Offerings

Evening Classes: Formal silent sitting and walking practices are complemented by the systematic investigation of a meditative theme through material presented and discussion. Practice in daily life will be emphasized throughout. Monday classes are designed for beginners (may be repeated); Wednesdays are for ongoing students. For class dates and times, please see the Weekday Schedule page. All classes are mult-session, except for Refuges and Precepts.

Introduction to Insight and Loving Kindness Meditations (Monday evening classes with Matthew Daniell) Basic instruction in sitting and walking meditation will be given along with a period of questions and answers.  Loving Kindness Meditation, which can help to strengthen and open the heart will be taught as a complement to Insight Meditation in this series. No experience is necessary and all levels are welcome.  Although not a required prerequisite, this class serves to prepare students for other classes and retreats. Pre-registration for the entire series is recommended, although students may attend individual sessions on a drop in basis.

Open Heart, Grounded Presence (Wednesday Evening Classes with Matthew Daniell). These two qualities are signs of a vibrant inner life.  They are attitudes and attentional stances that can be cultivated in formal meditation practice and bear fruit in our daily lives. In these series of classes we will explore how, through silent present moment awareness practices (including formal mindfulness of breathing in sitting meditation), daily life inquiry, and in-class discussions. Some prior meditation experience required. (Beginners please attend the Monday classes instead).

 

Workshops.  Inspired by ancient tradition, reflection and silent practice will be combined. Each workshop will offer periods of presented material and guided meditation. Discussion will help deepen our practice and explore its relevance to daily life in an interactive as well as contemplative format.

Pilgrimage as Practice, Practice as Pilgrimage (Matt Daniell). Often we go on a journey to explore and discover something important, renewing, or just plain new.  Spiritual pilgrimages have for millennia been undertaken in the spirit of exploring new outer terrains to touch new inner ones.  In our inner work we go directly inward so that we may touch in new ways the outer reality of our lives.  In this workshop we will explore how the two forms complement and inform each other.  The workshop will be taught the weekend after Matthew Daniell, the workshop leader, returns from a journey to sacred Buddhist places in India.  Periods of silence will punctuate our shared inquiry. Bring your stories and be willing to let them go.  All are welcome.

Retreats. Half and full day silent retreats will combine periods of sitting and walking meditation. Instruction and opportunities for group discussion and individual interviews with the teacher will be included as we explore the transformative power of meditation for our lives. An optional period of mindful movement or yoga will be offered on some retreats. All of the retreats except for Kate Wheeler's Joy and Gratitude are Insight Meditation retreats with a particular theme. For retreat dates and times, please see the Weekend Schedule page. Beginners as well as experienced meditators are welcome.

Classic Insight Meditation Retreat. The Buddha taught that cultivating mindfulness of the body, breath, heart and mind can be powerful tools supporting inner calm and insight.  Silent periods of sitting and walking meditation, as well as dharma instruction and opportunities to discuss our practice, will provide the form in which we explore our potential for greater freedom.

Working with Thoughts and Emotions (Chas DiCapua). The inner life is the realm of experience where identification happens most quickly and most strongly. Because of this, learning how to navigate this area of our lives is essential if we want to be free from the suffering that ensues from such identification. In this day long retreat we’ll explore what thoughts and emotions tend to hook us the most as well as what to do when that happens both on and off the cushion.  Retreatants will be encouraged to see for themselves how the experience of our world is created moment to moment in the mind.

Feeling Tone (Kate Wheeler). We are never apart from pleasure, irritation or neutrality, and this aspect of experience tends to dominate our choices.  Pleasant memories lead us to spend money; we push someone away if we tend to feel uncomfortable in their presence; we space out during a boring presentation.  Today we will practice basic Vipassana meditation with particular attention to feeling tones.  As we learn to recognize them in all their vividness, we free up a greater range of responses and connect more intimately with ourselves.

Understanding Your Buddhist Personality Type (Chas DiCapua). Everyone has some degree of greed, hatred and delusion. Yet, according to Buddhist philosophy, for each person, one of these three root defilements is more predominant. How to determine which type you are and what that means for your dharma practice, both on and off the cushion, will be the focus of this day long retreat. The intention in understanding ones personality type is not to stereotype anyone, but is a tool that can be used in navigating life in a way that increases happiness and reduces suffering.

Open Heart, Grounded Presence (Matthew Daniell). These two qualities are signs of a vibrant and balanced inner life.  They are also attitudes and attentional stances that can be cultivated in formal meditation practice and applied fruitfully in our daily lives. In this retreat, through periods of sitting meditation using the breath as a base, in walking meditation, and in optional mindful discussion, we will explore how.

Body Awareness Meditation (Kate Wheeler). Centering our awareness within the body is a key ability for meditation and in life.  We begin to feel more grounded and present.  We can learn to experience and hold our emotions, while releasing ourselves from damaging self-images and narratives of blame.  Bringing systematic attention to the body can also intensify awareness.  A simple series of exercises will be taught for this purpose.

Doubt: Mara’s Ultimate Weapon (Chas DiCapua). “What were the meditation instructions? Everyone looks so calm, but I’m really restless. I’ll probably never be able to really be happy. This practice is just too difficult”. These are just a few examples of how the hindrance of doubt can manifest. When doubt is not seen clearly, it has the ability to completely derail us from whatever undertaking we are involved with. The meditation instructions, discussion, and the dharma talk will support understanding the particular ways that doubt manifests in our lives, and how to skillfully work with it when it comes up.

Meditation on Gratitude and Joy (Kate Wheeler). Deep down we really do want to be happy, and we want others to be happy.  Why not?  Alas, there are times when others' good fortune can make us feel small, bitter and inadequate in comparison.  In this daylong we will use traditional Buddhist meditation on sympathetic joy to reverse this unworthy trend.  Developing gladness (rather than envy) for others' happiness magnifies the joy in our own life and leads to a sense of appreciation and contentment.

 

Other Activities

Drop in Sittings (Tuesdays and Thursdays, morning and/or evening) are offered in the simplicity of silence without instruction. An ending bell will be rung by a practice leader.

Tuesday Half Day Retreats (with Matthew Daniell) are designed to be flexible to personal schedules while offering the opportunity to deepen practice through periods of silent sitting and walking meditation. Minimal instruction offered as needed. You may come for part, or all of each of these groups. While at the center, please adhere closely to the schedule and maintain silence. These practice periods are not suitable for complete beginners. The Introduction to Meditation class or equivalent experience is strongly recommended before attending.

Individual Interviews are designed to help us with formal practice and explore more intimately how mindfulness can help us in our daily lives. Interviews are available during retreats and for IMCN members by request.

Evening classes not being offered in the current session:

Contentment (Wednesday Evening classes with Matthew Daniell). We are often relentlessly driven to achieve, in order to get what we want. Whether we succeed or not the results never seem to be enough to bring deep lasting happiness. How do we quench the insatiable heart, the restless mind, the never ending appetites? Perhaps we don’t have to in quite the way we think we do. In this series of classes we will explore fresh ways of looking at what brings happiness and contentment in our lives through learning to live more fully in the present. Some experience in meditation preferred.

Peer-Led Practice Group. These special evening sessions will include a sitting period, a short reading, and discussion. There will be no teacher present, nor any formal meditation instructions given. Experienced meditators only, please. These sessions will have a $10 drop in fee.

Awareness of Body, Speech and Mind (Wednesday Evening classes with Matthew Daniell) The Buddha taught us that all action is relational and of consequence.  Working with action through the classical lenses of Bodily Action, Verbal Action, and Mental Action, we will systematically explore (in two sequential class offerings) how cultivating and bringing greater awareness to all of our actions can lead away from unnecessary suffering and to greater ease, aliveness, and skill in living.

Refuges and Precepts (Single-session class). Working with behavior that supports our practice and the communities in which we live is reflected in the classical Buddhist 'refuges and precepts' known in modern language as 'guidelines for living'.  Having refuges and precepts as signposts for action can help us in times of indecision, and clarify how we actually live.  In this evening we will explore the five Buddhist precepts, as well as the three refuges, which support them. The option of being led in their recitation as a way of deepening our resolve to live with more awareness, compassion and wisdom will be offered.  There will be no fee for this evening led by Matthew Daniell (donations are welcome).

Retreats not being offered in the current session:

Working with Difficult Mind States: Befriending the Inner Demons Skillfully (an Insight Meditation Retreat) . A universal experience for students exploring the Buddha’s teachings is to come face to face with difficult mind states and emotions. How do we skillfully work with these mind states so that they become an ally on our path to awakening and not a hindrance? In this retreat we will explore how the answer to this question manifests in both our formal and informal (daily life) meditation practice. The sitting meditation instructions will focus on Citta Nupassana, or mindfulness of the mind, which includes thoughts, mind states and emotions. This retreat is applicable to both beginning and experienced meditation students.

Cutting Reactive Patterns (an Insight Meditation Retreat). All too often we seem to be ruled by reactivity in our lives causing suffering to ourselves and others. A central tenant of Buddhist mind training is that we can not only learn to deal with these patterns more skillfully but can cut the underlying energies that keep them alive in us, freeing us to live more fully engaged lives. Silent sitting and walking periods will be supported by presented material and the possibility to talk over our practice as we explore this important theme in our inner lives. Beginners as well as experienced students are welcome

Exploring Open Awareness. The Buddha instructed practitioners to 'develop a mind that is vast like space, where experiences both pleasant and unpleasant can appear and disappear without conflict, struggle, or harm'. Yet at times when we practice paying attention in meditation, we try to do what is 'right,' and get caught in struggles around meditation itself. Today we will explore being aware without an agenda. Focusing on the body and breath are certainly not forbidden, and we may utilize them during periods of seated and walking meditation, but we will also see if we can be simply open to whatever arises without imposing any other agenda.

Equanimity. Equanimity is the practice of remaining more and more centered, calm and buoyant through the storms and celebrations of this world. In the practice of equanimity we learn to value and cultivate attitudes of tolerance, balance and non-attachment towards our own emotions and those of others. Meditation on equanimity, similar to loving kindness, is grounded in the practice of repeating phrases. Periods of guided sitting and walking meditation will be combined with theory and discussion as we explore new ways of nourishing ourselves and others through the power of cultivating our own minds and hearts.

Joy (an Insight Meditation Retreat). Joy is a state of mind and heart usually associated with pleasant experiences in life. In meditative practice joy can become an underlying quality of mind and heart that gives us strength and nourishment in the face of both pleasant and unpleasant experience.

The Ten Wise Qualities (Perfections or Paramis) Meditation (an Insight Meditation Retreat). The ten perfections or paramis are attitudes and actions that when cultivated can help us live in kinder and wiser ways.  In each class themes such as generosity, energy, patience, etc., will be discussed and combined with periods of silent meditation practice. Some experience in Insight Meditation is preferred.

Meditation as Relationship (an Insight Meditation Retreat). In this class we will explore our relationship to the physical world, out partners jobs, possessions, bodies, and our own hearts and minds from a meditative perspective. Learning to ground attention more effectively in the present moment through formal practice may provide a powerful foundation for seeing into all of our daily relationships, even the most difficult ones, in fresh and potentially transformative ways. Some meditation experience preferred.

 

Impermanence: Exploring Anicca and Coming to Understand the World We Live In (An Insight Meditation Retreat with Matthew Daniell). Impermanence or change isn’t something that happens to experience. It is experience itself. As such, impermanence is an important gateway to understanding the teachings of the Buddha. In this day long retreat, we will use mindfulness of our moment to moment experience as a vehicle for becoming intimate with change. Both sitting and walking instructions will be geared towards helping the retreat participants recognize that when we look at our experience, we are looking at change. Although both beginning and experienced students are welcome, it will be helpful for participants in this retreat to have some experience with formal sitting meditation practice.

Loving Kindness (Metta) Meditation. Loving Kindness Meditation is a practice that cultivates a good heart. Based on 2600 year old instructions given by the Buddha, this practice of repeating phrases intending good will has helped countless people over the centuries to counter inner fear, anger, confusion and isolation. Periods of guided sitting and walking meditation will be combined with theory and discussion as we explore new ways of nourishing ourselves and others through the power of cultivating our own minds and hearts.

The Six Sense Doors - Exploring the Bahiya Sutta. The six sense doors include the five senses: hearing, seeing, smelling, tasting, touching and the mind (through which we perceive and filter experience). Learning to pay close attention in the present moment as to how we actually experience life through the senses can help us to live from a place of greater awareness, responsiveness, and ease. We will use a classical text, the Bahiya sutta, as a guide in our inquiry. Some meditation experienced preferred.

Tasting Freedom. "Small moments, many times" is a phrase that describes one of the approaches to completely freeing the heart/mind.  Noticing suffering, letting go of its cause, and experiencing the end of that particular suffering is something that happens more than we might realize. The question is, do we notice it? The focus of this retreat will be to become aware when the heart/mind is at ease with things just as they are.  As a way to get to know the difference between this state of the heart/mind and the heart/mind that is struggling with experience and wanting things to be different, participants will be encouraged to cultivate the habit of noticing what their relationship is to present moment experience.  Some vipassana meditation experience will be helpful for this retreat.

Awareness of the Body. Our body supports us and yet we tend to be ungrateful to it, ignore it, or pay attention to it only when it screams. The body is one of the Buddha's four foundations of mindfulness and a powerful gateway to authentically experiencing the present moment. Developing a simple, holistic and caring attention to the body can help us to weather emotional storms, and can even be a full pathway to liberation.

Cultivating Concentration. The meditation offered during this retreat will be Samatha (Or Samadhi)  Meditation. The aim of this particular meditation is to foster calm and concentration in the heart/mind.  There will be ample instruction, with relaxation and non-striving being central themes.  Various meditation objects will be offered so that each person can find the one that works best for them with this particular practice.  The main intention for this retreat is to demystify this mind state, so that participants can see for themselves that Samadhi, to some degree, is readily available. The retreat is open to beginner and experienced students alike.

Compassion. Compassion requires befriending ourselves and others with all of our imperfections.  Can we train ourselves not to automatically turn away from suffering nor out of reactivity try to 'fix' things?   Simple traditional compassion meditation phrases will be mixed with awareness practices in helping us to approach ourselves, and others in an authentically caring way, without hardening our hearts.

 

Workshops not being offered in the current session:

Contentment: We are often relentlessly driven to achieve in order to get what we want. Whether we succeed or not, the results never seem to be enough to bring deep lasting happiness. How do we quench the insatiable heart, the restless mind, the never ending appetites? Perhaps we don't have to in quite the way we think we do. In this workshop (which complements the similarly-named series of classes), we will explore fresh ways of looking at what brings happiness and contentment in our lives through learning to live more fully in the present. Inquiry, as well as silence, will support us in this journey. Everyone is welcome.

 

Beginning Again. When small children fall down they often get right back up - why don't we? In this workshop we will explore the immense power of learning to begin again. The simple methods of present moment awareness as taught by the Buddha will be our guide. Although this is a workshop we will use silence more than words in our inquiry. No experience necessary.

 

Exploring Ageing, Sickness and Death as a Gateway to Living to Fuller Life. The Buddha taught that old age, illness, and the inevitability of death can be powerful positive teachers in our lives. In this workshop we will combine discussion, reflection, and silent meditation periods to help us explore how these universal themes can actually help wake us up to a richer, more fulfilling life, now. All are welcome.

 

Other activities not being offered in the current session:

Mindfulness Yoga. This yoga, based on the teachings of T. K. V. Desikachar, is a form of mind-body training that emphasizes awareness of the coordinated movement of the body and breathing. This practice generates more energy, strengthens the spine, makes breath sensations more vivid and enables sitting meditation to be more stable and comfortable. No previous yoga experience required.