A Year of Mindfulness

Mindfulness is a capacity of awareness identified by the Buddha 2,600 years ago. It has very recently become adapted and popular as a technique and tool for healing and living more fully. This intensive program will explore some of the foundational teachings of the Buddha to help you uncover the ultimate aim of mindfulness: investigating and dismantling that which stands in the way of living with courage and an open heart so we can engage in the world with inner peace, compassion, and joy.

REQUIREMENTS:

Commitment to daily 30-45 minute sitting meditation, 2-3 hours per week of reading and journalling, daily life mindfulness exercises or contemplations, curiosity, and undertaking to train in ethical conduct.

The curriculum includes practices and material emailed weekly, a monthly check in with the teacher (plus support as needed), and once a week guided meditation. It is advisable that you additionally attend two short or one long silent retreat(s) at some point during the year.

NOTE: Spots are limited; please sincerely consider whether the above commitment is possible for you before applying.

A $100 registration fee covers administration and supports CMM. These teachings are shared freely so that anyone can receive them regardless of financial means. Monthly Dana is welcome and encouraged as an opportunity to consciously practice generosity and gratitude.

DESCRIPTION:

Many of us in lake country have experienced the blissful contentment of paddling a canoe in calm water. The paddle quietly pulls through the silken water and the canoe slips forward with ease. Life can feel like this. Ultimately, it is like this, but life is also constantly renewing itself and the winds of change can make for turbulent waters. We react to this inevitability of change with sorrow, anxiety, and anger. We unintentionally increase our suffering and that of others because our reactivity only adds to the turbulence. A less obvious fact is that we are often reacting to our ideas and projections about what is happening.

In this year of mindfulness, we will commit to daily practices, meditations, and reflections that unearth and investigate these patterns of reactivity. Many sages across the centuries have suggested that we find the place within us that is free of fear. This is because fear is the root of greed, hatred, and confusion. To be clear, life requires us to be engaged, to act and interact, and therefore, our “problems” will not go away. Instead, we gradually become able to meet whatever comes our way and embrace what it has to teach us.

There is, remarkably, as the Buddha promised, a direct path to a clear mind and heart, lasting happiness, an end to suffering, and the realization of freedom. He promised this to monastics, but he advised lay folk as well. To all, he said that the effort to discover this for yourself will produce fruit, and the right kind of effort is important. We will apply some of his and other sages’ key teachings including Mindfulness of Breathing, The Four Foundations of Mindfulness, The Four Noble Truths, and The Noble Eightfold Path.

Let us embark on making these discoveries for ourselves!

ABOUT THE TEACHER:

Sarah Carlin-Ball is one of several sangha leaders with the Muskoka Mindfulness Community mentoring with its founding Dharma teacher, Bill Knight. She also works with Mala Sikka and Terry Hagan, core teachers at The Dharma Centre of Canada. She completed a year of teacher training, the equivalent of a one-year retreat, and subsequent two years of training with non-dual teacher, Matt Flickstein. Life is her main teacher and her main teaching is that even the challenges are gifts and precious opportunities.