Dharma Buddhist Meditation (Nature Center)

Now where is he? Buddhist Goddess of Compassion Kwan Yin (Kwannon) called him back to train at the Still Center, where he is now a teacher (stillcenter.org/teachers). His teacher is Western Sensei Ryuko Dr. Tim Langdell.

Sensei has a weekly Zen Zoom meeting at 9:00 am (Pacific) on Saturdays. It starts with a brief 10 minute meditation, followed by a talk and discussion session.

It goes on for an hour, a lively group, discussing a wide range of Zen topics.

Sensei is a Western Soto Zen priest and a Master Zen teacher in various traditions. His practice is based on Japanese Soto Zen combined with a background in Rinzai (koan work), Korean, and Vietnamese (like Thich Nhat Hanh) Zen practices.

All are welcome regardless of experience, particularly welcome if sharing this community's spirit -- the faith that helping ourselves is tantamount to helping others.

• Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/516177070

The Still Center is is a "Zen center without walls" using Zoom to meet. Visit website to contact with questions or for more info, recorded talks, books, and more: stillcenter.org

It is open to all members worldwide. See Meetup:

• meetup.com/still-center-meditation/events/304615536/
• LINK: meetup.com/still-center-meditation/events/304402844/

• la.shambhala.org/in-person-meditation
• (Also in Santa Monica and Orange County)

Please note this retreat meets the requirements for participants in Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach’s Mindfulness Meditation Teacher certification program through SoundsTrue.com. Please read the Criteria for MMTCP Retreat Attendance Requirements.

Cultivating the Wise Heart on the Cushion and in the World: Practicing Mindfulness and the “Divine Abodes” (Lovingkindness, Compassion, Joy, and Equanimity)
Buddhism's Four Divine Abidings (Brahma Viharas) are lovingkindness, compassion, joy in others' joy, and equanimity. These are the places where the open, awakened heart abides.

In this week-long retreat, on the foundation of insight meditation (vipassana) and the development of mindfulness (sati), we will learn the formal practices of lovingkindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity.

We will also offer guidance for bringing these practices into daily life in the world, including in challenging situations — relationships, work, community lives, being present in a pandemic, or in our efforts to bring about social justice.

All of these Buddhist practices strengthen clear-seeing (insight) and wisdom, self-confidence, self-acceptance, generosity of spirit, steadiness of mind and heart, and skillful action.

This reveals our fundamental kindness and wisdom, in a culture in which heart and mind are often forcibly disconnected.

Core instructions in these practices will be offered during periods of sitting meditation, complemented by talks, discussion, meetings with the teachers, walking meditation, and brief daily guided movement sessions.

This retreat is suitable for those wanting a dedicated at-home retreat, much like a residential retreat, and for those with some responsibilities wanting a home retreat with many hours of formal practice but also time for other activities.

For all, there will be an emphasis on bringing practice both into our time together and our time away from the group. We have designed this retreat so that it can work well for those in the Pacific time zone as well as the Eastern time zone, and time zones in between.

Tentative Schedule (all times Pacific)
Sessions: Day 1
2:00–3:00 pm - Organizing meeting on practical and technical matters: Required for all retreatants
3:00–4:00 pm - Open time
4:00–5:30 pm - Opening session
5:30 to rest time. Home practice

Sessions: Day 2-6
6:00 to 6:45 am - Qigong and sitting meditation
6:45 to 8:00 am - Home practice
8:00 to 9:00 am - Instructional sitting, Q&A
9:00 to 10:20 am - Home practice
9:15 to 10:15 am - Practice discussions in small group (when assigned)
10:20 to 11:00 am - Sitting meditation
10:30 to 11:30 am - Practice discussions in small group (when assigned)
11:00 to 11:45 am - Home practice
11:45 am to 12:15 pm Sitting meditation
12:15 to 2:00 pm - Home practice
12:45 to 1:45 pm - Practice discussions in small group (when assigned)
2:00 to 3:00 pm - Instructional sitting, Q&A
3:00 to 3:55 pm - Home practice
3:55 to 4:25 pm Sitting meditation
4:25 to 4:30 pm Break
4:30 to 5:30 pm - Dharma Talk, discussion/Q&A
5:30 to 6:00 pm - Walking meditation
6:00 to 6:30 pm - Sitting meditation, chanting
6:30 pm to rest time - Home practice

Sessions: Day 7
6:00 to 6:45 am - Qigong and sitting meditation
6:45 to 8:30 am - Home practice
8:30 to 9:00 am - Sitting meditation
9:00 to 10:00 am - Home practice
10:00 to 11:30 am - Closing session
11:30 am END of retreat.

*All are strongly encouraged to attend as much of this retreat as one's schedule allows with emphasis on the bold sessions. Each retreatant will attend two group meetings in the week.

**Upon registering, please be sure to read and bookmark the Retreat Homepage in the auto-confirmation email for important tips on setting up your space and what to expect on retreat.

Pricing
This is a dana (donation-based) retreat. The Class Fee includes InsightLA’s administration fees only and it does not include compensation for the teachers. There will be an opportunity at the end of the retreat to give a donation or dana to the teachers. The practice of donating or dana helps continue the ancient Buddhist monastic tradition of teaching on a dana basis, dana being the Pali (the language the Buddha spoke) word for "generosity" or "giving freely."

Contributions help teachers lead a life devoted to teaching both at InsightLA and in other parts of the world, including communities without the means to donate. Gifts also allow teachers to take time for their own practice, ensuring that their teachings are continuously enriched.

It takes courage and faith (confidence, saddha) for meditation teachers to dedicate their lives to offering the Buddha's Teachings. They must trust that daily personal and family needs will be met through this practice of dana – an ancient Indian system of compensation that is generally less familiar in our culture.

REGISTER: insightla.org/event/cultivating-the-wise-heart-2024/2024-12-01-14-00/

• Wednesdays, 4:00 pm-5:30 pm (Pacific Time)
• Mindful Awareness or MARC at UCLA: uclahealth.org/uclamindful
• https://uclahs.zoom.us/j/97878342670

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ON OTHER DAYS, ACCESS RECORDINGS OF GUIDED MEDITATIONS
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Meditate in many languages with UCLA's MARC (Mindful Awareness Research Center)
Translations of free guided meditations available in 15 languages, with more to come.
Sandy Cohen explains: Guided meditations can be a helpful way to begin or sustain a regular mindfulness practice.

Whether you speak American English, Armenian, Mandarin Chinese, Farsi, Tagalog, Korean, Hindi, Russian, or American Sign Language, find guided meditations in that language at UCLA’s Mindful Awareness Research Center (MARC).

Thanks to funding from CalHOPE and FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency), MARC’s guided meditations are now available in 14 languages, in addition to English.

“We were in a great position to help because we have a program called Training in Mindfulness Facilitation, a teacher training program that we've done for 11 years, and we've actually had participants in that program from all over the world, speaking many different languages,” says MARC’s associate director, Dr. Marvin Belzer, PhD (external link), adding that graduates of the program helped create the translations.

“So it was easy to say yes. And, of course, we were also very excited about it.”

The guided meditations available through the MARC website and on the free UCLA Mindful app (external link) range in length from 3 minutes to 19 minutes.

They include basic breathing and body-scan meditations, a “loving kindness” (metta) meditation to generate compassion and a meditation for working with difficult physical or emotional sensations.

Focused on the present moment
Guided meditations can be useful for people new to mindfulness meditation, a practice that helps cultivate the ability to “pay attention to present-moment experiences with openness and curiosity and a willingness to be with what is,” according to Dr. Diana Winston, PhD, director of mindfulness education at MARC.

In the simplest terms, mindfulness meditation is the practice of focusing on something real, but something that isn’t too complicated, Dr. Belzer says, such as the feeling of the breath moving in and out, sensations in the hands or feet, or ambient sounds.

The aim is to place nonjudgmental attention on the object of focus, and when you notice the mind has wandered — which it will because this is normal — to gently guide your attention back to the chosen focus. "Begin again," as Sharon Salzberg says.

For novices, it’s often hard to sit still and stay connected to the present moment for more than a few seconds — because the mind quickly wanders, looking for something more stimulating, diverting, interesting, worrisome, dangerous, falling into the past or leaping into the predicted future.

We’re suddenly making imaginary shopping lists or thinking about what will be served for lunch. Hearing the voice of a teacher can be helpful for maintaining focus.

But guided meditations are far from the only way to practice mindfulness, Dr. Belzer notes.

• Continued: uclahealth.org/news/article/meditate-in-many-languages-with-uclas-mindful-awareness-research-center