Chris on Personal Retreat – Maine – Sept 8-18

I will be on personal retreat and not teaching Sept 8-18.  I look forward to seeing you upon my return.

North Shore Center for Mindfulness & Insight Meditation

Date: Wed. Sept 20
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.

Awakened Heart: Integrating Wisdom and Compassion
Half-day meditation retreat

Saturday, Sept 23
12:30-4:00pm
$35 (w/ option for teacher dana)

More info and registration: Against the Stream Boston

Wisdom, represented by clarity and understanding, is half of the Buddhist Path. The other half is compassion, the ability to relate to our whole life with care. In this half-day retreat, we will explore how wisdom and compassion can be integrated and nurtured together, through periods of sitting and walking meditation, and silence. This retreat offers an opportunity to develop an understanding of how to bring our whole life into our meditation practice, and how we can bring our meditation out into the world.

https://www.againstthestream.org/centers/santa-monica/

Date: Wed. Sept 27
Time: 7:30-9:00pm

Against the Stream Buddhist Meditation Society, Santa Monica, CA
1001a Colorado Ave

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 Against the Stream.

Against the Stream San Francisco

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 Against the Stream San Francisco.

Just This: Waking up to the Truth of Your own Life
Half-day Insight meditation retreat

Saturday, Sept 30

Against the Stream San Francisco

Causes of emotional distress and suffering are subtle and hard to see.  Ironically, freedom from suffering is not a complicated path.  The depth of the Buddha’s liberation teachings are in their simplicity: radical transformation is found in our capacity to be with experience as it is; we don’t need to change anything.  Despite this, its easy to fall into the habit of using meditation to get away from certain experiences or to try and fix our life, compromising our ability to experience the present moment directly.  This half-day retreat will explore the highest ideal of Buddhist teachings – freedom from suffering – through mindfulness and an emphasis on ease and self-acceptance.

Quiet Mind, Open Heart: Autumn Insight Meditation Retreat
with Chris Crotty

October 6-9, 2017 (3 nights)

Registration: Against the Stream Boston

Location: Angels Rest Retreat, Leydon, MA (http://www.angelsrestretreat.com/)

Investment:
$395 base
$440 Sustaining
$490 Supporting
$340 Camping
(space limited, early registration recommended)

Retreat is an integral practice on the Buddhist path, where for a period of time you dedicate yourself fully to developing meditation and wholesome mental qualities while being supported by community, nature, and daily Dharma teachings.  Join guiding-teacher Chris Crotty for Against the Stream Boston’s annual autumn residential retreat emphasizing mindfulness and the development of insight, the mind’s natural capacity to understand the pathway to calm and contentment. Loving-kindness (metta) meditation will also be included.

Open to first-time retreatants and those with retreat experience. Retreat will include meditation instructions, sitting and walking meditation, silence, and wholesome meals in a quiet, natural setting.  This retreat provides and opportunity to connect with nature, slow down, and enter more fully into your own exploration of the the Buddhist path, while being supported by teacher guidance and community.

Johnson State College Wellness & Alternative Medicine Department.

Oct 14&15; 21&22

Course: Living the Good Life: Practicing Health and Wellbeing (3-credits)

Professor Chris Crotty, M.A.

The emphasis of this course is to expand and refine a theoretical understanding of stress and wellness by combining study with experiential learning focused on the actualization of stress reduction. Students will assess their own life-style conditions that support or undermine health, while learning through direct experience specific ways to transform unhealthy behavior patterns through mindfulness, self-awareness, connection to nature, and easy to learn evidence-based skills for emotional regulation and stress reduction. You will explore a variety of mind-body techniques including meditation, yoga postures, and yogic breathing. You will experience the healing power of nature through ceremony, nature-based Rites of Passage, and medicine walks. The goal of this course is for you to gain skills necessary to begin, refine, or deepen your own spiritual life, while developing insight into compassionate and skillful ways to contribute to a globally conscious and sustainable lifestyle of health and wellbeing. This course will also prepare you to bring greater presence, ease, and sustained care to personal and professional relationships in your life.

http://www.jsc.edu

Cultivating Kindness: The Power & Protection of Metta
On-line meditation course with Chris Crotty

Dates: October 11, 18, 25; November 1, 8, 15 (Wednesdays)
Time: 7:30-9:00pm eastern/4:30-6:00pm pacific
Investment: $99 (scholarship); $150 (sustaining); $200 (supporting)

This on-line course offers an opportunity to study and practice metta (loving-kindness) meditation according to the Visuddhimagga, a critical Buddhist commentary. With one week dedicated to each category of metta, this course will guide you through the traditional stages of loving-kindness, the Buddha’s central heart practice.  With an emphasis on cultivation (bhavana)  the course integrates daily practice, personal reflection, individual support and group discussion, and strategies for dealing with obstacles and resistance, to support you in developing your understanding and experience of the metta mind-state.  We will also explore the fruits of loving-kindness personally, relationally, and socially, along with metta’s relationship to insight and wisdom. This is an excellent and supportive way to begin or deepen your daily meditation practice, while studying one of Buddhism’s most comprehensive meditation manuals.

Included in course:
• Six-week meditation curriculum with instructions for daily practice

• Comprehensive overview of metta and its role on the Buddhist path

• Introduction to the Visuddhimagga: The Path of Purification

• Weekly handouts with core teachings & supplementary reading

• Weekly question & answer session, including individual instruction

• Weekly reflection questions based on the metta sutta

• Engagement with others and teacher support

Technology requirements: This course will use on-line platform Zoom, that is free to you, and easy to use. Prior to each class you will receive an invitation via email, containing a link providing access to the class. Zoom is similar to using Skype, but it allows for more people to participate and for the teacher to display “handouts” on the screen. If for some reason you don’t have computer access for a class, a phone number will be provided that you can use to call in.  All class sessions will be recorded in case you miss a class, or want access to the material after the scheduled class time.

Kindhearted Attention: Metta Meditation day-Retreat
with Chris Crotty

Insight Meditation Center Newburyport (IMCN)
Saturday, November 4
900am–500pm

Loving-kindness meditation (metta) is the central heart practice that was taught by the Buddha.  The metta mind-state can be cultivated systematically, and when fully developed, the mind is cool and calm, without hostility and naturally friendly to self and others.  When the mind is infused with metta an attitude of benevolence pervades.  In this way, metta is known as a protection, guarding the mind from unwholesome thoughts, replacing them with caring intentions.  In this retreat, we will explore metta meditation as both a concentration practice and generative practice, emphasizing calm, tranquility, and kindness.

This day-long retreat consists of meditation instructions, alternating periods of sitting and walking meditation, silence, and will conclude with a question and answer session providing individualized instruction to support you in continuing your metta practice after the program.

Knowing How to Know: Discernment & Wisdom on the Buddhist Path
A meditation and study retreat with Chris Crotty 

Date TBD
9:30am-5:00pm
Investment: $45 (scholarship); $65 (sustaining); $85 (supporting) plus teacher dana

Info & Registration: Against the Stream Boston

Wisdom knows what is right, true, and beneficial, and the clarity it provides shows us the way to greater well-being and ultimately, freedom.  Before real learning can occur however, certain factors need to be in place: trust in ourselves, a clear goal, and a basic sense of direction.  This program, combining periods of meditation, study, and personal reflection, explores classical teachings and Buddhist principles on the development of wisdom, including guidelines to begin or deepen your study of the Buddha’s teachings, and practical skills to support you in bringing those teachings into your meditation practice and daily life.

This program will offer beginners and experienced practitioners a way of conceptualizing and beginning the integration of practice and study in their own life.  Knowing How To Know is the foundation program for future meditation and study retreats with Chris Crotty, and is strongly recommended for anyone who may want to take classes in the future that integrate practice and study.

Topics will include:
•  A Buddhist theory of learning focused on the development of wisdom

•  The Three Jewels:  navigating our relationship to the teacher, the community, and the practice

•  Awareness and Agency: understanding why you are the most important source of knowledge

•  Classical teachings: anatta (not self), anicca (impermanence), dukkha (unsatisfactoriness/suffering), lobha (greed), dosa (hatred), avijja (delusion)

Finding Freedom and Ease: A Weekend Insight Meditation Retreat

January 12-14

Investment:
Residential option: $250 IMCN Members/$300 Non-members
Commuters: $150 IMCN Members/$250 Non-members
Saturday only: $80 Members/$90 Non-Members.  (On the IMCN website please go to Weekend Single Day Retreats to register online for this option).

Info and Registration: Against the Stream Boston and Insight Meditation Center Newburyport

Through insight meditation we calm the mind and investigate the root cause of suffering.  Genuine freedom we learn, is not a complicated path, despite the confusion we may experience in our life.  The depth of the Buddha’s liberation teachings are in their simplicity: radical transformation is found in our capacity to be with experience as it is; we don’t need to change anything. This weekend retreat will explore the highest ideal of Buddhist teachings – freedom from suffering – through mindfulness meditation and an emphasis on ease and self-acceptance.

Open to those new to retreat and ongoing practitioners.  Retreat will include meditation instruction, sitting and walking meditation, dharma talks and individual interviews.

Please note beds at the residence range from regular style to roll-away beds and will be assigned as fully paid registrations come in.  When the regular beds are filled, we will then start assigning the roll away beds. There is a limited number of beds at the residence, so get your registrations in early.

Cancellation/Refund Policy
Due to the high fixed cost of this weekend retreat, a full refund, minus $50 processing fee, will be given for cancellations up to two weeks prior to the retreat (December 29th).  50% of your retreat fee will be refunded if you cancel after December 29th, and no refunds will be given for cancellations occurring after 12:00 pm on January 10th..  This policy applies to both the Residential Retreat and Commuter Retreat prices.

For the Saturday only retreat fees, the above policies apply regarding refunds, with the exception that the processing fee will be $25.

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.

The Body’s Way to Wisdom
Mindfulness Yoga & Meditation Retreat

Location: BLDG7 Yoga, Wyomissing, PA
Date: March 4, 2018
Time: 10-2pm

Registration: http://bldg7yoga.com

Description: Yoga and Buddhism share the same aim – the liberation of body, mind, and heart.  Postures and breath practice support the body for meditation, and mindfulness enables a more intentional, awareness-based yoga. When integrated, asana and meditation foster self-awareness and insight into the conditions that support greater well-being and personal freedom. This half-day retreat includes alternating periods of yoga postures and guided meditation, and is aimed at helping students expand their understanding of the deepest potential of Buddhist practice and Hatha yoga.

Yoga sessions will be accessible to all-levels of experience and will combine yin, Kripalu, and viniyoga.  Meditation instructions based on the Satipatthana Sutta will guide both beginners and experienced practitioners through the Four Foundations of Mindfulness.

This program is open to anyone who wants to integrate Hatha yoga and Buddhist practice, yoga students who want to begin or develop their meditation practice, and yoga teachers from all traditions who want to experience effective strategies for practicing and teaching with greater presence and ease.

Dharma Talk & Meditation
Friday, March 23
7:00-8:30pm
Drop-in class (no registration)

The Noble Truth of Freedom: Insight that Destroys Suffering
1/2 day retreat

Saturday, March 24
10:00am-3:00pm

Through insight meditation (vipassana) we calm the mind and investigate the root cause of suffering.  Through practice, we learn that genuine freedom is not a complicated path, despite the confusion we experience in our own life.  The depth of the Buddha’s liberation teachings are in their simplicity: radical transformation is found in our capacity to be with experience as it is; we don’t need to change anything!  This day-long retreat will explore the highest ideal of Buddhist teachings – freedom from suffering – through simple meditation techniques and an emphasis on ease and self-acceptance.

Beginners and experienced practitioners welcome

Metta Meditation Retreat
with Sayadaw U Inndaka, May Mint Oo, Chris Crotty

Details
May 30-June 6, 2018

• Co-sponsored by Against the Stream Boston (ATSb) and Insight Meditation Center of Newburyport (IMCN)
• Retreat Location: 443 Middle Street, West Newbury, MA 01985

Registration: Against the Stream Boston

Description
For the Third year in a row, Burmese meditation master Sayadaw U Inndaka is joining Chris Crotty to offer a residential retreat on the East Coast. This seven-night silent retreat will offer instruction in metta or loving-kindness meditation, and will include periods of sitting and walking meditation, dharma talks, and one-on-one teacher interviews. This retreat is suitable for both beginning and experienced meditators, and will be held at IMCN’s beautiful rural meditation center in West Newbury, Massachusetts.  

Sayadaw U Inndaka is from Myanmar (Burma) and was ordained in 1972 by Mahagandhayon Sayadaw. In 1976 he practiced vipassana meditation in the Mahasi Meditation Centre in Mandalay, where he was taught by Chanmyay Sayadaw. Some years later he went to the Chanmyay Yeiktha Meditation Center in Yangon, Myanmar, where he was commissioned to teach meditation. Since 2004 he has been the sayadaw (head monk) of the Chanmyay Myaing Meditation Center, which has locations near Yangon and Mandalay. His books on the practice of metta meditation and the factors of enlightenment have been translated into English and German.

May Myint Oo (Mimmi), Sayadaw U Inndaka’s translator, has been practising meditation since 1992. She sat intensive retreats for many years at the Chanmyay Yeiktha Meditation Center, where she studied under Sayadaw U Janaka and was a volunteer translator and assistant to meditators. Since 2004 she has translated on a volunteer basis for Sayadaw U Inndaka at Chanmyay Myaing Meditation Center and on his teaching trips to Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, India, Switzerland, Germany, the United States, and elsewhere. She has also translated many of his writings.

Chris Crotty is the guiding teacher of Against the Stream Boston. He met Sayadaw U Inndaka in 2010 while sitting the traditional three-month “rains retreat” at Chanmyay Myaing Meditation Center, Yangon, Myanmar. Chris continues to practice with Sayadaw U Inndaka both in Myanmar and the United States.

* Against the Stream Boston is committed to ensuring that the Dharma is available to everyone – Please contact us if cost is prohibitive.

East Coast Insight Meditation Retreat
with Chris Crotty, JoAnna Harper, Vinny Ferraro

Dates TBD
Dharma Drum Retreat Center (DDRC)
Pine Bush, New York

Registration: Against the Stream Buddhist Meditation Society

Cost
$685 – 1,085 (sliding scale).  Anything you pay above the lowest amount on the sliding scale will support help to support our scholarship program and is tax-deductible.  All rooms are single rooms with shared bathrooms.

Limited scholarships available for a minimum of $385.  We currently have limited scholarship funds available and may not be able to support all who need a scholarship to attend. Please consider making payment arrangements if you need support to attend the retreat. If you are interested, please contact us. Download the forms to apply for a scholarship.

The teachers and staff (cooks and retreat manager) are offering their services on a dana basis and you will be given the opportunity to offer dana for them at the end of the retreat. Please feel free to write if you have any additional questions about this.

This retreat is eligible for the following Hemera Fellowships:
Educators
Healthcare Professionals
Artists

Retreat Description
At this Insight Meditation retreat, we focus our attention on breath, body, heart and mind.  The instructions will be based on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness, in combination with exercises in lovingkindness and compassion.  Each day will include periods of sitting and walking meditation,  dharma talks and interviews.

This retreat is suitable for both beginning and experienced dharma students.