Everything about this moment in time is precious. Everything. We can only really see that if we let life move as it moves. It’s very difficult to do this when times are difficult, because the mind holds difficulty as permanent, holds it as solid: this is it, we have to fix it, it’s a problem! And we can’t let it go. We’re not trying to stand in the middle of something and know that the situation will pass, we’re trying to stand in the middle of it and know that our overwhelm will pass. That’s what’s passing. The situation itself may take a long time, and we have to do some effort in it. But what we’re aimed at as practitioners is to first let our overwhelm pass, let it be, let it rise and fall as all emotions do.
Tuere Sala
Residential Retreat Teacher
Tuere Sala serves on Spirit Rock's Guiding Teachers Council and is a Guiding Teacher at Seattle Insight Meditation Society. She has practiced Vipassana meditation for over 30 years. Tuere is committed to lay practice and inspired by bringing the Dharma to nontraditional places. She is a strong advocate for practitioners living with high stress, past trauma, and difficulties sitting still. Tuere has been teaching since 2010 and has a long history of assisting others in establishing and maintaining a daily practice.
Tuere Sala's Upcoming Programs
Retreat | On-Land
June 7 - June 14, 2024 | Friday - Friday | 7 nights
Insight, Awareness, and the Nine Bodies of Consciousness
This retreat offers a new style of Insight Meditation that employs the “Nine Bodies of Consciousness” map. The focus of this practice is on developing mindfulness of the felt sense of embodied experience, and directly experiencing the various capacities of consciousness, including intuitive awareness, which fosters the natural arising of insight. This distinct teaching style will be unfamiliar to first-time “Nine Bodies Insight” practitioners, and potential participants are strongly encouraged to listen to guided meditations beforehand.
Retreat | On-Land
August 11 - August 18, 2024 | Sunday - Sunday | 7 nights
The Elements: Cultivating an Embodied Experience of Emptiness and Fullness
A fundamental aspect of establishing embodied mindfulness involves contemplations of the elements—earth, water, fire, air, and space. These five elements are universal, and when we contemplate them in relation to the body, they may bring a cooling of the grasping mind and profound realizations of emptiness and fullness. In contemplating the elements and their interrelationship, we will allow them to support the non-conceptual knowing from which insights naturally arise. This retreat includes guided and silent meditations, movement, and teacher meetings.
Retreat | On-Land
August 18 - August 27, 2024 | Sunday - Tuesday | 9 nights
Summer Lovingkindness Retreat
The Buddha’s teachings on the four divine sanctuaries include meditations on universal friendliness, compassion, altruistic joy, and equanimity. Focusing on purification and concentration, these divine sanctuaries aid our ability to find inner peace and powerfully engage with the world. This retreat deepens our understanding of selfless love and how it ends suffering. Experienced retreatants are encouraged to combine this retreat with the previous Elements retreat to further develop concentration, purify the heart, and learn to integrate these two forms of meditation.
Retreat | On-Land
August 28 - September 2, 2024 | Wednesday - Monday | 5 nights
Labor Day Insight Meditation Retreat
This retreat emphasizes quieting the mind, opening the heart, and developing clarity and depth of practice. Traditional instructions will be combined with a spirit of lovingkindness, and our time together will include a schedule of silent sitting and walking periods, guided Yoga/movement sessions, as well as practice meetings with teachers and daily Dharma talks. This retreat is for experienced as well as new students.
Retreat | On-Land
October 1 - October 10, 2024 | Tuesday - Thursday | 9 nights
Naturally Arising Samādhi [Concentration]
This retreat develops concentration through specific meditative practices that utilize the mind’s natural capacity to become collected and unified. Our focus will be on developing concentration; exploring the experience of a concentrated and contented mind as a natural, mysterious, and beneficial phenomena; and utilizing concentration during Insight practice. The primary teaching method will be two daily guided 45-60 minute meditations, and participants are strongly encouraged to listen to guided meditations ahead of time to experience this style of practice.
Retreat | On-Land
October 10 - October 19, 2024 | Thursday - Saturday | 9 nights
Fall Insight Meditation Retreat
This is a Vipassanā retreat in the Thai Forest Tradition, which will emphasize quieting the mind, opening the heart, and developing clarity and depth of practice. Traditional meditation instruction will be combined with a spirit of lovingkindness, and the retreat will include silent stillness and moving meditation, Dharma talks, and practice meetings with the teachers.
Upcoming Drop-Ins
Drop-in | Online
Sunday, April 28 | 9:00 AM - 10:30 AM
BIPOC Voices: Weekly Sunday Saṅgha
Open to all self-identified BIPOC.
The Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) Saṅgha is a weekly gathering of self-identified BIPOC practitioners that provides a safe place to meditate and explore the Dharma in light of our experiences. Beginners and experienced meditators are welcome.
Tuere Sala
Dharma Library
Can't join us live online or on the land? Study and practice at your convenience with Tuere Sala through our new library of recordings, articles, and self-paced online courses.