For thousands of years people have cultivated mindfulness as a complete path to awakening. Contemporary research reveals how mindfulness improves attention, reduces stress, and increases health, well being and the capacity for happiness. Mindful awareness allows you to be attentive in the present moment with the quality of acceptance, spaciousness and equanimity. It is the foundation for living with wisdom and compassion and is the seed from which springs much joy and peace. On this day you will learn the foundations of mindfulness that enable you to live with a clear and wakeful presence in every aspect of your life. We will explore this innate quality of awareness and what interferes with establishing this mindful presence. Participants will learn to cultivate awareness through accessible yet profound meditations on the breath, the body, and how to work with emotions and thoughts that can hamper our well being. You will also learn how mindful awareness provides the basis for insight and freedom.

How to bring your metta practice alive in the midst of the inevitable cycles of difficulty and purification. Stories, poems, practices and tools to help us "keep going".

What are the hindrances to meditation - how do they manifest and how do we develop a skillful compassionate and wise relationship to them.

The Neurology of Awakening, with Rick Mendius: The latest brain research has begun to confirm the central insights of the Buddha and other great teachers. And it's suggesting ways you can help your brain to enter deeper states of mindfulness and concentration, love, and happiness. Suffering, joy, and freedom all depend on what happens within your nervous system. Skillful practice thus means being skillful with your own brain. This experiential workshop offers user-friendly information with lots of practical methods. No background in neuroscience or mindfulness is needed. We'll cover: --- The relationship between the mind and the brain; --- Strengthening neural factors of mindfulness; --- The role of concentration in Buddhist practice; --- Practical help from brain research for steadying the mind...quieting it... and bringing it to singleness. Learning Objectives for participating health care professionals- This workshop is designed to help you: a) Name two mechanisms of experience-dependent neuroplasticity; b) Give clients two examples of how repeated mental activity changes brain structure; c) Describe temperamental variations in the control of attention; d) Teach clients two ways to practice mindfulness.

Finding compassion & balance amidst the wild & beautiful changes of Life...

Dharma practice shows us how to awaken to the stillness of the unmoving mind, where joys and sorrows move freely through our heart.