Working with Comparing Mind Hybrid Retreat with Susan Dreyer Leon

Working with Comparing Mind

Virtual Half-Day Retreat with Susan Dreyer Leon

Saturday, August 26
9:00 am -1:00 pm

Local practitioners may attend in person. Susan will teach via zoom.

Māna, the pali word often translated as “conceit” or “pride” is actually a much more subtle and complicated feature of every human personality. The concept encompasses both pride and low self-esteem. At heart, māna, is the very basic human tendency to compare one’s self with another as an ongoing process of sorting and ranking that runs as a kind of constant background program through our own minds and through most human cultures. In this half-day virtual retreat, we will explore how we might come to recognize when māna is appearing in our experience and how we can begin to work more skillfully with it once we are aware it is arising. There will be periods of sitting and walking meditation as well as small and large group discussions.

“Supported by mindful and compassionate attention, we become aware of the pull these mental habits exert on our well-being. Though awareness of māna can be humbling and discomfiting, without such awareness we are at its mercy. With awareness of this lingering companion comes the possibility of holding our limitations in wisdom and compassion, and avoiding the trap of trying to feed an insatiable hunger.” –Paul Fulton, Insight Journal (2018)