Visit IMCC Talks page for other talks from our regular programs.
Spring 2016 Retreat (May 13 - 20): Creating Intimacy with LifeLed by Lila Kate Wheeler and Pat Coffey
Serenity Ridge Retreat Center, Nelson County, VA May 13: Opening Night Talk, (Pat Coffey) - 26 min
Coming together in retreat remains a rare event and opportunity. This talk explores the attitudes and perspectives that will support your practice on retreat and in daily life.
Meditation practice is practice for life. On the cushion we have the opportunity to forge healthy relationships with the challenging energies we all experience. Desire, anger, fear, guilt, shame, restlessness, sleepiness and doubt visit everyone. Our practice addresses these energies and more.
The Buddha taught that as humans we all experience the effects of impermanence, suffering and the selfless nature of creation. How we internalize these truths determine our level of happiness, peace and freedom.
Bodhicitta is a spontaneous wish to awaken motivated by great compassion for all beings and accompanied by a falling away of the pain and suffering of attachment to the illusion of a solid separate self. Our practice cultivates a stronger heart of compassion and a deep visceral understanding of the interconnectedness of creation.
Fall 2015 Retreat (Sept. 25 - Oct. 2): Cultivating Intimacy with All LifeLed by Hugh Bryne, Sharon Beckman-Brindley and Pat Coffey
Serenity Ridge Retreat Center, Nelson County, VA
Sept. 25: Opening Talk, (Pat Coffey) - 37 min
Sept. 25: Refuges and Precepts (Hugh Bryne) - 28 min
Sept. 26: Morning Meditation Instructions (Hugh Bryne) - 24 min Sept. 26: Guided Heart Practice - Loving Kindness (Pat Coffey) - 29 min
Sept. 26: Dharma Talk, "Attitudes We Bring to Our Practice: Cultivating Acceptance, Kindness, and Curiosity" (Hugh Bryne) - 1hr 3 min A key element of mindfulness is the attitude with which we meet our experience. Meeting our direct experience with acceptance, kindness, and curiosity allows us to find freedom in the midst of even the most challenging conditions.
Sept. 27: Guided Heart Practice - Compassion (Jeffrey Fracher) - 20 min Sept. 27: Dharma Talk, "On Not Turning Away" (Sharon Beckman-Brindley) - 57 min The Buddha taught that when we suffer, there is, by definition, something we are not understanding clearly, something we are not knowing and accepting with wisdom and kindness. Our meditation practice invites us to find the freedom in a deeper presence: to not turn away. Sept. 28: Compassion: Guided Self-Compassion (Sharon Beckman-Brindley) - 41 min Even as we feel compassion for “all beings,” it is sometimes hard to feel deep compassion for our own pain, confusions and human frailties. We can inadvertently come to spiritual practice with a subtle belief in the badness of our own humanity and a hope that our spiritual practice will finally “fix” us. This guided practice invites us to leave nothing and no one out of our hearts. Sept. 28: The Gift of Suffering (Jeffrey Fracher) - 41 min Sept. 29: Sympathetic Joy: Guided Mudita: What’s Not Wrong (Sharon Beckman-Brindley) - 33 min In this practice, we bring to awareness the goodness, happiness, success and good fortune of our lives, connecting with the felt sense of those others who delight in this with and for us.
Sept. 29: Dharma Talk, "Practicing with Doubt" (Sharon Beckman-Brindley) - 1hr In this talk, we explore differences between inquisitive doubt, which leads us to wholesome investigation, and the hindrance of doubt that obscures the mind and prevents clear seeing. We explore how to rouse the first, a skillful kind of doubt, in order to see and then soften the hold of the second, which is a doubt that simply troubles the mind and obscures clear seeing.
Sept. 30: Guided Heart Practice - Equanimity (Jeffrey Fracher) - 22 min Sept. 30: Dharma Talk, "Freedom From Fixed Views" (Sharon Beckman-Brindley) - 1hr 2 min The Buddha speaks of cultivating wise view: deep wisdom that is in tune with the truth of how things actually are. He invites us to discern what ideas are or are not fit for attention. In this talk, we explore this teaching on views and its application to freedom from suffering in our daily lives.Spring 2015 Retreat (May 8 - 15): Cultivating Intimacy with All Life
Oct. 1: "Food for the Journey" (Sharon Beckman-Brindley) - 1hr 5 min This talk explores practices of the everyday nourishments that bring us the strength and wisdom to open our minds and our hearts, allowing ourselves be touched, in flexibility and warmth, by all that is. We cultivate our capacity to experience what truly heals…presence and inquiry...gratitude and tenderness…wisdom and generosity…forgiveness, diligence and energy.
Spring 2015 Retreat (May 8 - 15): Cultivating Intimacy with All LifeLed by Pat Coffey, Sharon Beckman-Brindley and Chas DiCapua
Serenity Ridge Retreat Center, Nelson County, VA
May 9 evening Dharma Talk, "Why We Practice, How We Practice" (Chas DiCapua) - 53 min
What is it that draws us to this practice? As we connect with and engage in the eightfold path, how wisdom and compassion mutually support each other and guide us along our way.
May 10 evening Dharma Talk, "Challenging Energies" (Pat Coffey) - 63 min
In life there are natural human energies such as wanting, aversion, worry, sluggishness and doubt that arise and can cause us to suffer or can be a gateway to freedom. How we relate to these energies is the key to our happiness. This talk examines these energies and offers practical ways to skillfully work with them.
May 11 Guided Heart Practice (Pat Coffey) - 30 min May 11 evening Dharma Talk, "Joyful Effort" (Sharon Beckman-Brindley) - 60 min
Wise and joyful effort in our spiritual practice brings to every moment the full energy required by the task. In this talk, we explore an effort that is creative, alive, personal and playful. With these qualities, we can truly sustain our practice as we each navigate the ups and downs of our own personal path.
May 12 Guided Heart Practice (Pat Coffey) - 33 min May 12 evening Dharma Talk, "First and Second Noble Truths" (Chas DiCapua) - 65 min
What are each of their functions in freeing the heart and mind, and how they are closely related to and work in tandem to bring about wise view and letting go.
May 13 Guided Heart Practice (Chas DiCapua) - 42 min May 13 evening Dharma Talk, "Remembering What matters" (Sharon Beckman-Brindley) - 63 min
Over and over in his teachings, the Buddha invites us to remember the profound limits of the human mind’s ordinary habits. While we can appreciate the relative benefits of personal safety, stability and security, his teachings remind us to cultivate the intention toward full presence and letting go in every moment of this wild, unpredictable life.
May 14 morning meditation (Chas DiCapua) - 64 min May 14 Guided Heart Practice (Sharon Beckman-Brindley) - 43 min May 14 evening Dharma Talk, "Bodhichitta: The Awakened Heart-Mind" (Pat Coffey) - 65 min
This talk explores the relationship between Compassion and the most enigmatic of Buddhist understandings....that of "not self". They are directly related and support one another in such a way that can be transformative.
May 14 night sit, "Metta Sutta" (Pat Coffey) - 21 min May 15 closing session (Pat Coffey, Sharon Beckman-Brindley and Chas DiCapua) - 34 min
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