SEEING CLEARLY:
THE HEART OF VIPASSANA PRACTICE

SEEING CLEARLY: THE HEART OF VIPASSANA PRACTICE

This retreat provides grounding in the basics of Insight (Vipassana) Meditation and is suitable for both beginners and experienced students. We will cultivate direct awareness of the breath, body, sounds, and other phenomena, and begin to recognize and shift some of the patterns that naturally arise within experience. We will challenge unproductive patterns that naturally arise in meditation and daily life, learning to relax the activity of the Five Hindrances while cultivating the Seven Factors of Enlightenment leading to contentment and peace of body, heart, and mind.

The daily schedule of this retreat will include sitting, walking, and moving meditation, as well as practice cultivating mindfulness during daily activities such as eating, resting, listening, sharing in small groups, and work meditation. There will be an instruction period in the morning and a dharma talk in the evening.

This retreat is open to all. Those who are relatively new to the practice of Insight Meditation are especially encouraged to attend, but experienced practitioners will benefit as well.

Hugh Byrne has practiced meditation in the Zen and Vipassana traditions for 20 years. Since 2000 he has taught Insight Meditation classes and retreats in the Washington, DC area and around the United States. He has studied and trained with senior Spirit Rock and Insight Meditation Society teachers, including Jack Kornfield, Phillip Moffitt, Tara Brach, and Joseph Goldstein. Hugh is a senior teacher with the Insight Meditation Community of Washington and is committed to help bring the wisdom of the Dharma to address the suffering of our world and the conditions of daily life. He co-founded the Washington Buddhist Peace Fellowship and the Mindfulness Training Institute, which brings meditation and mindfulness practices into non-traditional settings.

Lila Kate Wheeler started practicing yoga when she was 12 and Buddhist meditation at age 21. She began teaching in the 1980s and has sustained her practice in many Buddhist and Hindu meditative traditions. She traveled to Burma where she was ordained as a nun in 1988, and studied at Dharma centers in the United States, India, Nepal, and Tibet. In addition to her Dharma teaching, Lila works as a writer, editor, and journalist. She had a Radcliffe Fellowship in 2008 to support her novel writing and lives in Somerville, MA.