MEDITATION RETREAT: Awakening Joy

Especially for those of us who tend to carry the world on our shoulders, training ourselves to look for joy in a world that’s experiencing a lot of chaos and suffering can often feel self-centered, or maybe like we’re sticking our heads in the sand.

But so often, these kinds of beliefs tend to stop us from looking for joy altogether.

As the Buddha so wisely reminded us, if we only focus on the difficult situations in our lives or in our world while overlooking or maybe even depriving ourselves of the beauty and goodness that it also contains, it’s only going to cause us to pull back from life … which means we aren’t going to be very helpful for anyone — including ourselves.

During this daylong meditation retreat in Great Falls, VA, we’ll explore some of the Buddha’s more profound teachings on joy, how we create obstacles to it, and how we can bring even more happiness into our lives and our world.

We’ll be gathering for our retreat on Saturday from 10 a.m. – 5:00 p.m in the beautiful St. Francis Episcopal Church in Great Falls, VA. The peaceful interior is filled with large bright windows overlooking the great lawn and a canopy of trees. The expansive grounds include a special labyrinth, and many natural places to sit and walk.

The format will include both guided and silent meditation, a dharma talk, and walking meditation both inside and on the lovely, spacious church grounds. Lunch will be in silence, and participants are asked to bring their own.

THE TEACHER: Shell Fischer, founder and guiding teacher of Mindful Shenandoah (www.mindfulvalley.com) offers more than 30 years of extensive mindfulness training, study, and teaching. She is a Buddhist teacher, trained in the Tibetan Vajrayana tradition at Naropa University – the nation’s leading contemplative university – and in the Theravadan Vipassana (Insight) tradition by Dr. Tara Brach – one of the world’s foremost Insight teachers. She is a graduate of the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction teacher-training program led by Jon Kabat-Zinn, founder of MBSR and the Stress Clinic at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center. Prior to teaching, Shell wrote about mindfulness and yoga for national magazines.

While offering the teachings of Insight Meditation, Shell places great emphasis on the metta (loving-kindness) practices. Her hope is to guide you in nurturing even more kindness and compassion for yourself, others, and for all the situations you find yourself in throughout your life, through the heart-teachings and practices of mindfulness meditation.

Shell warmly welcomes the inclusion and participation of people of diverse identities, including those of all races, ethnicities, cultures, sexual orientations, gender identities, classes, religions, abilities, and ages … with the aspiration that all feel welcome, safe, and respected as we practice together in community.

When: Sat., July 12, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. (also available online)

Where: St. Francis Episcopal Church, 9220 Georgetown Pike, Great Falls, VA 22066

Fee: $85/$40

LEARN MORE HERE