei has the heart of a mystic and poet. She is deeply committed to the monastic path and the role of monasteries as seedbeds of collective awakening within a culture and society. Kisei is part of the Engaged Buddhism Committee and is the President of the Board of the Zen Community of Oregon. She is interested in the intersection of waking up and justice making. Her teaching is inspired by the poetry and writings of the Women Buddhist Ancestors and the Zen koan tradition. She is an embodied teacher with a passion for the truth

Register here!

About the Event:

This event is intended for people under the age of 34 and will take place via Zoom. All times in EST.

Join us for a conversation with Charles Eisenstein. Charles has become a provocative voice in the environmental movement for sharing new ways to conceive of the ecological crisis, economics, and the underlying causes of social dysfunction. Participants will be invited to bring to the discussion one question that is deeply alive for them - that cuts to the heart of their concern for the world. Based on these questions, Charles will facilitate discussion, Q&A, and guided practice intended to help participants become more clear about how they might align themselves in the face of an uncertain future.

About Charles:

Charles Eisenstein is best known as the author of The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible, Sacred Economics, and Climate: A New Story. As a result of his commentaries on the ecological crisis, he’s been invited to speak across the world - on Oprah, Tedx, Under the Skin with Russell Brand, at Science and Nonduality, and many, many more. To get a deeper sense of what Charles is about, I encourage you to check out his website and read one of his essays. All of his books and writing are available on a donation-basis online. 

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About the Event:

This event is open to all ages and will take place via Zoom. All times in EST.

An ancient Master taught, "When the mind exists undisturbed in the Way, nothing in the world can offend, and when a thing can no longer offend, it ceases to exist in the old way."

Buddhist meditation is an ancient and highly developed and refined spiritual practice. Far from being an escape from the trials of the world and our lives, it helps us experience each moment in its completeness, free of thoughts of right and wrong. This allows us to then enter into our world of pain and joy, justice and injustice, change and uncertainty in a different way.

Meditation helps us discover our natural ability to avoid suppressing or denying what we find difficult or scary, while at the same time not indulging our inner narratives and obsessive thinking. In this talk and discussion with Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi, we'll explore this further and relate it directly to the practice of meditation that is open to everyone.

About Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi:

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi is the Head of the Mountains and Rivers Order, abbot and resident teacher of Zen Mountain Monastery, and abbot of the Zen Center of New York City. Shugen entered full-time residential training in 1986 after studying mathematics and receiving a degree in classical music. He received dharma transmission from John Daido Loori, Roshi in 1997. His teachings on Zen, social justice and environmental stewardship have appeared in various Buddhist journals, and The Best Buddhist Writing 2009 (Shambhala Publications). His book of poetry, O, Beautiful End, a collection of Zen memorial poems, was published in 2012

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