Life as Practice: Cultivating Mindfulness as a Guide for Living Well: Saturdays, Feb 18th to March 18th, 10:30 – 11:45 am and optional hybrid retreat day: March 25th, 10:00 am – Noon)

In this five week series offered via Zoom, we will explore the five mindfulness trainings as a way of embodying and integrating our practice into our life and as a road map to living with greater freedom, ease, peace and well-being. Each session will focus on one of the five training precepts.

‘The Five Mindfulness Trainings represent the Buddhist vision for a global spirituality and ethic. They are a concrete expression of the Buddha’s teachings on the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path, the path of right understanding and true love, leading to healing, transformation, and happiness for ourselves and for the world.‘ – Thich Nhat Hanh

The structure for this series will include a centering/check-in, guided meditation and reflection on the particular training. The series will culminate in an optional two-hour hybrid mini-retreat offering the space to reflect on all five trainings and their ongoing impact on our lives. The mini-retreat will be co-led by Valley insight teachers Subha Srinivasan and Michael Stoner. Location for the retreat is TBD. We welcome diversity in age, meditation experience, race and national origin, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation and financial means. Teachings will be offered freely and donations can be made via Valley Insight: https://valleyinsight.org/

You can register for this series using this google form: https://forms.gle/nwY1nrtmVs8vMp8X7 

New Year’s Sit

Sunday, Jan 1, 2023, 4 pm – 5 pm EST

I have found it very useful and grounding these past few years to begin the year with setting an intention and using a word to welcome the year, something I learned via a blog many years ago. My word for 2022 was Embrace. And certainly, it has been a beautiful year of embracing the opportunities for growth and joy this year! And I would like to invite you to join me this new year to meditate and set an intention/word that reflects your deepest aspiration for the upcoming year. 

Please join me if you are free, on January 1st, 2023, from 4:00-5:00pm EST to sit, reflect and share with friends. Email shub50@me.com for zoom link.

Finding Refuge in Stillness and Community

Friday, Dec 9, 7pm – 8:30pm
and Saturday, Dec 10, 9:30am – 4:30pm

Led by Doreen Schweizer and Subha Srinivasan
No registration fee but you may offer dana to the teachers

‘Find a place of rest in the middle of things’ – Frank Ostaseski

In this Valley Insight day-long retreat, offered via Zoom, we will practice resting our hearts together, finding peace and community through the Buddha’s teachings on kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity. In these difficult times of rapid change, upheaval, and climate crisis, the practices can help soothe the trembling heart and cultivate a stillness from which wise action can emerge.

The structure of the retreat will include meditation instructions and reflections with time for Q/A – as well as periods of silent sitting and walking practice. Participants are encouraged to join the optional, introductory Friday evening session to become more familiar with the structure of the retreat, the teachers, and one another. This retreat is suitable for all levels of meditation experience, including beginners. It is being co-taught by Doreen Schweizer, senior teacher, and Subha Srinivasan (see Subha’s website). Subha has been sitting with Valley Insight since 2007.

Awakening together through gratitude and joy

Saturdays, 10:00 – 11:30 am EST in November (Nov 5th, 12th, 19th, 26th, 2022), via Zoom.

“When suffering falls away what is revealed is not a big blank but a natural sense of gratitude, good wishes for others, freedom and ease.” – Rick Hansen

Please join me in practicing gratitude together on Saturdays in November, from 10:00am to 11:30am EST via zoom. We will explore how holding the intention of gratitude and inclining our attention towards joy can help us be more present and awake in our lives. You can register via this google form for some or all of the four sessions.

Cultivating Heart Practices of Lovingkindness, Compassion, Joy and Equanimity

Wednesdays, 5:00 – 6:30 EST on July 20, July 27, August 3 and August 10 2022, via Zoom.

This four-week series will offer an invitation to train, develop, and nurture the seeds of loving-kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity that are innate qualities of the heart.  Also known as the four heavenly abodes, these practices train the heart in wisdom and compassion.  They help us to cultivate more ease in our relationships with ourselves and the world around us, and they move us toward greater healing. This series will be suitable for participants who have completed an Introduction to Mindfulness course or who have had an established meditation practice for at least a year. Sign-ups for the course will be limited to sixteen participants. Please email shub50@me.com to register.

Subha Srinivasan has been a member of the Valley Insight community since 2007 and is in the midst of a mindfulness teacher training program. This course will be her second teaching practicum. Each session will have a talk, guided meditation, and Q&A. The teachings will be offered at no charge. If you’d like to support the steady presence of the Dharma in our community, donations can be made to Valley Insight on our website; this is entirely optional.

An Introduction to Mindfulness Meditation

Six Saturdays: February 19, 26; March 5, 12, 19, 26, 2022, 10:30-11:45 am EST, Online via Zoom

This class will introduce participants to the basics of mindfulness meditation practices, and will be structured in six sessions. Sessions will incorporate mindfulness of body and breath; mindfulness of emotions; mindfulness of thoughts and beliefs; Metta (lovingkindness) and other heart practices; and how to bring your practice into the world. Each session will have a talk, guided meditation and Q/A. Participants are strongly encouraged to attend all six sessions. Subha is in the midst of a mindfulness teacher training program. This course will be her first teaching practicum. Each session will have a talk, guided meditation, and Q&A. The teachings will be offered at no charge. If you’d like to support the steady presence of the Dharma in our community, donations can be made to Valley Insight on our webpage; this is entirely optional.

For more information or to register, please email: shub50@me.com