Unlearning Meditation: Meditation as a Container for Change
March 22-31, 2024
9 Night Retreat
with
Jason Siff
We are often taught to look at meditation as an exercise, a practice, a technique, as something to improve at, as leading to a promised goal or realization. What if sitting down to meditate is just sitting with what comes into your mind at every moment? It is resting in the river of consciousness. Not pushing that river, nor being drowned. Floating, riding, sinking, coming up for air. Like a natural river, consciousness has shores, and those banks are the mind recollecting where the river has been. When we allow mental processes to flow, change will occur, while recollection gives us the safety, awareness, and wisdom we need. Then we are unlearning meditation. And unlearning, like its shadow (“learning”), is a lifelong journey.
Jason will give Dharma Talks comparing the psychology of Early Buddhism to the later schools of Buddhism. He will offer daily group and individual interviews. At night, he will read a story from his book, “If Only I Had Listened with Different Ears.”
This 9-day retreat is suitable for people with some background in Buddhist forms of meditation. If you have any doubt as to whether you should attend this retreat, you can email the teacher.
Location: Oakwood Retreat Center – Selma, Indiana
Click Here for Driving Directions
Click Here to go to Oakwood’s Website
Cost: $1,350
Deposit: $300
Jason Siff was a Buddhist monk in Sri Lanka in the late 1980s when he first developed his unique method of Vipassana-Samatha Meditation called, “Recollective Awareness Meditation.” He has written two books on meditation published by Shambhala Publications, Unlearning Meditation: What To Do When the Instructions Get In the Way and Thoughts Are Not the Enemy. Over the past three decades, he has taught workshops and retreats for various Buddhist groups in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Europe. For nearly a decade, he taught a yearly retreat at the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies.
It is Tri-State Dharma’s mission to make retreats available to meditators from Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana and beyond. To make these retreats affordable to all who wish to attend, the fees for each retreat are slightly less than the minimum amount needed to cover our expenses. This does not take into account the scholarships that we give for almost all retreats. If you are in a position to do so, please consider making a donation to Tri-State Dharma at the end of the retreat to help us continue this work. Thank you.
Deposits are your way of saving space for the retreat. If you must back out of the retreat, we will refund half of the deposit if you cancel 6 weeks or more prior to the start of the retreat. If you cancel less than 6 weeks prior to the start of the retreat, we will retain the entire deposit unless the cancellation is medical in nature (Please, if you are ill we do not want you to come to the retreat!). If you must cancel, please let us know as soon as possible. If you have made any payments beyond the deposit, we will refund those payments in full. Thank you for not asking for the full deposit back.
The cost of the retreat covers only Tri-State Dharma’s expenses. Meditation teachers in this tradition are able to continue their work through Dana, or generous, voluntary giving by students. At retreat’s end, students have an opportunity to practice Dana by offering contributions. There is no specific contribution amount expected; give what feels right. Please think of this as an integral part of practice.
To request a scholarship please Click Here to send an e-mail to Tri-State Dharma. No one will be turned away for lack of ability to pay.