North Shore Center for Mindfulness & Insight Meditation

Date: Wednesday, Nov 28
Time: 7:00-8:15pm

72 Grapevine Rd, Wenham, MA 01984

Drop-in class: no registration required  

This event is offered in the tradition of dana (Pali for giving or generosity): while there is no set cost of attending, we invite you to consider making a donation to support the teacher and The Center for Mindfulness and Insight Meditation.

Boston Meditation Center

Date: Thursday, Dec 6
Time: 7:15-8:45pm

1120 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA

Weekly drop-in class: no registration required  

This event is offered in the tradition of dana (Pali for giving or generosity): while there is no set cost of attending, we invite you to consider making a donation to support the teacher and The Boston Meditation Center.

Calm, Still, Quiet: Winter Residential Retreat
w/ Chris Crotty

January 11-13, 2019

Registration options:
Residential: $300
Commuter: $200

Retreat location: Insight Meditation Center Newburyport

Registration:
Boston Meditation Center (BMC)

In winter, the stars seem to have rekindled their fires, the moon achieves a fuller triumph, and the heavens wear a look of a more exalted simplicity.  – John Burroughs

Winter is a natural time for turning inward, while retreat provides an opportunity to focus attention on your meditation practice and contemplate the Buddha’s teachings. In this second annual Winter Residential Retreat with Chris, the outer stillness of the natural world supports us in quieting our mind, and directly experiencing the calm and stillness of concentration. With a mind free from distraction, we use mindfulness (insight meditation) to investigate the path to peace taught by the Buddha and perfected during retreat practice for over 2500 years.  

Combining periods of sitting and walking meditation, with Dharma teachings, the Winter Residential Retreat is held in noble silence.

This retreat is suitable for those who have not yet sat retreat, as well as ongoing practitioners who wish to further their practice–meditation instruction and dharma talks will accommodate all experience levels.   

Calm, Still, Quiet: Winter day-long Retreat
w/ Chris Crotty

January 12, 2019
$90

Retreat location: Insight Meditation Center Newburyport

Registration:
Boston Meditation Center (BMC)

In winter, the stars seem to have rekindled their fires, the moon achieves a fuller triumph, and the heavens wear a look of a more exalted simplicity.  – John Burroughs

Winter is a natural time for turning inward, while retreat provides an opportunity to focus attention on your meditation practice and contemplate the Buddha’s teachings. In this second annual Winter retreat with Chris, the outer stillness of the natural world supports us in quieting our mind, and directly experiencing the calm and stillness of concentration. With a mind free from distraction, we use mindfulness (insight meditation) to investigate the path to peace taught by the Buddha and perfected during retreat practice for over 2500 years.

Combining periods of sitting and walking meditation, with Dharma teachings, the Winter retreat is held in noble silence.

This day-long retreat is comprised of the middle day of a three day residential retreat, and is suitable for those who have not yet sat retreat, as well as ongoing practitioners who wish to further their practice–meditation instruction and dharma talks will accommodate all experience levels.   

Chris on Personal Retreat –  Chanmyay Myaing Forest Meditation Center, Burma

I will be on personal retreat and not teaching from January 15-February 12.  I look forward to seeing you when I return.

Cambridge Insight Meditation Center

331 Broadway
Cambridge, MA 02139
(617) 441-9038

Date: Wednesday, March 13
Time: 6:30-8:45pm

Registration is not required; this is a drop-in program. We invite attendees to offer financial support for our visiting teachers through the practice of dana (generosity). All are welcome regardless of ability to pay.

• Fee: $5-10, plus dana for teachers.

Wednesday Evening Program schedule

• 6:30 – 7:15: Evening Sit
• 7:15 – 7:30: Mindful Break
• 7:30 – 8:45: Dharma Talk

You are welcome to attend just the sit, just the talk, or both. Please note that the doors to the meditation hall will be closed at 6:35 for the Evening Sit and at 7:35 for the Dharma Talk.

The Wisdom of Vulnerability
A residential practice and study retreat with Chris at Barre Center for Buddhist Studies

April 4-7, 2019

Scholarships of 50% for those under 32. Other scholarship requests can be made directly to BCBS.

Registration: Barre Center for Buddhist Studies

Course Description:
The Buddha himself, despite his spiritual achievements, endured human predicaments and difficulties. This course examines the Buddhist ideal of a life beyond suffering alongside the reality of day-to-day living, balancing the Buddha’s radical optimism with the practical concerns of our human lives: physical and emotional health challenges, past regrets and future desires, social injustice, relational challenges, and enduring questions related to finding and sustaining purpose in our life. Through this approach we learn to appreciate our own vulnerability, empathically acknowledge it in others, and allow it to bring us closer to our own freedom while creating caring communities where connection, compassion, and mutual support encourage each other’s awakening. Combining meditation and sutta study with dialogue and relational mindfulness practices, we will co-create an experience that merges the clarity of wisdom with the acceptance of compassion.

Learning intentions:
• Recognize how self-judgment and doubt can arise in response to archetypal images of progress on the Buddhist path.
• Understand Buddhism’s ideal of cessation (freedom from suffering), while experiencing the value of vulnerability in serving that goal.
• Promote self-awareness and empathic connection amongst group members through relational mindfulness practice.
• Understand how vulnerability can be practiced and expressed through three modes of action: body, speech, and mind.
• Integrate two modes of understanding: relative and absolute.
• Recognize and become familiar with sutta passages that convey both the ideal of going beyond suffering and the inevitable human task of embracing suffering.

Attachment and Non-Attachment: The Dharma of Relationship
with Chris Crotty, M.A. & Julia Barry, LMFT, SEP 

Date TBD

Registration: Boston Meditation Center

One of the basic tenants of Buddhist practice is that attachment causes suffering. Western psychology promotes secure attachment in relationship as central to physical, emotional and psychological well being, health and happiness. How do we resolve this paradox? How do we resolve our need for deep connection in relationship alongside our wish for the deep happiness espoused by Buddhist teachings? How can meditation help us achieve greater ease, skill, and satisfaction in our relationships?  

In this program we will explore Buddhist teachings on impermanence and not-self, as well as attachment theory, which addresses how our early childhood relationships inform our adult views and behaviors. The format will include meditation instruction, Buddhist and western teachings on attachment, and relational mindfulness practices.  

We are all in relationship, whether it be intimate partnership, family, friendship or community – all are welcome and encouraged to attend this program! This program will serve as a foundation for future programs focusing on Buddhism, meditation, and relationship and is recommended for anyone who may want to further their practice and understanding in these disciplines.

Teachers
Chris Crotty
Julia Barry, LMFT, SEP