Download application forms to submit via fax, email, or postal mail.
IMPORTANT: This retreat is being held at the Angela Center in Santa Rosa, California. Single rooms are not available.
James and Heather will be assisted by Jane Baraz and Erin Hill Selover.
The Buddha was known as The Happy One. However, the teachings often seem to emphasize working with suffering. Joy and happiness can seem frivolous or unspiritual even though Joy is one of the Seven Factors of Awakening. In this retreat we will practice with an emphasis on cultivating wholesome states to develop our natural capacity for well-being and happiness. Our own development of well-being and joy then becomes our gift to a troubled world. This retreat is for both experienced as well as new students.
Although much of the retreat will include silent sitting and walking periods with instructions and interviews, participants will also engage in interactive experiential processes as part of the experience. Practices will include:
- -- Inclining the mind toward wholesome states
- -- The power of wholesome intention
- -- Mindfulness as appreciation practice (wonder and gratitude)
- -- Embracing suffering as a path to joy
- -- How letting go leads to true freedom
- -- Integrity as a foundation for well-being
- -- Metta (lovingkindness) for self and others
- -- Mudita (sympathetic joy)
- -- Compassion: the Expression of a Wise Heart
- -- The joy of simply being
"It is that gladness connected with the wholesome that I call an equipment of mind....for developing a mind that is without hostility and without ill will."
The Buddha
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Also remember that the cost above is priced as a sliding scale. Please pay at the highest level of the sliding scale that you can afford. This allows others who need to pay less the opportunity to attend. Fee is for room and board. Teaching and staffing of the retreats is by donation at the end of the retreat. For more information, see Retreat FAQ.