People of Colour Retreat
Teachers
DaRa Williams
Roxanne Dault
Jozen Tamori Gibson
Dawn Mauricio
When
October 24-27, 2019
Where
Galilee Centre
Arnprior, ON
Cost
You Choose Rate* / $450 / $500
Deposit: $60
We are pleased to inform you of True North Insight's inaugural silent meditation retreat for practitioners of colour. While we all may have experiences in common, we are also a tapestry of many colours, backgrounds, cultures, orientations, life experiences, world views, and identities. This retreat aims to bring together a community of people of colour for practice in an environment of safety and ease where all of one's self is welcome and appreciated. It is an intention for the retreat that you will leave on the last day with a new or renewed understanding that there is the possibility for living a life with clarity and wisdom and not reactivity and suffering.
The retreat will offer an introduction to insight meditation (Vipassana) and mindfulness, and as well as an opportunity to practice in a silent retreat context. Through the offering of guided meditations, pointers on sitting and walking posture and an introduction to metta practice, you will become acquainted with the words and philosophy of the dharma through talks and reflections by teachers. In addition, opportunities to ask questions in the full group setting will make this an accessible retreat for meditators in beginning stages of practice as well as those who may have some practice experience. We will explore the fundamental teachings of the Buddha as a doorway to freedom and to meeting life’s difficulties with balance and clarity.
Participants will be offered guidance on bringing the practice into daily life, to live lightly in this world, with a compassionate heart and the spirit of the Dharma in everything we do.
There will also be an opportunity to ask questions and discuss your practice with the teachers in small group meetings, and individually, by sign up request.
It is our hope that through engaging this invitation to retreat you will experience the practice as an antidote to the impact of both the individual and collective stress caused by the cultural and structural manifestation of oppression, racism, genocide and colonization that has impacted POC for and through the generations.
Looking forward to seeing you in October 2019 and walking a bit of this journey together as a community.
Teachers
DaRa Williams has practiced vipassana meditation for 25 years and serves as an IMS guiding teacher. She is also a certified coordinating trainer for Aboriginal Focusing Oriented Complex Trauma Therapy and maintains a private psychotherapy practice in the New York City area. "It is my experience that meditation and the Dharma are ideal for transforming suffering. Awareness, wisdom and a compassionate heart become the vehicle for transformation, connection and freedom."
Jozen Tamori Gibson (they, them) began formal meditation practice in 2004 through Zen while living in Japan, joined by a Theravada practice in 2010. As a senior student with the Brooklyn Zen Center (BZC) they also serve as co-facilitator and member of the BZC People of Color sangha, the center’s male identifying sangha engaging in Undoing Patriarchy and Unveiling the Sacred Masculine, and mentor for the Awake Youth Project. Jozen studies in the 2017-2021 Insight Meditation Society Dharma Teacher Training and serves on the New York Insight Meditation Center’s teacher council. With certifications and embodiment studies in Yoga, Qigong, Indigenous Focusing Oriented Therapy (IFOT) and Complex Trauma, Jozen lives to provide and nourish contemplative mind-heart-body alignment practices and spaces rooted in wellness, anti-oppression and interdependent liberation for all beings. Jozen honors the wisdom and compassion of all teachers, highlighting their mother, Akimi, and dharma root teacher, Pamela Weiss.
Roxanne Dault A dedicated practitioner of Vipassana (insight) meditation for more than 10 years, Roxanne has sat many long retreats in Canada, USA, India, Burma, Thailand and Nepal, spending more than two years in silence in the last decade. Roxanne has completed a two-year Buddhist Study and Practice Program and was part of a two-year Teaching Mentorship with Pascal Auclair and Daryl Lynn Ross. She is currently part of the four-year Insight Meditation Society (IMS) Teacher Training in the USA. Her teaching is influenced by her indigenous ancestry, her many travels and her experience in Somatic Experiencing® for the healing of stress and trauma. Roxanne wants to share her love for the Dharma so that we can all touch the freedom in every moment!
Dawn Mauricio has been practicing and studying Insight Meditation since 2005, sitting silent residential retreats in Canada, United States, Thailand, and Burma. Since discovering the Dharma, she has graduated from Spirit Rock's Mindfulness Yoga and Meditation Training and the Dedicated Practitioners' Program, as well as the first teacher development group of True North Insight. Dawn teaches with a playful, dynamic, and centered approach, currently leading a weekly sitting group, daylong retreats, and mindfulness workshops. She is a meditation retreat teacher for teenagers with Inward Bound Mindfulness Education and is currently in Spirit Rock's 4-year Teacher Training.
Registration Information
LOCATION: Galilee Centre, 398 John Street North, Arnprior, Ontario
http://www.galileecentre.com/
ARRIVAL TIME: 3:30-5:30 pm, Thursday, October 24. The retreat will conclude by lunch on Sunday, October 27. Everyone is welcome to stay for lunch.
COST: TNI is dedicated to offering affordable rates to all. TNI retreat fees are on a sliding scale basis that allows participants to pay according to individual means. Fees do not include compensation for the teachings, and teachers rely on the generosity of retreatants for a sustainable income. There is an opportunity to offer dana (donations) to the teachers at the end of each retreat. The deposit is included in all of our fees.
*So that TNI can offer this form of financial assistance to as many as possible, please be as generous as you can when choosing your rate, at or above $20 per night ($60 minimum total).