Thanissara, from London, was a nun for 12 years in the tradition of Ajahn Chah and has taught internationally for over 30 years. She is co-founder of Dharmagiri Sacred Mountain Retreat, South Africa, Sacred Mountain Sangha, California, and Chattanooga Insight, Tennessee. She has an MA in Mindfulness Psychotherapy Practice from the Karuna Institute UK and is co-author of Listening to the Heart, A Contemplative Guide to Engaged Buddhism, author of Time To Stand Up, An Engaged Buddhist Manifesto for Our Earth, and several books of poetry. She is a member of the Teacher Council at Spirit Rock and co-guiding teacher of Sacred Mountain Sangha.
The Mula Sutta is a profound teaching that in ten lines condenses the journey from separative consciousness to the non dual heart. Thanissara will explore the process of unfolding this journey as it moves through the dissolution of discordant and isolating narratives to deepening trust in intuitive awareness informed by the living Dharma.
Our environmental crisis is generated by an obsession with ownership and individualism that obscures the truth of our inter-dependence within a web of life. In a world divided by inequity, racism, and wars, Dharma practice shatters the illusion of dualistic consciousness, offering a new paradigm. This mini-retreat explores the process which generates divisiveness: papanca or conceptual proliferation in service of delusion. The ending of papanca reveals the unshakeable depth and the undivided nature of reality at the heart of all circumstances, revolutionizing our way of being and living — both personally and globally.
The retreat, for contemplatives and activists, is framed within depth teachings of emptiness and merciful compassion embodied by Kuan Yin Bodhisattva, who is a metaphor for our deepest, mysterious heart. It includes Dharma teachings, meditation and inquiry sessions, qi-gong, group process, psycho-spiritual exploration, and the cultivation of inner skills for activists. Besides applying the liberating practices and teaching of mindfulness and insight meditation, we will use chanting and ceremony.
Our environmental crisis is generated by an obsession with ownership and individualism that obscures the truth of our inter-dependence within a web of life. In a world divided by inequity, racism, and wars, Dharma practice shatters the illusion of dualistic consciousness, offering a new paradigm. This mini-retreat explores the process which generates divisiveness: papanca or conceptual proliferation in service of delusion. The ending of papanca reveals the unshakeable depth and the undivided nature of reality at the heart of all circumstances, revolutionizing our way of being and living — both personally and globally.
The retreat, for contemplatives and activists, is framed within depth teachings of emptiness and merciful compassion embodied by Kuan Yin Bodhisattva, who is a metaphor for our deepest, mysterious heart. It includes Dharma teachings, meditation and inquiry sessions, qi-gong, group process, psycho-spiritual exploration, and the cultivation of inner skills for activists. Besides applying the liberating practices and teaching of mindfulness and insight meditation, we will use chanting and ceremony.
Our environmental crisis is generated by an obsession with ownership and individualism that obscures the truth of our inter-dependence within a web of life. In a world divided by inequity, racism, and wars, Dharma practice shatters the illusion of dualistic consciousness, offering a new paradigm. This mini-retreat explores the process which generates divisiveness: papanca or conceptual proliferation in service of delusion. The ending of papanca reveals the unshakeable depth and the undivided nature of reality at the heart of all circumstances, revolutionizing our way of being and living — both personally and globally.
The retreat, for contemplatives and activists, is framed within depth teachings of emptiness and merciful compassion embodied by Kuan Yin Bodhisattva, who is a metaphor for our deepest, mysterious heart. It includes Dharma teachings, meditation and inquiry sessions, qi-gong, group process, psycho-spiritual exploration, and the cultivation of inner skills for activists. Besides applying the liberating practices and teaching of mindfulness and insight meditation, we will use chanting and ceremony.
Our environmental crisis is generated by an obsession with ownership and individualism that obscures the truth of our inter-dependence within a web of life. In a world divided by inequity, racism, and wars, Dharma practice shatters the illusion of dualistic consciousness, offering a new paradigm. This mini-retreat explores the process which generates divisiveness: papanca or conceptual proliferation in service of delusion. The ending of papanca reveals the unshakeable depth and the undivided nature of reality at the heart of all circumstances, revolutionizing our way of being and living — both personally and globally.
Copies of Thanissara's book, Time To Stand Up, An Engaged Buddhist Manifesto for Our Earth, will be available for purchase and can be signed by the author.
