Dharma Art: A Meditation Retreat for Creativity

Over the course of this three-day program, participants will explore embodied meditation as a means to gain a deeper understanding of the mind and learn to integrate these insights into their creative work and, more significantly, into their everyday lives. The schedule offers a mixture of silent meditation, meditative talking circles (social meditation), dharma art teachings, playful group exercises, and opportunities to practice bringing meditation into your own musical, artistic, literary, and creative disciplines.

This program is open to all individuals, regardless of any prior experience with meditation or formal creative practice. The only requirement is a genuine desire to practice meditation and cultivate curiosity in everyday life.

To attend, use the Portland Shambhala website to sign up: Registration link is here! You will then receive information about location, logistics, and more.

TEACHER
Traveling to us from central Mexico, Bruno Limenes is a classically trained musician, photographer, videographer, and meditation teacher with over two decades of experience in meditation and its applications in the creative process. Bruno studied classical music at “Escuela Superior de Música” in Mexico city, and played jazz for many years. He currently operates a recording studio in Tepoztlán, where he collaborates with the local musician collective known as “Colectivo Kuikayotl.” Bruno received his training in teaching Dharma Art from one of the original developers of the curriculum, Kimiko Miyakawa. In addition to teaching, he has served as director of a meditation center in Mexico City and operations director of Drala Mountain Center, a large-scale meditation retreat center in the Colorado mountains.

LOGISTICS
This event is taking place a lovely private residence with plenty of space in Bush Prairie, WA, just outside of Vancouver and 30 minute from downtown Portland.

There will be meals provided and the option of either commuting or sleeping on site (camping or sleeping on the shrine room floor, air mattresses available).
Musicians, artists, and anyone hoping to practice your own art form: please feel free to bring your own instrument or art materials. Group materials will be provided to all participants, so no personal items are required unless you want the opportunity to use your own.

REGISTER HERE

Tuition (meals incl.):
$150 Regular price
Sliding scale down to $75 for low income
$200 Patron price (Patrons enable us to have a sliding scale! Please consider supporting others’ practice)
Worktrade positions available (staff the program to attend for free! Contact Jane.perlstein@portland.shambhala.org to apply)

Schedule:
Thurs Aug 21 7pm - Sun Aug 24 6pm
Thursday Aug 21 7-8:30pm
Friday Aug 22 9am - 9pm
Saturday Aug 23 9am - 9pm
Sunday Aug 24 9am - 6pm (with optional post retreat afterparty)

Questions? Contact Jane.perlstein@portland.shambhala.org!
REGISTER HERE

MORE INFO
The creation of art and music influences our state of mind, just as our mindset impacts the creative process. Drawing from Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche’s ‘Dharma Art’ teachings, this program offers insight and exploration into this interdependent relationship between creativity and the mind of meditation. This mind of meditation, known as ‘beginner’s mind’, has been cultivated by professional creatives and meditators alike to bring freshness into their work, hobbies, and everyday life.
"Dharma Art" was developed by Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche in the 1970s, possibly the first Buddhist curriculum designed uniquely to support the practice of art and creativity in the western world, and has influenced the work of famous artists such as Allen Ginsberg and Joni Mitchell. Dharma art reframes the creative process as a natural state that emerges from meditative awareness. It emphasizes directness, unselfconsciousness, and nonaggression, appreciating the nature of things as they are without striving for specific outcomes. Significantly, Dharma Art isn't limited to traditional art forms but applies to any activity where one cultivates genuine presence and expresses basic goodness, thus becoming a path of awakening and fostering a culture of sanity and compassion. By focusing on the "artistry of life itself," it challenges the conventional idea of art as something exclusive to talented individuals, highlighting its vital potential for everyone to actualize.