Wise Dharma Perspectives with Winnie Nazarko

Wise Dharma Perspectives:
An Online Retreat with Winnie Nazarko

Meditation is an important part of the 8 Fold Path, but it’s not the whole path. Nor is it the whole of life. We practice on the cushion, but then there is everything else in our lives, including making choices about what to do in difficult situations. Action is often required and decisions must be made.

If the Dharma disappears when we are off the cushion, our life is split. Mindfulness is key, yet as Ajahn Cha says, “mindfulness alone is not enough.” As practitioners, we wish to have our life choices align with the principles of Dharma. But can we bring them forward when we need them?

There are particular Buddhist teachings which are core in guiding our life as we move through the world. This retreat will review and reflect upon these, and how they may be applied. This will refresh and make conscious the context in which we determine what is skillful and on-ward leading.

Retreat Format:

• Welcome/Introductions
• Meditation, with Instructions
• Dharma Talk
• Discussion/ Inquiry and Response
• Closing Sit

Winnie Nazarko, currently a guiding teacher at Insight Meditation Society, realized after her first meditation retreat with Stephen and Ondrea Levine in 1981 that she had touched something deeply truthful, although she couldn’t quite describe it. It did, however, seem to do with transparency of being, equanimity, and lack of fear.

Her intensive dharma search and practice brought her into connection with many outstanding teachers, including Joseph Goldstein, Sharon Salzberg, Steve Armstrong and Kamala Masters, and Jack Kornfield, from whom she came to appreciate the very individual ways the Dharma is expressed through the prism of specific personalities and life experience.

Winnie’s own orientation to practice is rooted in a background in human services work with issues of violence and hunger and the desire to relieve human suffering. In 1998, she was asked to teach by Joseph Goldstein. She does so to help people open their full potential, in the interest of their own happiness and well-being and for the benefit of others who their lives affect.

Winnie’s teaching, rooted in the Eight Fold Path, has particular emphasis on aligning motivation with the student’s highest and wisest aspiration. Letting go (renunciation) and self-compassion are taught as essential in approaching and supporting practice. Meditation instructions draw from a variety of approaches, including the Mahasi style and its use of noting, and U Tejaniya’s emphasis on developing awareness of attitude of mind, and instruction which works with the actual experiences students are having, rather than insisting one method of practice works in all cases.

Please register below and be sure to select the number of people for whom you are registering.