Weekly Sangha

People of Color (POC) Sitting Group

Thursdays, 7-9 PM

East Bay Meditation Center - 2147 Broadway, Oakland, CA

drop in, no registration need

The ultimate aim of the practice of meditation is the ending of suffering and the opening to joy and freedom. Practitioners of color are invited to join this weekly group and learn to cultivate love and freedom in the present moment through the practice of mindfulness meditation. The group will include periods of reflection and silence as well as group discussion, talks on relevant themes and opportunities for celebration and community building. This is an excellent group for new as well as experienced practitioners of color.

www.eastbaymeditation.org

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FEBRUARY 2013

Friday night Open Sangha - Dharma Talk on Letting Go

Teacher: Spring Washam

Date: February 22, 2013, 6:30 - 8:30pm

Location: East Bay Meditation Center - Oakland, CA

Offered on Dana basis

Website: http://www.eastbaymeditation.org/index.php?s=63

Join me for an evening of meditation, yoga and community!

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A Beautiful Mind: Joy, Loving Kindness, Equanimity, Compassion

Teacher: Spring Washam

Date: Sunday, February 24, 2013, 9:30am - 5:00pm

Location: Spirit Rock Meditation Center - Woodacre, CA

Cost: $50 - $108 sliding scale, plus a donation to the teacher(s) please bring your lunch. Code SW2D13.

Register: https://www.spiritrock.org/calendarDetails?EventID=3501

The four Brahma-Viharas also translated as the four heavenly abodes represent the most beautiful and benevolent aspects of our human nature. As a result, the boundless states of loving-kindness, compassion, appreciative joy and equanimity manifest as forces of purification transforming the turbulent heart into a refuge of calm, focused awareness.
They are mindfulness practices that protect the mind from falling into habitual patterns of reactivity which undermine our sincerest intentions to be happy. Also referred to as mind liberating practices, they awaken powerful healing energies which brighten and lift the mind to increasing levels of clarity. In this daylong we will practice cultivating these beautiful qualities and ground them in the practice of insight meditation.

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APRIL 2013

Sacramento Buddhist Meditation Group: Living with an open heart

Teacher: Spring Washam

Date: April 7, 2013, 7:00 pm - 8:45pm

Location: 3600 Riverside Blvd, Sacramento CA

Offered on Dana basis

Website: http://sbmg.org/

The cultivation of love and kindness are an essential component of our spiritual life. Without love and compassion we can plateau or become stuck on the long journey of awakening. Through love we begin to let go of old hurts and wounds that keep us feeling lonely, depressed and separate. Come and join us for an evening of Metta practice, community and stories from the heart.

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Awakening the Sacred Feminine

A month long Intensive Course for Women

Dates: April 8, 15, 22, 28

Mondays: 6:00pm - 8:30pm

Daylong: Sunday, April 28 - 9:30am - 4:00 pm

Cost: $130

Location: Private home in Oakland

Register: http://events.constantcontact.com/register/event?llr=7vxnelkab&oeidk=a07e7306vv49188061d

Due to popular demand I am offering another 4 week course intensive for women. This will be the last time this course will be offered this year.

This requires a commitment to the entire program including attending the 3 evening sessions, home work and the daylong retreat. We will gather together and explore the theme of the sacred feminine in much greater detail.

In this course we will explore a time when all things feminine were recognized as a powerful part of creation. Each week will focus on a specific area of internalized oppression as we begin to let go and liberate ourselves. Awakening the Sacred Feminine and taking her into the everyday is the only answer. We can begin the healing process through forgiveness, self compassion and empowerment. We will create a safe container where women can share authentically and deeply connect to one another.
The class is going to be very powerful and limited to 20 participants only.

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Intensive Silent Vipassana Meditation Retreat for (People of Color)

Teachers: Spring Washam Anushka Fernandopulle, Bhante Buddharakkhita, Michele Benzamin-Miki, Susana Renaud (yoga)

Dates: Tuesday, April 9, 3:00pm - Sunday, April 14, 12:00pm

Location: Spirit Rock Meditation Center - Woodacre, CA

Cost: $90 - $515 sliding scale, plus a donation to the teacher(s) and retreat staff. Code 242R13.

Register: https://www.spiritrock.org/calendarDetails?EventID=3409

Learn about your mind and heart through engaging in the discipline of mindfulness meditation. We will practice sitting meditation and walking meditation to allow you to observe your life in the lab of our monastery.

The retreat will also be supported by dharma talks, guided meditations, including metta (kindness) practice, and yoga practice. If this all sounds good to you and you are a self-identified person of color who would like to practice in community, please come join us!

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Passion Power and Presence: A Daylong for Women

Teacher: Spring Washam

Date: April 20th, 2013, 9:30am - 5:00pm

Location: East Bay Meditation Center - Oakland, CA

Offered on Dana basis

Register: http://www.eastbaymeditation.org/index.php?s=20

Come join the circle of awakening women committed to living with passion, power and presence. In this daylong we will explore a time when all things feminine were recognized as a powerful part of creation. We will learn how to embody and express our authentic power and create the lives we have always envisioned. This daylong will include talks on the theme, sacred music, movement, group discussion and guided meditation.

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MAY 2013

Spring Insight Meditation Retreat

Teachers: Jack Kornfield, Trudy Goodman, Howard Cohn, Wes Nisker, Noah Levine, Lila Kate Wheeler, Spring Washam, Franz Moeckl (qigong)

Date: Friday, May 3, 3:00pm - Sunday, May 12, 12:00pm

Location: Joshua Tree Spiritual Center, Yucca Valley

Cost: $2115 - $1350 sliding scale, plus a donation to the teacher(s) and retreat staff. Code 250R13.

Register: https://www.spiritrock.org/calendarDetails?EventID=3413

For over 30 years Jack Kornfield has been making an annual pilgrimage to the high and spacious desert of Yucca Valley. This retreat is an opportunity to practice in the serene and natural beauty of the high desert in full bloom. The beautiful desert environment becomes a mirror for the beauty of the unfolding heart and the spaciousness of mind achieved through the meditation practice. For many, it has become an annual springtime pilgrimage.

Join Jack and other Spirit Rock teachers to deeply experience the dharma in this favorable combination of conditions and teachings. This retreat emphasizes quieting the mind, opening the heart, and developing loving kindness, clarity and depth of practice. The retreat will include systematic vipassana instructions, silent sitting and walking periods, dharma talks and interviews. There is a daily guided movement meditation. An excellent first retreat or a great way to renew your practice.

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Free Your Heart Workshop

Teacher: Spring Washam

Date: Sunday, May 19th, 2013, 9:30 - 5:30pm

Location: East Bay Meditation Center - Oakland, CA

Offered on Dana basis

Register: http://www.eastbaymeditation.org/index.php?s=20

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Awakening in the Body: Meditation with Qigong Retreat

Teachers: Spring Washam, Phillip Moffitt, Debra Chamberlin-Taylor, Pascal Auclair, Franz Moeckl

Date: Monday, May 20, 3:00pm - Monday, May 27, 12:00pm

Location: Spirit Rock Meditation Center - Woodacre, CA

Cost: $1240 - $645 sliding scale, plus a donation to the teacher(s) and retreat staff. Code 258R13.

Register: https://www.spiritrock.org/calendarDetails?EventID=3415

The cultivation of awareness in the body, which the Buddha taught as the first foundation of mindfulness, opens the doorway to wisdom and compassion. In this retreat, we explore the body through sitting and walking meditation and guided movement classes. We investigate how the body can be a portal to skillfully working with difficult emotions. We concentrate on developing mindfulness of the body in order to be more comfortable in and knowledgeable about our bodies. And we work with body awareness to make sitting more focused and enjoyable and as a means to strengthen insight.

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Loving kindness: Cultivating the Open and Wise Heart Retreat

Teachers: Spring Washam, Donald Rothberg

Dates: Saturday, June 15, 3:00pm - Wednesday, June 19, 12:00pm

Location: Spirit Rock Meditation Center - Woodacre, CA

Cost: $735 - $395 sliding scale, plus a donation to the teacher(s) and retreat staff. Code 264R13.

Register: https://www.spiritrock.org/calendarDetails?EventID=3419

Lovingkindness, or metta, is the practice of cultivating a warm, open heart towards ourselves and others, as a basic way of being in the world. It is also a path to wisdom. We cultivate metta as a meditation practice in order for it to manifest in an ongoing way in our daily lives. We grow in self-acceptance and compassion, work through our harsh judgments of self and others, and become better able to act from our hearts in daily life.

In this retreat, we will learn the formal practice of metta, developing greater steadiness of mind and heart, and revealing more and more our fundamental kindness.

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The Heart of Love - Metta Retreat

Teachers: Spring Washam, Mark Coleman , Anushka Fernandopulle, Ali Kane (yoga)

Date: Friday, July 12, 3:00pm - Friday, July 19, 12:00pm

Location: Spirit Rock Meditation Center - Woodacre, CA

Cost: $1240 - $645 sliding scale, plus a donation to the teacher(s) and retreat staff. Code 274R13.

Register: https://www.spiritrock.org/calendarDetails?EventID=3429

Metta is the Pali term for friendship or lovingkindness. In this retreat we will develop metta as a meditation practice which cultivates our natural capacity for an open and loving heart for all of life. We will also develop the beautiful and profound practices of compassion, joy and equanimity and learn how to bring those qualities to meet every moment of our life. Metta practice leads to greater acceptance of ourselves and others, revealing our fundamental connectedness to all life.

The schedule will include daily periods of yoga practice to support a loving attitude to the body, as well as guided meditations and Dharma talks on the themes of the heart qualities.

It is our wish to support the practice needs of meditators in early adulthood. To this end, Spirit Rock extends a special invitation to young adults (age 18-26) who wish to attendthis retreat at a special rate of $25 per night, on a first come, first served basis. A limited number of special rates are available, please apply early.

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Investigating Life: Insight Meditation Retreat for 18-32 Year Olds (7 days)

Date: July 24 - 31, 2013

Teachers: Spring Washam, Rebecca Bradshaw, Chas DiCapua, Matthew Daniell

Location: Insight Meditation Society - 1230 Pleasant Street, Barre MA 01005

Link: http://www.dharma.org/meditation-retreats/retreat-center/retreat-description?id=297

This silent retreat specifically addresses the practice needs of new and experienced meditators in the challenging years of early adulthood. The format includes daily meditation instruction, group and individual meetings with teachers, opportunities for questions and discussion, as well as afternoon yoga sessions offered by Emily Carpenter. The course will end with a day of optional activities centered on supporting community and integrating the practice into our daily lives.

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August 2013

Insight Meditation Retreat for Young Adults (ages 18-35)

Teachers: Spring Washam, Debra Chamberlin-Taylor, Will Kabat-Zinn, Pascal Auclair, Teja Bell (qigong)

Date: Monday, August 5, 3:00pm - Sunday, August 11, 12:00pm

Location: Spirit Rock Meditation Center - Woodacre, CA

Cost: $960 - $450 sliding scale, plus a donation to the teacher(s) and retreat staff. Code 280R13

Registration: https://www.spiritrock.org/calendarDetails?EventID=3431

In this retreat we will quiet our minds and open our hearts through the practices of insight and loving kindness meditations. Together we will come to see that freedom is possible through meeting ourselves, our relationships and our world more fully with deepening wisdom, compassion and acceptance. This retreat will include silent and guided meditations, periods of sitting and walking, Qigong, interviews, dharma talks, and a chance to build community.

It is our wish to support the practice needs of meditators in early adulthood. To this end, Spirit Rock extends a special invitation to young adults (age 18-26) who wish to attend this retreat at a special rate of $25 per night, on a first come, first served basis. A limited number of special rates are available, please apply early.

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September – 2013

The Power of Presence: A Women's Meditation Retreat

Date: Monday, September 23, 3:00pm - Sunday, September 29, 12:00pm

Location: Spirit Rock Meditation Center – Woodacre, CA

Cost: $1065 - $555 sliding scale, plus a donation to the teacher(s) and retreat staff. Code 292R13.

When women lose touch with their real selves, the harmony of the world ceases to exist and destruction sets in. It is therefore crucial that every woman, everywhere, make every effort to re-discover her fundamental nature, for only then can we save this world."...Mata Amritanandamayima (Ammachi)

Within each woman there is a reservoir of creative energy and intuitive wisdom that can fuel our spiritual awakening - and support our passionate participation in the interconnected web of life. Join a diverse circle of women on the path of embodied presence in this meditation retreat designed to awaken the gifts, creativity, and innate wisdom of women - while addressing the particular suffering of women's bodies, hearts and lives.

Whatever our age, ethnicity, body type, or sexual orientation, as women we share a common longing to heal our hearts, awaken to our own inherent wholeness, honor our interconnectedness, and take empowered action to help our world.

Within the safe and nourishing container of this silent retreat, we'll cultivate an approach to meditative practice that honors the creative, intuitive, embodied, and relational dimensions of a woman's spiritual journey. We will use the tools of mindfulness meditation, loving kindness, body-based practices, mandala drawing, inquiry, and community sharing to melt the personal and cultural conditioning that may keep us from experiencing our essential value.

It is our wish to support the practice needs of meditators in early adulthood. To this end, Spirit Rock extends a special invitation to young adults (age 18-26) who wish to attend this retreat at a special rate of $25 per night, on a first come, first served basis. A limited number of special rates are available, please apply early.

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October 2013

The Flavors of Kindness: A Retreat on the Divine Abodes

Teachers: Spring Washam Mark Coleman, Sharda Rogell

Date: Tuesday, October 1, 3:00pm - Sunday, October 6, 12:00pm

Location: Spirit Rock Meditation Center – Woodacre, CA

Cost: $885 - $460 sliding scale, plus a donation to the teacher(s) and retreat staff. Code 302R13.

During this silent retreat, we will cultivate what the Buddha called "the beautiful states of heart and mind" - the Brahma Viharas or Divine Abodes. These are the qualities of love, compassion, joy and equanimity inherent in us all. As we explore each one, our natural, innate kindness will be strengthened and developed by guided sitting meditations, walking meditation, teachings and group discussions. As our hearts open, we can discover a sense of joy, balance, and interconnection with all of life.

This course is suitable for both new and experienced meditators.

It is our wish to support the practice needs of meditators in early adulthood. To this end, Spirit Rock extends a special invitation to young adults (age 18-26) who wish to attend this retreat at a special rate of $25 per night, on a first come, first served basis. A limited number of special rates are available and all applications will be included in the lottery.

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