Schedule

2024

Meditation Mentoring Program

Meditation Mentoring Program (MMP)

Chris is currently working individually with students through his Meditation Mentoring Program, which now includes a monthly group meditation practice period and discussion.

This group is intentionally kept small, and requires an application. Currently there are a few spaces available.

Meditation Mentoring Program

Heart of Refuge – BCBS – Nov 2024–Feb 2025

Heart of Refuge: A Winter Immersion in the Triple Gem

Program Dates:
-Retreat I: November 1-6, 2024
-Retreat II: January 31 – February 5, 2025

Barre Center for Buddhist Studies

Program Overview
The premise of refuge is that we learn to use traditional practice forms to shelter the mind from all that hinders clear seeing, and in turn, insight that leads to our own wisdom becomes the ultimate sanctuary, sheltering us from life’s many forms of suffering while empowering us with a greater capacity for skillful living. The Heart of Refuge borrows from the tradition of taking refuge in the Triple Gem–buddha, dharma, sangha–by establishing a three-month immersive practice and study opportunity for dedicated practitioners who seek to experience the fruit of the Dharma more fully in their own lives.

Participants in The Heart of Refuge will work closely with Chris Crotty, and with each other, to establish and maintain a container for exploring the dharma which integrates the support of community, the unfolding of self-sustained practice, and teacher guidance. Throughout the program participants are provided opportunities to engage in the framework of the Triple Gem as a basis for deepening their meditation practice, and as a form for studying a wide range of Buddhist teachings with the goal of better understanding their relevance to their own personal lives. We will engage meditation practice to better understand Buddhist teachings, and learn how to use Buddhist teachings to expand our practice. With this foundation in place we will ask critical questions pertaining to the integration of the Dharma in our personal lives and the wider world.

Program Format
Participants will be supported by:

Two residential retreats at BCBS
Individualized daily meditation practice based on experience level
Reading assignments and reflection questions
Kalayanamitta (spiritual friendship) dyads (Zoom)

Retreat
Retreats will be structured thematically around the Triple Gem: buddha, dharma, sangha. These three gems will serve as an organizing principle or framework upon which a range of related dharma teachings and topics will be explored.

Residential Retreat commitment
Full participation is required in two residential retreats. Retreats will blend periods of silent meditation emphasizing the simplicity and quietude of renunciation, along with dyads, small group discussion, and teacher-led periods of reflection. All forms of mindful communication will be held in the spirit of contemplative practice, aimed at enriching both meditative development and peer relationships. It is expected that participants will eliminate the use of their phone and other forms of technology for the duration of the retreat. The last day of each retreat will include specific practices and activities to support the transition from the retreat environment to program activities that take place at home and between retreats.

Meditation commitment outside of retreat
Participants are expected to develop an on-going daily meditation practice that may include insight (vipassana), loving-kindness (metta), and the Five Recollections. Chris will work with each student to help them establish an approach to daily practice that reflects their experience level and lifestyle. Daily meditation practice between retreats can accommodate various work schedules and commitments, though students are expected to dedicate a minimum of 30 minutes per day to their meditation practice for the duration of the program. Keeping a meditation journal is encouraged.

Other Expectations This program is designed specifically to help practitioners who want to create more structure and time in their lives for dharma activities. In addition to daily meditation practice between retreats, students will be expected to complete reading assignments, engage with reflection questions by keeping a journal, and participate in dyads and group discussions. Participants should plan for two-four hours per week for these activities. (Students who are interested in spending more time studying and reading can elect to take advantage of an optional supplementary reading list).

Prerequisite: A daily meditation practice or a sincere commitment to beginning and sustaining a daily meditation practice for the duration of the program.

Who this program is for
This program is for dedicated students who meet the prerequisites and who want to:

1) Deepen their meditation practice by addressing common challenges that meditators face and gaining insight into personal habit patterns.

2) Expand their understanding of core Buddhist teachings through both self-directed and teacher-led reading and reflection. This study component of the program will emphasize discernment and focused reflection based on short readings rather than consuming a lot of material.

3) Establish and sustain a spirited and cheerful sangha aimed at mutual support. Together we will explore multiple ways to experience the Dharma by working closely with peers to co-create a learning community grounded in spiritual friendship, collaboration, and encouragement.

Retreat I Description: Taking Refuge in the Buddha & Dharma

This retreat has two components:

Component one examines the archetype of Buddha as a representation of one’s own awakened potential, and as a starting point to consider how those of us practicing today might find in the legacy and teachings of the historical Buddha time-tested guidance to cultivate our own mind. Examples will also be drawn from the spiritual biographies of other notable practitioners. This component will also look to the story of the Buddha’s encounters with aging, sickness, and death in order to better understand their relationship to aspiration and motivation.

Component two explores the ideal of living in accordance with the dharma, described in the suttas as “subtle and hard to see.” How do we live and practice in accordance with something subtle and hard to see and not yet fully realized? This component explores the whole of the Dharma as an integrated system of practice, study, and personal reflection that leads to a way of seeing and perceiving self, others, and the world around us, which leads to greater freedom. Though we “study” the Dharma this retreat will ultimately support students to recognize their own direct experience as the greatest source of insight.

Retreat II Description: Taking Refuge in the Sangha and The Wider World

This retreat has two components:

Component one explores the potential of sangha, the community of practitioners who support each other’s progress on the Path. More broadly we will reflect on the role of relationships (work, family, friendships) in our lives to provide valuable–and sometimes challenging–opportunities to see and transform our habits. In this way, relationships become vehicles for transforming our mind and heart, improving our ability to engage all of life with greater equanimity and joy. In this retreat we will also consider the role of loving-kindness and compassion in the formation of skillful relationships and in the purification of our own mind.

Component two delves deeply into the question, what does it mean to live in accordance with the dharma? This stage in the program will offer opportunities to focus on incorporating what we have learned through The Heart of Refuge (as well as how we have learned) with the aim of setting well-considered intentions for furthering one’s relationship to the Dharma beyond the program. Using journaling, dyads, small groups, and teacher-led discussion, we will carefully and systematically reflect on our own practice throughout three months. As part of the final retreat each student will have the opportunity to reexamine the traditional model of taking refuge in the three jewels in light of their own experience Both individually, and together as a community, we will support each other in establishing supportive guidelines for continuing to live and practice in a way that is both personally meaningful and aligned with the highest goals of Buddhist practice.

Dates for teacher led online meetings (Zoom)

Tuesday evenings, 6:00-8:00pm EST

Nov 19, Dec 3, Dec 17, Jan 7, Jan 21

Peer dyads (two per month) will be scheduled on the weeks between teacher led sessions

Becoming a Metta Person Retreat – CfMIM – Dec 7

Becoming a Metta Person: Loving-Kindness Meditation Retreat

Dec 7, 2025
9:00am–4:30pm

Info and Registration at The Center for Mindfulness & Insight Meditation Wenham

Description
At the monasteries in Burma (Myanmar) one sometimes hears about a metta–person, a person whose unique and highly developed metta, loving–kindness, radiates undeniably. In that culture a metta–person is held in high regard, talked about with great affection, admired, and is a living example of the powers of metta meditation and of goodwill more broadly.

In this day-long retreat we will practice metta meditation (loving–kindness meditation) as outlined in the Visuddhimagga: The Path of Purification, through sitting and walking meditation, supported by dhamma reflections that emphasize the qualities and characteristics of a well established “metta-–mind”.

This retreat is open to beginners and experienced meditators; everyone is welcome and encouraged to attend. This retreat will offer sitting meditation and the option to practice walking meditation outdoors in the quiet tree-bordered property at CfMIM. Tea, coffee, and light snacks will be offered.

2025

Being Free: Winter Residential Retreat – Wisdom House, CT – March 20–24

Being Free: Winter Residential Retreat
March 20–24, 2025 (4 nights)

For Registration and Info click here

The Centers for Mindfulness & Insight Meditation in Wenham, Massachusetts, and Redding, Connecticut, will team up to hold a five-day (four-night) insight meditation retreat at the Wisdom House retreat center, which is situated on 54 acres of meadows, woods, and brooks in the beautiful northwest hills of Connecticut.

Retreat offers the opportunity to reduce distractions that hinder the mind, in turn allowing the mind to relax, becoming both attentive and aware. As practitioners have done for thousands of years, while on retreat we reside within the supportive structure of sangha (community) and take as a primary refuge the Dhamma, both its teachings and meditation practices.

Being Free: Winter Residential Retreat will include instructions in the five recollections* as a foundation for insight meditation (vipassana). Dhamma talks and teacher reflections will explore stories of early practitioners from Buddhist literature who found freedom by retreating to quiet places and turning their focus inwards. From their stories and insights we will see both evidence of profound freedom alongside practical suggestions for our own practice.

This retreat is held in noble silence and all participants are expected to remain silent throughout the retreat, with exceptions made for twice daily question and answer periods. Retreat also includes a commitment to the Five Precepts of non-harm.

* The five recollections, sometimes referred to as the “daily reflections”, help orient the mind towards samvega, an expression of aspiration that seeks freedom.

Becoming Skillful – Cambridge Insight Meditation Center – April 5–6

Becoming Skillful in Practice & Daily Life
Two-days: April 5–6
Cambridge Insight Meditation Center (CIMC)

For registration and info click here

Program Description
An underlaying premise of the Dharma is that we can become highly skillful, both in terms of our meditation practice and how we live our life. With an open mind this premise confronts us and challenges us, pointing us towards our highest potential as human beings–we can learn how to turn away from actions in body, speech, and mind which increase distress, confusion, and self–doubt, and we can learn to become more adept at wise actions that lead to confidence, freedom, and overall wellbeing.

In this retreat participants will be supported by teacher guidance, a community of peers, and continuity of practice over two days. Meditation instructions, dharma reflections, and discussion periods will explore how insight arises through vipassana meditation and culminates in the various activities that comprise our daily lives. Students will be supported in understanding universal aspects of the dharma that are “subtle and hard to see” and encouraged to contemplate how the dharma informs their own personal life circumstances.

Retreat will be held in silence with periods of mindful communication.

Schedule

2024

Meditation Mentoring Program

Meditation Class – CfMIM – Oct 2, Wed.

Heart of Refuge – BCBS – Nov 2024–Feb 2025

Meditation Class – CfMIM – Oct 12, Sat.

Meditation Class – CfMIM – Oct 19, Sat.

Meditation Class – CfMIM – Nov 9, Sat.

Meditation Class – CfMIM – Nov 23, Sat.

Meditation Class – CfMIM – Nov 27, Wed.

Becoming a Metta Person Retreat – CfMIM – Dec 7

Meditation Class – CfMIM – Dec 14, Sat.

Meditation Class – CfMIM – Dec 18, Wed.

2025

Being Free: Winter Residential Retreat – Wisdom House, CT – March 20–24

Becoming Skillful – Cambridge Insight Meditation Center – April 5–6