Freedom through Understanding: Insight as the Path to Peace
Teachers:
Michele McDonald
Jesse Vega-Frey
When:
October 2-10, 2014
Where:
Galilee Centre
Arnprior, Ontario
Cost:
Scale: $875/$1075/$1220
Deposit: $440
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The teachers will be offering Vipassana practice rooted in deepening our understanding of mindfulness as the intention to understand our experience rather than to judge and control it.
Learn to develop a field of awareness that can be narrowed or broadened, that can incline toward clarity or compassion, depending on the needs of the circumstance. Learn to move with courage toward difficulty when mindfulness and equanimity are strong, and to infuse one's awareness with gentle care when the challenges seem overwhelming.
The practice is grounded firmly in the Theravada teachings of the Buddha and offered in the spirit of our times. All four foundations of mindfulness will be taught so that yogis can access deeper levels of insight and peace.
About Michele McDonald
Michele McDonald has taught Insight meditation for twenty-eight years. Beyond her commitment to the Vipassana Hawai'i Sangha in Honolulu, she has taught extensively throughout the United States, and regularly teaches in Canada, Burma, and elsewhere around the world. Having worked with a wide range of Asian and Western teachers, Michele is most inspired by her practice with Dipa Ma and Sayadaw U Pandita and more recently in Burma with the Mya Taung Sayadaw.
She appreciates teaching at many levels of practice and has enjoyed teaching three-month retreats for experienced students as well as developing meditation retreats for youth. Her style of teaching emphasizes helping individuals find entry points into stillness that are natural for them. She encourages an understanding of the path of insight and a gentle strengthening of mindfulness and concentration so that, ultimately, people can access the peaceful depths of their experience in every moment. Michele is thrilled when students begin to love their practice. www.vipassanahawaii.org.
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About Jesse Vega-Frey
Jesse Maceo Vega-Frey is a teacher of Vipassana (insight) meditation. His teaching aims to inspire the skills, determination and faith necessary to realize the deepest human freedom.
Understanding that inner freedom exists in dynamic interplay within a context of social justice, Jesse also facilitates workshops and trainings that help people take skillful leadership in their many webs of worldly entanglements in order to unbind relationships of oppression and promote liberation.
He is resident teacher at Vipassana Hawaii and co-founder of The Stone House, a center for spiritual life and social justice in Mebane, NC. His teaching schedule can be found at www.dolessforpeace.org
Registration Information
Location: Galilee Centre, 398 John Street North, Arnprior, Ontario, http://www.galileecentre.com/. This lovely retreat centre is located near the centre of Arnprior, overlooking the Ottawa River and bordering on an old-growth forest.
Arrival Time: 3:30-5:30 pm, Thursday, October 2. The retreat will conclude by lunch on Friday, October 10. Everyone is welcome to stay for lunch.
Cost: TNI is dedicated to offering affordable rates to all. We offer a sliding scale with low, mid and high rates that allow retreatants to pay according to their means. Paying at the low rate covers the minimum expense of holding a retreat. The high rate helps ensure TNI’s viability as an organization. The deposit is included in all of our fees.
Please note that the retreat fees pay for your room and three meals a day. This does not include payment to the teacher. Following the 2,500-year-old Buddhist tradition, the teachings are considered priceless and so are offered freely. At the end of the retreat you wil be invited to offer dana, or donations, to the teachers, the retreat manager and TNI.