This coming spring, March 17 – March 21, CIMC will offer a residential retreat with Thanissara at the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies (BCBS) in Barre, MA. This special program is an opportunity for CIMC sangha members to come together in collective exploration and strengthen their capacity to act skillfully and effectively in today’s world. :
Engaging the Call for ReLOVEution: Dharma-Informed Activism for These Times
Facing significant interconnected social, political, economic, and environmental crises, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and defeated even as we are trying to make a difference. With reactive currents in our psyche running in different directions, we need to fully acknowledge how we’re doing. In the first noble truth, meeting directly “how it is” clears space to help us clarify our intentions. As we respond ever more to this call for and from the future, the invitation of this truth can also help us discern empowered ways forward, individually, and collectively.
Thanissara will lead us on an exploration of intentional, heart-centered approaches rooted in the practices of the Bodhisattva and informed and inspired by sacred activists past and present. How might we choose a path of love within a balance of inner wellbeing and engaged activism?
This inquiry will be supported by Insight Meditation, Dharma reflections, psycho-spiritual process work, devotional and ceremonial practices, embodied movement and breath practice, the use of mantras, chants, music, journaling, dream-sharing, and shared inquiry sessions. Everyone is welcome.
To learn more and register, please click here. (Registration is through BCBS, not via CIMC’s website). Space is limited.
Thanissara began practice in the Burmese school of U Ba Khin in 1975. She spent 12 years as a Buddhist nun in the Forest Tradition of Ajahn Chah. She has facilitated meditation retreats internationally over the last 30 years and has an MA in Mindfulness-Based Psychotherapy Practice. She is co-founder, with Kittisaro, of Dharmagiri Sacred Mountain Retreat in South Africa, and Sacred Mountain Sangha in California, which runs a two-year Dharmapala Training.