INSIGHT DIALOGUE
AND METTA: OPENING TO LIFE AS IT IS

INSIGHT DIALOGUE AND METTA: OPENING TO LIFE AS IT IS

Insight Dialogue is an interpersonal meditation form, based in Vipassana. It expands solitary meditation by extending the mindfulness, wisdom, and compassion of silent practice into speaking and listening in contemplation with others.

This retreat focuses on learning and practicing Insight Dialogue. There will be times of silent practice, walking meditation, and mindful movement interwoven with periods of structured Insight Dialogue.

Through practice, we will see directly and clearly how confusion and ignorance sustain both personal and interpersonal suffering. We will practice metta—allowing our hearts and minds to open unconditionally to life and experience just as they actually are. As awareness deepens, we can experience for ourselves the profound Buddhist teachings on suffering and its cessation.

An ongoing meditation practice or previous retreat experience would be useful as background for this retreat.

Phyllis Hicks is a psychotherapist and minister. For twenty five years she has melded eastern and western understandings of psychology and contemplative practice. Since 2004, she has studied intensively with Gregory Kramer, the originator of Insight Dialogue. She directs the Pastoral Care and Counseling Institute of Durham, NC, and teaches Insight Dialogue in the United States.

Sharon Beckman-Brindley is a Clinical Psychologist in Charlottesville, Virginia. She is also a co-founder and co-teacher of the Insight Meditation Community of Charlottesville and a graduate of the Community Dharma Leaders program of Spirit Rock Meditation Center. She has studied with Gregory Kramer in the practice of Insight Dialogue since 2001.