Cultivating Insight: A Simple and Powerful Practice
With JD Doyle, Erin Selover and René Rivera (Assistant)
September 23 - 30, 2023
During this week-long silent mindfulness meditation retreat, we will cultivate the quality of awareness that supports us in attending to every moment with kindness and acceptance. The practice of insight invites us to look deeply, to understand the nature of suffering, and to allow our inner wisdom to blossom. As we develop this inner knowing, we bring greater freedom to ourselves and our communities.
We will offer meditation instructions (including sitting, standing, and walking), guided lovingkindness and compassion instructions, as well as Dharma talks, practice discussions, question and answer periods, and ample time to practice. We will be practicing primarily in our outdoor practice tent and also on the land in nature. This retreat is suitable for both newer and more experienced students of Buddhism.
COVID Safety Measures: Please review our current COVID Safety Measures, which are subject to change. We are creating this web page in January and retreats will not begin until late May. We very much understand how much things can change between now and the start of our retreat season. Our Medical Committee is actively and regularly updating our protocols.
Teachers
JD Doyle(they/them) serves as Guiding Teacher at Insight Santa Cruz and was a Core Teacher at the East Bay Meditation Center for 5 years. They graduated from Spirit Rock Meditation Center’s Teacher Training, the Community Dharma Leader training, and the Dedicated Practitioner Program. JD began studying and practicing Buddhism in 1995, at Insight Meditation Society and at Spirit Rock and continued with extensive retreat practice in Thailand and Burma in the Theravadan lineage. They are committed to celebrating the diversity of our human sangha, addressing the impact of racism on our communities, expanding concepts of gender, and living in ways…
Learn more about JD Doyle
Erin Selover, MS, is a Licensed Therapist, Strategic Coach, and serves on the Teachers Council at Spirit Rock Meditation Center. As a meditation teacher, Erin integrates systemic and cultural factors of oppression into teachings on mindfulness and compassion that are often only taught from an interpersonal and intrapersonal lens. With a passion for systemic change, Erin’s teachings broaden the field of mindfulness to look at the way Buddhist teachings can help us understand systems of oppression such as patriarchy, white supremacy, and modern economics. Through supporting students to see factors that contribute to their pain as part of a larger…
Learn more about Erin Selover
René Rivera is a meditation teacher, restorative justice facilitator, and leader, working and learning in all the spaces in-between race, gender, and other perceived binaries, as a queer, latinx, trans man. René teaches heart-centered, trauma-informed meditation, at the East Bay Meditation Center and other meditation centers. He has co-led the first residential meditation retreats for transgender, nonbinary and gender expansive people. René is a restorative justice facilitator for the Ahimsa Collective, working to heal sexual and gender based violence.
Learn more about René Rivera (Assistant)