Forest Refuge 2021

The Adventure of Awakening

During this teaching period, we will engage in a three-week journey together through the practices of concentration, insight and awareness. We will begin with concentration practice, when participants will use either mindfulness of breathing or the practice of metta (lovingkindness) to collect and settle the mind. Next, we will open to the immediate moment-to-moment experience of the sense-gates to contemplate directly the three characteristics of impermanence, unsatisfactoriness and selflessness. Finally, we will turn our attention to the knowing aspect of the heart. In recognizing the nature of awareness, we have the opportunity to taste the collected, clear and equanimous heart-mind as it meets all experience, and realize our potential for freedom.

The teachers will offer regular meditation instructions, talks about the teachings and individual meetings. A minimum stay for the three weeks of the retreat is required, and participants are further encouraged to arrive as early in January as possible to begin the process of settling into retreat. Participants are expected to follow the sequence of instructions as they are given.

The Four Nutriments of Life

Right View (samma ditthi) is the first factor of the Noble Eightfold Path. It forms the foundation from which we are able to skillfully navigate our way out of suffering and towards Nibbana.

In the Discourse on Right View (MN:9), the Venerable Sariputta expounds various aspects of Right View, one of which is the four kinds of Nutriment, namely: food, contact, volition, and consciousness.

During this retreat, we will look at these four kinds of Nutriment in detail and see how they relate to other aspects of Right View, such as the factors of Dependent Origination and the Four Noble Truths.

Ultimately, we shall discern how these four Nutriments are operating in our own lives and how we can use them skillfully to fuel our path towards Nibbana.

Participants are expected to observe the eight precepts, if they are able to do so.

Priority will be given to anyone applying for the full month of February or longer.

Awareness and Wisdom Retreat

The teachings during this month will explore the four foundations of mindfulness with open awareness and receptive attention, with an emphasis on recognizing the attitude of mind and cultivating the perspective of wise view. The teachings are influenced by both teachers’ practice with Sayadaw U Tejaniya. We request that you agree to work with the instructions that we offer during the retreat.

Practice discussion meetings will primarily be in small groups, meeting twice a week. The teachers will offer some sign-up interviews, so there will be a chance for a private meeting if there is something you don’t feel comfortable bringing up in the group.

A minimum stay for the full month is required.

A lottery will be conducted for this course; applications are due by August 26, 2020. 

Early Buddhist Meditation

This month-long retreat offers an opportunity for highly experienced meditators to explore early Buddhist meditation through Bhikkhu Anālayo’s step by step approach to satipatthāna, mindfulness of breathing, the divine abodes, and emptiness meditation.

Each morning, Bhikkhu Anālayo will offer guided meditation instructions and explanations, and an evening question and answer session once a week.

Jill Shepherd will support the meditators through individual practice meetings and an evening dharma talk once a week.

Prerequisites: Participants are expected to have sat at least one previous retreat with Bhikkhu Anālayo. Please document this in your application. They are also asked to have read the following books: Satipatthāna Meditation: A Practice Guide; Mindfulness of Breathing: A Practice Guide and Translations; and Compassion and Emptiness in Early Buddhist Meditation.

A minimum stay for the full month is required.

A lottery will be conducted for this course; applications are due by September 14, 2020.