This program will be held online via Zoom. All registrants will receive the link to join the program in their Order Confirmation email. Times are ET.
What if the way we respond to crisis is part of the crisis?
– Bayo Akomolafe
Mindfulness illuminates the causes of suffering and what frees us from suffering, both individually and collectively. It provides a foundation of spaciousness and groundedness that opens the way to wise, emergent, and compassionate responses to challenges big and small.
Climate change is perhaps the biggest collective challenge humanity has faced. Denial, anxiety, grief, and overwhelm are common reactions to the uncertainty, unpredictability, and uncontrollability of the situation we find ourselves in. Although new in scale and specifics, the reality of uncertainty, change, and suffering are not new.
In this practice group, we will come together as a supportive community to connect with a lineage of teachings and practices that expand our capacity to respond to uncertainty, loss, and chaos with wisdom and compassion. We will explore how mindfulness practices can transform the external instability we face into a source of liberating insight and wise action that we can bring into the world in unforeseen ways. As our practice deepens, we will discover how the lovingkindness, joy, compassion, equanimity, and liberation that naturally emerge from our practice can reveal new ways of being with the reality of climate collapse.
Meditators of all levels of experience, all ages, and all identities are warmly welcomed. In our time together, we will practice several forms of sitting meditation, walking meditation, relational mindfulness, lovingkindness, and dialogue.
The times are urgent; let us slow down.
– Bayo Akomolafe
This program will not be recorded. Full and partial scholarships are available up to 72 hours before the start of the program.
Zac Ispa-Landa (he/him) has studied and practiced meditation for 20 years – primarily Vipassana (insight) meditation and, more recently, Vajrayana practices. His primary teacher is Lama Rod Owens and his practice is supported by a broad mix of teachings and techniques. He is particularly interested in the role contemplative practices can play in undoing systems of oppression and creating conditions for collective liberation and sustainability. He’s a Senior Lecturer at the University of Vermont, a teacher at Inward Bound Mindfulness Education (iBme) and works with people throughout the country as a mindfulness coach and Dharma facilitator. Zac lives in Winooski, Vermont with his partner, son, and tens of thousands of honey bees.
(Closed Captions (CC) for CIMC Programs are generated through “livestreaming” via Rev.com. CIMC programs are not livestreamed to any other platform for any other use.)