The Heart of Wisdom Retreat
with
Winnie Nazarko
Date: Friday July 21 - 28, 2023
Location: Sisters of St. John the Divine Guest House, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
About the Retreat
All beings want to be happy, but often don’t know how to be. We look for external circumstances to provide lasting satisfaction, but external things are changeable and thus unreliable sources of freedom and contentment.
Many spiritual paths teach the importance of cultivating our heart and mind, of shaping it in the direction of wisdom and goodwill. This retreat offers teachings from Buddhism which directly show us how to do this.
The retreat offers instruction in insight meditation (mindfulness), walking meditation, and metta (goodwill) meditation. The retreat will be held largely in silence. This Noble Silence supports students in letting go of inter-personal distraction in order to focus on their own cultivation.
The experienced teacher, Winnie Nazarko, is a Guiding Teacher at Insight Meditation Society in Barre, MA. She will offer ample time for questions in the general sessions. There will also be small group practice meetings, allowing each retreatant to receive personal attention.
Insight Meditation
Insight (or vipassana) meditation is the simple, direct observation of the mind/body process with relaxed, open and careful attention. As we connect with our experience from a place of spacious stillness and steadiness, we learn to meet the changing conditions we encounter with greater ease and balance of mind. As our understanding deepens, equanimity in the face of change grows, and we discover a refuge that is to a great extent independent of life’s changing conditions.
Cost
Registration Fee:
$1,150.00 (on or before May 30th)
$1,250.00 (June 1st - June 30th)
(no hst)
Deadline to register is May 9th.
Registration Fee Includes:
-
single room
-
meals
The fee does not include the teacher's fee which is received as a donation (Dana) from retreatants for the support and well-being of our teacher.
The Dharma Retreats' Board of Directors volunteer, receive no remuneration, and pay the same registration fee as everyone else. There are no paid staff with Dharma Retreats.
About Dana
Dana follows a 2500-year-old Buddhist tradition, were teachers offer retreats free of charge. Instead, they are supported by voluntary donations from their students. The dana provided by the registration fee is modest for what our teacher provide.
