Matthew Brensilver, MSW, PhD, serves on the Guiding Teachers Committee and Board of Directors at Spirit Rock Meditation Center. He was previously Program Director for Mindful Schools and for more than a decade, was a core teacher at Against the Stream Buddhist Meditation Society. Each summer, he lectures at UCLA’s Mindful Awareness Research Center on the intersections between mindfulness, science and mental health. Before committing to teach meditation full-time, he spent years doing research on addiction pharmacotherapy at the UCLA Center for Behavioral and Addiction Medicine. He is the co-author of two books about meditation during adolescence.
These recordings are available publicly from a retreat held in person at Big Bear Retreat Center. Learn more about the center and upcoming offerings for retreats in nature, gathered in community.
bigbearretreatcenter.org/upcoming-retreats/
Healing the Self, Loving the Self, Forgetting the Self
Matthew Brensilver
July 9 - 13, 2024
Co-sponsored by Insight Retreat Center (IRC) and Big Bear Retreat Center
In this silent retreat, we explore how mindfulness supports the healing of the self.
Many of the Buddhist teachings help us to tend to painful memory, old pains and the habits that compound suffering. As we become more gentle and loving towards experience, the self becomes less and less of a preoccupation. The more completely we accept ourselves, the easier it becomes to forget the self and rest in an awareness unencumbered by self-consciousness.
This retreat includes sitting and walking meditation instructions, and dharma talks.
William James said that death was the ‘worm at the core’ of the human condition that turns us all into ‘melancholy metaphysicians.’ A century later, awareness of mortality is documented to affect our thinking and emotional lives in powerful ways. It figures prominently in Buddhist practice.
In what ways does consciousness of death distorts our view and lead us away from wisdom and compassion? Alternatively, how can we open to the truth of finitude such that our heart is softened? Can we intuit the freedom or love that might be released were we more deeply at peace with our mortality?
In this evening program, we’ll consider the way death can harden or soften our heart – and how dharma practice might lead us to a life that feels complete. All are welcome.
Meditation practice cultivates a diverse set of attentional, emotional and introspective skills.
Central to the practice of mindfulness is the stabilization of attention. But before our attention stabilizes, practice can be overstimulating.
This talk will explore the process through which the mind comes to rest. In developing this steadiness, equanimity (the capacity to fully permit the flow of both pleasure and pain) is a vital skill.
We will see how concentration and equanimity reinforce each other and support a deeper understanding of ourselves. And how this stability, in turn, makes space for the heart to respond with joy and compassion.
Meditation practice cultivates a diverse set of attentional, emotional and introspective skills.
Central to the practice of mindfulness is the stabilization of attention. But before our attention stabilizes, practice can be overstimulating.
This talk will explore the process through which the mind comes to rest. In developing this steadiness, equanimity (the capacity to fully permit the flow of both pleasure and pain) is a vital skill.
We will see how concentration and equanimity reinforce each other and support a deeper understanding of ourselves. And how this stability, in turn, makes space for the heart to respond with joy and compassion.
