An Easygoing International Online Retreat
With Linda Modaro, Nelly Kaufer, Jenny Taylor, Anna Markey
Online via Zoom
*If you live in the US, please register with US details. If you live in Australia, please register with AU details.
All others register with details closest to your time zone.
USA Details
NOTE: The retreat is FULL.
Please register if you want to be added to the WAIT LIST.
Australia Details
NOTE: The retreat is FULL.
Please register if you want to be added to the WAIT LIST.
THIS RETREAT WILL BE BENEFICIAL FOR YOU IF:
• You want to have a retreat while you’re sheltered in place.
• You want to participate in an online group practice with live, interactive teachers and sangha.
• You would like to practice with people from other parts of the country and the world.
We teach an open meditation practice that is followed by reflection and journaling. The roots of this practice are found in the Buddha’s early teachings and are based on learning to trust the ways of knowing that develop in meditation, enabling you to be more responsive and present in your life.
During this retreat we will have a lighter schedule. Our experience with online retreats shows that having more open space in the schedule helps prevent the fatigue of being online. This is an opportunity for you to augment our retreat schedule with a self-retreat schedule that works best in your home and life during this pandemic.
DANA AND SUPPORT
Suggested Fees and Support Range: $50-350
Pandemic economic support price: Please give as you can.
Please give to the community you are associated with and you can give to others if you are able.
Make sure to include a note saying your dana is for the online retreat. In paypal you can find this under “add special instructions” if paying with credit card or “add a note” if paying with your banking. Using a check, make a note in the memo section.
Pine Street Sangha for Nelly Kaufer: https://pinestreetsangha.org/support/
Sati Sangha for Linda Modaro: https://satisangha.org/donate/
Coast and City Sangha for Anna Markey: use ammarkey@yahoo.com.au to pay via PayPal
Jenny Taylor: use jennifer.taylor0871@gmail.com to pay via PayPal
USING ZOOM
• Log in a few minutes early for meetings. Your device will be muted upon entry. Please keep silence when you come on the call.
• In the upper right hand corner of the video you can choose speaker view or gallery view. Speaker view allows you to see the speaker full screen, and gallery view shows all participants full screen.
• Mute and stop video functions are in the lower left hand corner. Locations may be different on iPad or smartphone.
• Unmute when you choose to speak. You can choose to turn your video on or off. Please keep your video off during meditation sessions. If you are using an iPad or smartphone, please stabilize the device. If you move around, please turn off the video.
• We request that you use a private room whenever possible. A headset with a built in microphone is optimal, but not required.
• For optimal video conferencing, please consider rebooting your computer (and modem in some cases) some time before the meeting, and closing out all browser windows when on the call.
• Please understand that we will not be able to offer technical assistance once each session has started. You can email before or after the sessions and we will try to help at those times.
AGREEMENTS TO PARTICIPATE
• Beginning with self honesty – being truthful with yourself
• Respecting autonomy – the right for you to control the direction of your meditation practice
• Avoiding actions that harm yourself and other participants during our sessions
• Practicing confidentiality
• Treating different kinds of experience and people equitably
BASIC INSTRUCTIONS FOR PRACTICE
• Choose a comfortable position – we will be meditating for 30-40 minutes. You can choose to meditate for a shorter amount of time.
• Let your thoughts, feelings and sensations move, holding your body relatively still. You may start with any practice you feel comfortable with, and change the focus of your practice at any time during the sitting.
• If you feel overwhelmed at any point you can open your eyes, you can bring your focus to an object (your body, a phrase or picture, the breath), or you can get up and move around.
• At the end of your meditation session, reflect back upon your experience by writing it down or simply remembering.
• We encourage you to explore your experience in meditation daily in the small reflection groups.
RETREAT TEACHERS & FACILITATORS
Linda started “seeking” in her early twenties. Unsure what she was looking for, she experimented with many eastern practices and landed in traditional Chinese medicine studying and teaching Qi Gong, Tai Ji and Acupuncture for over fifteen years. After a near death experience in 1998, her Taoist philosophy led to Buddhist philosophy and psychology and changed the course of her spiritual practice, teaching, and work with others. She trained and worked closely with the teachers in the Skillful Meditation Project and Recollective Awareness Meditation, put together by Jason Siff. Eventually, she had to leave the SMP home, and founded Sati Sangha so that she could continue teaching Buddhadharma and Reflective Meditation. Thirty years of listening, observing, teaching and being taught by patients and students; traveling to China, Nepal, Iran, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, Canada integrating aspects of their cultures. She tries to hold this all lightly, yet cannot deny the sense of having ‘a calling’ rather than a job.
Nelly Kaufer is the founder and lead teacher at Pine Street Sangha, a Meditation center in Portland, Oregon. Witnessing an intimate understanding of dharma along with a kind regard for the variety of meditative experiences, she teaches Reflective Meditation. Nelly was introduced to Vipassana (Mindfulness) meditation in 1978 on retreats taught by Ruth Denison and began teaching women meditation soon there after, as there were no female teachers in her community at that time. She co-authored A Woman’s Guide to Spiritual Renewal (HarperOne,1994), a book for which she interviewed women about their spiritual experiences. In the 1990s she completed a 3-year mindfulness teacher training with Jacqueline Mandell. Nelly met Jason Siff at a Buddhism and Psychotherapy conference in 2004, entered the Skillful Meditation Project teacher training several months later and completed this in-depth training in 2008. Nelly is a psychotherapist in private practice, integrating Buddhist psychology into her clinical orientation and in continuing education workshops for mental health professionals. “I think what really attracts me about this approach is the spirit of exploration and the quality of kindness to myself and others that seems to arise from the practice.”
Anna Markey was introduced to Buddhist practice in India in 1983. She took teachings from a variety of Tibetan teachers and attended retreats with insight teacher, Christopher Titmuss, the same year. She has practised insight meditation ever since. Anna also practised for a number of years with a Zen group in the tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh, and in the Burmese Mahasi method of practice with Patrick Kearney. For ten years she studied with Jason Siff and now works with a collective of teachers, using an experience based practice approach in her retreats and regular groups. Anna is interested in using this gentle and transformative approach to meditation and dharma to change one’s relationship to our inner and outer worlds. She also is interested in teaching meditation to children.
Jenny Taylor is a visual artist and arts facilitator who lives in Alice Springs. Her work and dharma practice are strongly influenced by the cultural and physical environment of Central Australia. She believes that deep listening to the natural world, and to Indigenous voices, transforms one’s understanding of place, and of the responsibilities that go with living in this time and place. jennifer.taylor0871@gmail.com