| This retreat – the first of its kind in North America - is specifically for clinicians, researchers and educators engaged in MBSR, MBCT or other mindfulness-based interventions in the fields of health care, education, the law, and similar disciplines. It is an invitation to extend and deepen one's personal experience of mindfulness meditation, via intensive practice, together with peers and colleagues, within a supportive and harmonious environment conducive to the unfolding of greater wisdom and compassion.
The course is offered as a benefit to support the missions of both IMS and the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester, MA. Both organizations seek to bring greater peace and happiness into the world.
The retreat will emphasize the roots of mindfulness and the four foundations of mindfulness - as taught by the Buddha - through sustained practice, daily talks, meditation instructions, and interviews with the teachers. The course will be conducted primarily in silence, with a full daily schedule of sitting and walking practice, as well as periods of lying down meditation, and mindful hatha yoga. In the latter days of the retreat there will be opportunities for group dialogue on the ways those practicing, teaching and researching mindfulness-based approaches (primarily MBSR and MBCT) can further integrate the practice into their personal and professional lives. |
