Do you feel like you aren’t finding enough time to meditate as you live your busy life? Not to worry! The Buddha has an answer:
The Buddha in the Suttas (oldest existing Buddhist teachings) proposed a "Step-by-Step Training" curriculum. In it, he often encouraged people to practice meditation during their busy daily-life activities before actually practicing formal sitting meditation! He explained that it is possible to truly meditate throughout your entire workday, while also still being a competent and functional employee. This was not a concentration meditation, but rather a light, awareness meditation, based on seeing phenomena clearly, thus settling the mind and body.
Join us for a half-day service retreat in which we will combine meditation practice with tasks to help care for the center. This service retreat will include silent meditation periods, Dhamma discussions exploring engaged practice in daily life, and opportunities to clean and organize the center led by WIMC staff.
This is a great opportunity to build continuity of practice over an extended period of time, broaden your meditation skills, and help out at the center. The service work done on this retreat will be a beneficial act of dāna (giving), that will further enhance the mind’s ability for paññā (seeing reality clearly) to grow. This will also practically improve our physical space as we clean and make the center more functional and welcoming.
Participants are welcome to stay for as much or as little of the retreat as they’d like, and can opt to do whatever sort of helpful tasks they are comfortable doing. A task sign-up sheet will be provided.