Beyond Distraction: VIMC Half Day Retreat with Shaila Catherine

Name: Beyond Distraction: VIMC Half Day Retreat with Shaila Catherine
Start: 2023-12-09T13:00:00-05:00
End: 2023-12-09T16:00:00-05:00
Location: Online

Saturday December 9, 2023
1:00 – 4:00PM Eastern

Author and meditation teacher Shaila Catherine will share teachings from her newest book, and respond to questions from the community. Beyond Distraction: Five Practical Ways to Focus the Mind introduces five pragmatic strategies drawn from the Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha. The strategies of replacing, examining, ignoring, investigating, and resolving can help you overcome distraction in meditation and develop clarity in relationships, work, and daily life. You can learn to unlock the incredible capacities of your mind to think clearly, reflect deeply, discern reality, and know what is actually happening in your life. By training the mind, you develop skills to recognize the nature of your own mind and free yourself from rumination, restlessness, worry, and other habitual thought patterns.

Shaila Catherine is the founder of Bodhi Courses, an online Dhamma classroom, and Insight Meditation South Bay, a Buddhist meditation center in Silicon Valley. She began practicing meditation in 1980, studied with masters in India, Thailand, and Nepal, spent more than nine years in silent retreat, taught meditation internationally since 1996, and authored three books on mindfulness, concentration, jhana, and insight. Her first book, Focused and Fearless: A Meditator’s Guide to States of Deep Joy, Calm, and Clarity, introduces the deep concentration practices of jhāna. Her second book, Wisdom Wide and Deep: A Practical Handbook for Mastering Jhāna and Vipassanā, makes the systematic practices taught by Pa-Auk Sayadaw accessible to western practitioners. Her third book, Beyond Distraction: Five Practical Ways to Focus the Mind, teaches skills to overcome restless thinking, rumination, and obstructive habitual patterns. Shaila’s teachings emphasize deep samadhi, jhāna, and the path of liberating insight.

Registration and Dana

The registration fee supports Vermont Insight and in addition, it is customary to make a donation to the teacher in appreciation for the teachings. AND We continue to offer the teachings freely to all who would benefit. Your practice is a gift to us all. When you register, please select from the fee levels listed below, including fee waiver if that is appropriate.

Teacher Dana The teachings of the Buddha have been offered freely for 2600 years. In keeping with the Buddhist tradition, our teachers offer their time and guidance as a gift. In turn, Sangha members express gratitude by offering dana to the teachers and to the Center. Read more about the Buddhist tradition of generosity»

A link will be sent to participants so they can make a Gratitude offering (Dana) to the teacher or visit our donation page»

The Zoom link will be sent after the registrations close the day before the event. Registrations close at noon and by 5 pm an email will be sent to ALL who are registered with information about the event, including the Zoom link.

If you have not received the retreat detail letter by 5 pm on the day before the retreat, check your Junk/Spam/Promotions Mail folders. TECH TIP: try adding information@vermontinsight.org to your contacts, to keep our emails from going to junk.

Please register below and be sure to select the number of people for whom you are registering. (You can change your mind, but it might be nice for the teacher to have a rough idea of how many will be in the Zoom room.)