Listening to Natural Law: Monastic Retreat

Registration for this retreat is closed

Closed
Registration is closed for this retreat.
April 24 - May 02, 2015 (Friday to Saturday)


Spaces still available!

Western nuns and monks from the Theravada monastic tradition teach each year at the Retreat Center.

Investigating our human condition through the teachings on the Three Characteristics - impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, and not-self - brings us into deeper communion with our true nature and all that lives. Investigating experience in the light of this central teaching of the Buddha brings awareness to our habitual attachments and reactions to experience. Seeing this process clearly, we recognize the wisdom of letting go. Compassion, inner contentment and confidence are the fruits of such release. From this place of strength and balance, we can explore how we relate to ourselves and those close to us, as well as to the greater environment - when we reside in the awakened mind, everything is teaching us.

The framework of the Eight Precepts (which include abstaining from eating after noon), Noble Silence, chanting and simple ceremonies will provide a monastic container to hold and inspire us during this retreat. An optional daily period of yoga will be offered by Emily Carpenter.

This retreat is open to all, and our wish is to make it accessible to anyone who would like to attend. We offer a 'You Choose' fee option for this course, charging a minimum of just $17 per night (ie $136 minimum total). Those who can contribute more, however, help IMS to continue providing financial aid to as many people as possible.

A Message from IMS's Guiding Teachers

Work on expanding and improving IMS's Retreat Center dining room is scheduled to start in April or May 2015 and to continue through late August.

Inevitably, this will result in construction and machinery noise. However, this will not be sustained and will mostly take place outdoors during regular construction hours, usually Monday - Friday, 7:00am-4:00pm. Toward the end of the project, there will be some indoor work, but this will be planned for between courses.

To help minimize the impact of the noise, windows in our Retreat Center meditation hall will be kept closed. (The air circulation and conditioning system there allows fresh air to move around very well, without opening windows.)

We have decided to continue offering retreats throughout this building period, knowing that conditions for practice are rarely perfect. We trust that this construction endeavor can be met with the equanimity and grace with which we meet a range of conditions in our lives.

All of us at IMS look forward to supporting you on retreat.

Teachers