Cambridge Insight Meditation Center logoCambridge Insight Meditation CenterDedicated to integrating meditation practice and wisdom into daily life

Back to all Programs

Engaging Darkness and Light: A CIMC Benefit Workshop (hybrid: in-person)

Program Type:
Teacher:,
Time:10:00 am - 5:00 pm
Date:Saturday - May 18, 2024
Sessions:1
Registration for this program is closed.

This program will be hosted both in-person and online (hybrid). This is the registration page to join Narayan Helen Liebenson and Stephanie Morgan in person at our Center in Cambridge. (Register here if you prefer to attend online.)

In-person space is limited. Registration will close at 12:00 pm on Friday, May 17th. Walk-in registrations will not be available. A vegetarian lunch will be provided. Masks will be optional.

Life is vast and powerful, at times wondrous, and at times, acutely painful.  Yet only when we engage life as it is – in all its dimensions of darkness and light – are we fully alive. We might know this truth intellectually, yet opening our hearts and minds to engage when things are hard feels too risky, too steep, too unbearable. Our habit is to turn away, shut down, to try to manage by disengaging.

Practice helps us find our footing and maintain our balance as we open our hearts and minds more deeply to the joyful and sorrowful realities of this life. To strengthen our capacity for living fully we need to nurture ourselves with the ever-present ballast of wholesomeness and light. It is essential that we learn to access the joy and wonder available to us.

The path of practice enables and challenges us to cultivate the inner resources to engage our lives more deeply and with intimacy. With practice we may become fully alive.

This workshop will include practice, talks, and discussion focused on deepening our engagement with the dark and the light within ourselves, our relationships, and our world.

Narayan and Stephanie first met when they both sat the three-month retreat at the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, MA in 1978. They bring the richness of their 45 years of spiritual friendship, and their ongoing co-exploration of the Dharma, to this day of investigation and practice. They look forward to spending the day together, sharing in this exploration with each other and with all who join them. Everyone is welcome.

CIMC is deeply grateful to Stephanie Morgan for generously contributing her time and teaching to support the Center and all who attend this CIMC Benefit Workshop.

CIMC does not offer scholarships for its benefit programs.

Stephanie Morgan, MSW, PsyD. has been practicing meditation for over 35 years in the Zen and Vipassana traditions. She is a faculty member of The Institute for Meditation and Psychotherapy and in private practice in Manchester MA. She is a contributing author to Germer, Siegel, and Fulton, Mindfulness and Psychotherapy, Ed 1; Germer and Siegel, Wisdom and Compassion in Psychotherapy; and Germer, Siegel, and Fulton, Mindfulness and Psychotherapy, Ed 2.

There are no prerequisites for this program. Everyone is welcome.

Workshop

Attending an In-Person Workshop at CIMC (see below for attending online workshops)

  • Please arrive at least 15 minutes early to check-in and to find a comfortable place in the meditation hall.
  • While at the Center all phones, pagers, beeping watches and other electronic devices must remain completely turned off at all times.
  • Parking at CIMC is limited; we suggest taking public transportation to the Center whenever possible.
  • Lunch will not be provided. Participants are invited to bring their own vegetarian meal to the Center or may buy lunch in the neighborhood. A list of local restaurants and food stores will be available.
  • Food and beverages, including water, are not allowed in the meditation halls.
  • We strongly recommend you dress in layers since the temperature in the meditation hall will vary throughout the day. The hall thermostat is set to a comfortable temperature range; however, please give yourself a range of clothing options, as individual preferences for warmth or coolness differ widely and cannot be accommodated.
  • Please leave shoes on the shoe shelves on the first floor and keep your valuables with you at all times.
  • CIMC provides zafus (round cushions), zabutons (large mats), meditation benches, blankets, and chairs for your use. At the end of the program, we request that participants brush off their zabuton and plump up their zafu. All other items should be returned neatly to where they were found.
  • CIMC is a refuge. Out of compassion for those who may have chemical sensitivities, please avoid using scented products—lotions, deodorant, after-shave, hair products, perfume, clothes laundered with scented detergent, or dryer sheets—before you come to the Center.

Attending an Online Workshop

  • We will be using Zoom for this workshop. Before your workshop begins, be sure to download Zoom and familiarize yourself with using the program, including the chat feature. Specifics about how we will be using Zoom during your workshop will be covered at the beginning of the workshop; however, we are not able to provide technical support during the workshop.
  • We ask that you treat our virtual meditation hall as if we were together in person, in the same room. The teachers and other yogis benefit greatly from your full presence and careful attention.
  • Join each session of the workshop a few minutes early. This will support the teachers and your fellow participants.
  • Ideally, power off phones and smartwatches for the entire time scheduled for the workshop on each day. Please don’t check your devices during breaks. We suggest that you put an “away” message on your email and voicemail and leave your devices in another room during your workshop hours.
  • Please keep your video on during our time together as much as you can. This supports a sense of connectedness and sangha.
  • Closed Captions for CIMC Programs are generated through “live streaming” via Rev.com. CIMC programs are not live-streamed to any other platform for any other use.
  • You will receive a welcome email from CIMC a day or two before your program that will include the zoom link and further information.