Often we are in such a routine, it is as if we are sleepwalking through life. Together we will learn to awaken in every moment through practices in both stillness and motion, using these techniques to break down obstructive habits of thought and emotion. We will incorporate a variety of methods -- meditation, qigong, yoga, interfaith chants, and talks -- to explore our inner terrain through our outer expression. With these practices we can learn to enjoy the inherent richness of life, and be present and effective for ourselves and others by experiencing the moment just as it is -- in the midst of a world of change.

Dr. Paul Levy has studied and practiced inner work of various kinds for many years utilizing diverse modalities. His signature practice is sitting Kundalini Energy Meditation (originally developed by Swami Rudrananda aka Rudi), which he studied with his teachers, Stuart Perrin and Jagna Schwartz, for 20 years. Paul has been teaching this practice for 16 years. Paul is a doctor of chiropractic, who resides in Chicago with his wife, Nina, a certified Kundalini Yoga instructor.

This special weekend involves reading, listening to, meditating upon, and otherwise closely exploring the great eighth-century poetic text by Master Shantideva, Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life (the Bodhicaryavatara).  We will read, aloud and together, this jewel exposition of the Mahayana path, thereby softening our hearts and opening to the joys of our innate capacity for compassion and the wish to benefit others.  Professor Willis will offer explication of the text, of the practices associated with it, and the meanings of key terms as we investigate how best to engender, nourish and increase our innate compassion.   NOTE: Participants will need to have their own copies of The Way of the Bodhisattva by Shantideva and they will all need the same edition of it: that is, the Shambhala 2008 edition translated by the Padmakara Translation Group (right now, the paperbacks are available on Amazon.com, for about $12 each).

Jan Willis, Phd., is professor of Religion at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Ct. One of the earliest American scholar-practitioners of Tibetan Buddhism, she has studied with Buddhist teachers worldwide and has written extensively on Buddhist meditation, women and Buddhism, and Buddhism and race.  Among her published works are Dreaming Me: Black, Baptist and Buddhist- One Woman's Spiritual Journey and Enlightened Beings: Life Stories from the Ganden Oral Tradition. She also edited Feminine Ground: Essays on Women and Tibet. In December of 2000, Time magazine named Willis one of six “spiritual innovators for the new millennium” and in May 2007, Ebony magazine named Willis one of its “Power 150” most influential African Americans.

Awareness of breathing is the primary approach in many meditation traditions. It is both a beginning and advanced technique and can be the catalyst for profound transformation. In Buddhism it is called anapanasati, mindfulness of the breath. This is the foundation for developing presence and concentration so that we can awake in all aspects of life.
Between birth and death, we breathe. Breath is the gateway to relaxation, to balance and to letting go. It is the place where inner and outer meet, where both conscious and unconscious reside, where matter, space and spirit intermingle. In this weekend retreat, we will explore our relationship to our breath and discover how it can keep us grounded and focused in the here and now. We will use simple practices that help release the breath and deepen direct experience so that natural wisdom and open-heartedness can arise. Participants will be in Noble Silence and receive instruction in both sitting and moving meditation.

Carla Brennan is an Insight Meditation teacher in Santa Cruz, California, and offers weekly meditation groups, classes, retreats and other programs with the Bloom of the Present Sangha. She is a visiting teacher with Spirit Rock Meditation Center. Before founding Bloom of the Present in 2009, Carla taught with Vipassana Santa Cruz for five years. In addition, she regularly leads nature-based retreats to encourage her students to open to the primordial wisdom of the natural world. Carla began meditation practice in 1975 and also has extensive experience in Zen and Tibetan Buddhism; she is an artist and former psychotherapist. For more information about Carla or the Bloom of the Present Sangha: www.bloomofthepresent.com

_Whatever form our suffering takes, we can come to know it, as the Buddha said we must, if we are to find lasting relief. Feeding Your Demons, developed by Lama Tsultrim Allione, is a powerful and transformative method based on the ancient practice of Chöd. Committed work with this method reveals it as effective in experiencing the first three noble truths: understanding suffering, letting go of its cause, and realizing its cessation.

During this weekend, we will meditate, review the Four Noble Truths, practice Feeding Your Demons, share our experience, and explore how this practice can be applied to the wider scenario of suffering in the world. If you can, take some time before-hand to familiarize yourself with the demon work through the book or this 8-minute video. 

Sister Santussika is an American Therevadan Buddhist nun. She started teaching chi gong and energy healing in 1997, began teaching meditation in 1999, began guiding people through self-reflective, visualization processes for resolving suffering and stress in 2001, and completed a four-year interfaith seminary program, receiving a Master of Divinity degree in 2002. She first took robes in 2005 and ordained as a samaneri (10-precept nun) in 2010. She has trained at Amaravati and Chithurst Buddhist Monasteries in England and Aloka Vihara in San Francisco. She now resides at the One Heart Center in Los Altos Hills, California.

This workshop will begin with an introduction to Mindfulness and Insight meditation practice and then, using these basics, allow participants to explore techniques of working through difficult emotions like anger and fear to tap into a freedom of the heart and mind.  The last day will explore balance and equanimity and will include walking, sitting, standing meditation as well as group discussions, guided meditation instructions and Dhamma talks.  Throughout the retreat Bhante will discuss various components, methods and benefits of practicing mindfulness from moment to moment.

Bhante Buddharakkhita was born and raised in Uganda, Africa. He first encountered Buddhism in 1990 while in India, and he began practicing meditation in 1993. After living in Asia for seven years, Bhante decided to continue his Dhamma practice in the U.S.A. In June 2001, he began monastic training, and in November 2002 he received Higher Ordination by his Preceptor the late Venerable U Silananda at Tathagata Meditation Center, California. He continued his meditation practice under the guidance of Bhante Gunaratana for eight years at the Bhavana Society, West Virginia.    Author of Planting Dhamma Seeds: The Emergence of Buddhism on African Soil, and founder of the Uganda Buddhist Center, Uganda, he has been teaching meditation in Africa, Brazil and the United States. Besides spending time at the Buddhist Center in Uganda, Bhante is a teacher at Bhavana Society and the Spiritual Head of Flowering Lotus Meditation and Retreat Center.

Shuniya is a state of mind and consciousness where the ego is brought to stillness and the One will carry you. Shuniya is living at the still center. During this journey of communion and community, we will discover the essence of self, balance the mind, immerse and observe ourselves in awareness and healing, and experience blessings of oneness, wholeness and stillness.

Kundalini Yoga as taught by Yogi Bhajan is a yoga of awareness and energy. A Kundalini Yoga session comprises mantra (chanting and music), pranayama (breathing), mudra (hand gestures), bandha (body locks), asana (body postures), savasana (relaxation) and dhyana (meditation).

Bill Savage completed his Level One Kundalini Yoga teacher training in October 2007 in Thailand, and the five Level Two modules of Authentic Relationships, Conscious Communication, Mind & Meditation, Lifecycles & Lifestyles, and Vitality & Stress by September 2010.  Bill has worked as a math and English teacher, a professor of language and education, and has also consulted internationally as an organizational and community development facilitator with humanitarian organizations, most recently in the areas of child rights, HIV and AIDS, and maternal health.

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What would it feel like to have access to the wellspring of Wisdom within you? In this experiential retreat, a workbook is provided to help you receive inner wisdom and guidance from your most Illumined Self. Through meditation, breath, alignment techniques and other methods designed to raise your personal energy frequency, we will access the principles of pure consciousness represented by the Archangels. The power of this alignment empowers you to have a more creative and balanced life so your actions become more heart centered. Through this time together, space is provided for your spiritual practice and meditations to become radiant vehicles for nourishment and inspiration.


Since 1975, Shanta Gabriel has studied Metaphysics, Eastern Spiritual Traditions and forms of energy healing. A chance meeting with an Archangel in 1988 while on a quest to find her purpose in life, started a journey with the Angelic Dimensions that has lasted over 20 years. Shanta Gabriel is the author of The Gabriel Messages book and a card set by the same name. She regularly receives and posts practical and inspiring messages from Archangel Gabriel on her website, and in a monthly newsletter. Shanta is dedicated to bringing more Divine Light and Peace into the world through her work as a writer, a spiritual teacher and a visionary mystic. For more information, visit TheGabrielMessages.com.

__It is often said that wisdom and compassion are like two wings of a bird,working together in order to fly.  In Zen practice, how do we cultivate these qualities.  In seated meditation, Zazen, we sit upright and harmonize the breath, body and mind.  In sitting with our difficult emotions, how can we hold them with compassion?  Within our suffering, how can we see the wisdom of non-self?  In this silent retreat, we will explore the practice of zazen (seated Zen meditation).  We will cultivate the stillness that allows for insight into our true nature.  This retreat will include instruction and teachings on Zen Buddhism as well as walking meditation along with the traditional practices of bowing and chanting.  No prior experience necessary; all are welcome. 

Rev. Michaela O'Connor Bono and Rev. Koji Dreher are the resident priests and co-leaders of the Mid City Zen sangha in New Orleans.  They have been practicing Zen for almost ten years, having done most of their monastic training at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center and Green Gulch farm, which are part of the San Francisco Zen Center.  Rev.Koji was ordained in 2008 and Rev. Michaela took ordination in 2010.  Rev. Michaela is involved in prison meditation and chaplaincy work and she is on the Board of Sakyadhita USA, a branch of the International Association of Buddhist Women.

_This silent retreat to be taught by the master meditation teacher, Bhante Dhammadipa, will include meditation, Dharma talks, yoga, and walking meditation. It will be conducted entirely in English, but the Venerable's interviews with yogis can be spoken in any common language. Importantly, we ask that all yogis have the prior experience of at least a week-long retreat and have a regular meditation practice.

Bhante Dhammadipa has a gentle and easy going manner. His teaching generally follows the framework of the classic Theravada Buddhist commentary The Path of Purity (Pali: Visuddhimagga): one starts with training in the precepts (virtue) which lays the foundation for training in concentration (samatha) and then the development of wisdom (vipassana).

Bhante Dhammadipa (lay name Thomas Peter Gutman) studied under Zen Master Harada Serrei Roshi of the Soto school (Caodong in Chinese) practice. He was given a Dharma name as Xing-Kong (nature of emptiness).  In 1987, he ordained as a monk in Meetirigala and was given a Dharma name as Dhammadipa (island of Buddhism or Dharma). He received the full Theravada Bhikkhu ordination in Sri Lanka where he practiced meditation under the guidance of his preceptor, Venerable Nanarama Mahathera. In 1989, he then received ordination as a Mahayana monk in Hsi Lai Temple, Los Angeles.

In 1996, Venerable went to Myanmar to practice meditation with the contemporary master Venerable Pa Auk Sayadaw, and was recognized by the Sayadaw to be first of the Sayadaw's Western disciples qualified to teach meditation.   He has been teaching both Samatha and Vipassana meditation at monasteries and universities worldwide.  For more information and teachings by Bhante Dhammadipa visit dhammadipa.org.

_ No former experience in Tai Chi is required. Tai Chi is a gentle martial art form taught as movement meditation.   A series of movements are learned and practiced in a slow sequence sometimes called a Tai Chi dance. Researched benefits of a regular Tai Chi practice include strengthening and toning muscles, joints and bones; relieving stress; improving balance and concentration; and promoting general well being and calm.

Michael Freeman is co-founder and Spiritual Director of Southwest Sangha and has extensive experience as a retreat leader. He has lived in community for over 30 years including Lama Foundation, Bhavana Society, Insight Meditation Society and Esalen Institute.   Bhante Gunaratana was one of his many teachers including asian and western teachers.

Marilyn Yank has been a student of Tai Chi, Qi Gong, and movement meditation practices for 30 years and a teacher for the last 15. She conducts Tai Chi/Qi Gong courses at sites throughout New Orleans and is currently in a certification process with Roger Jahnke and the Institute for Integral Qi Gong and Tai Chi (IIQTC). Long time advocate and activist for increasing avenues for equitable access of fresh, local foods Marilyn also runs an urban mini farm in the heart of the city "Little Sparrow Farm". She is a co founder of  The Amma Center - a counseling and contemplative practice center and a co-founder of The New Orleans Food and Farm Network.