Susie Harrington has been meditating since 1989, and been engaged in Insight meditation practice since 1995. She began teaching in 2005, with the guidance of Guy Armstrong, Jack Kornfield and more recently Joseph Goldstein. She often offers retreats in the natural world, believing nature to be the most profound dharma teacher, and a natural gateway to our true self. Her teaching is deeply grounded in the body and emphasizes embodiment of our practice in speech and daily life. For more information go to desertdharma.org.
Impermanence is the nature of things, in our practice we have the opportunity to see it and learn to dance with this fundamental aspect of our experience.
Sunday afternoon dharma talk on the treasure of generosity and interconnection in our lives (Susie) and the liberative process catalyzed by generosity (Jeanne).
Sunday morning instruction and meditation begins with generosity as a living liberation practice of non-clinging, and moves to a guided sit in generosity toward the self (Jeanne). This sit ends with guided instruction in walking with an attitude of offering generosity (Susie).
Saturday morning dharmette in gratitude and generosity as a reciprocal relationship, rather than a transactional relationship, followed by a guided meditation in the refuges as gratitude practices. (Susie) The sit ends with walking instructions and encouragement to sense the body as a support for the embodied gratitude of being present. (Jeanne)
The five Spiritual Faculties of Faith, Energy, Mindfulness, Concentration, and Wisdom give us both a map for the natural unfolding of our practice and a guide for how to orient and encourage its development.
The path of practice has many challenges. How we meet those and turn toward them and learn form them is possibly the most important aspect of our practice. This talk looks at these challenges in the retreat setting and suggests ways of meeting them.
