Teachers:
With Steven Smith and Michele McDonald
Date:
July 19-29, 2012
Description:
Unconditional Love, Wise Compassion, Empathetic Joy and Equanimity, the Immeasurables are meditations fusing innate spiritual emotions within with intuitive wisdom of Vipassana.
Michele and Steven, with 38 years of practice are skilled in transmitting a direct approach body-sense door based awareness practice accessed in a gentle manner. We create effective means to make practice work in powerful ways for each individual student.
Teaching only a few of these retreats a year in very extraordinary wilderness settings of beauty and comfort, we offer a practice rare and unique, with clarity, ease and authenticity. You are most welcome to practice with us.
The retreat day is spent in silent meditation and includes group sitting periods alternating with walking meditation outdoors. In addition to individual interviews with the teachers, there is a nightly discourse from the teachings of the Buddha. To cultivate the meditation process, complete silence is maintained at all times throughout the retreat except during teacher interviews. No previous meditation experience is required to participate and the retreat is suitable for beginners and experienced practitioners.
Registration & Cost:
Sliding scale: $1,375-$990. Please pay at the highest level of the sliding scale that you can afford. This allows others who need to pay less the opportunity to attend. Whatever you pay above the low end of the sliding scale is a tax-deductible donation to Vallecitos Mountain Ranch.
Fees cover meals and lodging.
The Tradition of Dana: The teachings of the Buddha have been sustained by the 2,500-year-old tradition of Dana, a Pali word meaning “generosity”, which allows retreatants to offer donations to the teachers at the retreat’s end. The teachers receive no other financial compensation.
Shuttle service is available for this retreat.
Arrival and Schedule: Check-in is between 3:00-4:00 pm on Thursday. PLEASE DO NOT ARRIVE LATER THAN 4:00. ARRIVING LATE DELAYS THE OPENING OF THE RETREAT. The retreat will end at 8:30 am on Sunday.
Cancellations. Late cancellations are costly and mean that others cannot attend the retreat. If you cancel 45 or more days prior to your retreat we charge a $50 administrative fee. If you cancel less than 45 days before the retreat, you will be responsible for half of your retreat fees. All refund requests must be faxed to the Registrar at 575-751-4038. If you withdraw less than 10 business days before the start of your retreat, you will not receive a refund or transfer option.
Transfers. To transfer from one retreat to another, you must notify Vallecitos at least 10 business days before the original retreat. There is a $50 fee per transfer, and no more than two transfers will be accepted. Prior to the start of the retreat, you may designate another person to attend in your place; there is no fee for this.
Michele McDonald co-founded Vipassana Hawai’i in 1984 with Steven Smith. She has taught Insight meditation for over twenty-five years, teaches extensively throughout the United States, in Canada, Burma, and various locations around the world. Michele has been a quiet pioneer having being the first woman to teach a formal retreat in Burma, side-by-side with a senior monastic figure, Sayadaw U Lakkhana, Abbot of Kyaswa Monastery. Having worked with a wide range of Asian and Western teachers, Michele is most inspired by her practice with Dipa Ma and Sayadaw U Pandita and more recently in Burma with the Mya Taung Sayadaw. She appreciates teaching at many levels of practice and has enjoyed teaching three-month retreats for experienced students as well as developing meditation retreats for youth. Her style of teaching emphasizes helping individuals find entry points into stillness that are natural for them. Michele is thrilled when students begin to love their practice.
Steven Smith co-founded Vipassana Hawai’i in 1984 and in 1995 founded the MettaDana Project for educational and medical projects in Burma. Also in 1995 Steven helped establish the Kyaswa Valley Retreat Center in Burma, headed by Sayadaw U Lakkhana, Abbot of Kyaswa Monastery. This partnership helped usher in the beginnings of Vipassana Hawai’i’s Fusion Dhamma approach combining traditional and contemporary teaching styles in the same retreat. Anchored in the Theravadan Buddhist Burmese lineage of Mahasi Sayadaw since 1974, he was trained and sanctioned as a teacher by revered monk and meditation master Sayadaw U Pandita. Steven divides his time teaching Vipassana and the Divine Abodes (loving-kindness, compassion, joy, equanimity) meditation retreats around the world, and assisting Burmese refugee communities along the Thai-Burma border. His long term vision for preserving the Dhamma is culminating in the beginnings of the Hawai’i Insight Meditation Center (HIMC) on the Big Island of Hawai’i’s remote North Kohala coast.
