Loving Awareness: Opening the Heart Through Practice (Hybrid)
With Lama Willa Blythe Baker, Lama Liz Monson and Kim Albert
July 29 - August 4, 2024
Join us at Wonderwell Mountain Refuge for Natural Dharma Fellowship’s core summer retreat, Loving Awareness. In this week-long silent meditation retreat, we will focus on coming home to our deepest sense of being – that which lies beneath all of our self-conceptions and judgments.
When we connect to this deepest sense of being, a greater kind of love becomes possible, including compassion for the more challenging parts of ourselves and others.
This retreat takes us through four ways to know ourselves more deeply: “The Way of Allowing,” “The Way of Metaphor,” “The Way of Recognition,” and “The Way of Love.” We will discover these ways of being through daily sitting meditation, movement, meditation journaling, small group inquiry, and Dharma reflection.
Practicing the four ways helps us to see beyond the thinking mind, to the one who witnesses. We will come to understand that this witness is not a “self” in a conventional sense; it is an innate awareness. It is a vivid receptivity. It is a loving gaze on all of experience, capable of melting a sense of separation into a sense of oneness.
This Hybrid retreat is offered in person at Wonderwell (Residential option) and Live via Zoom (Online option). For more information, please choose one of the options in the YELLOW panel.
Typical Retreat Schedule
(All times are Eastern time zone)
First Day — Opening session begins around 7:00 pm.
Full-Day Schedule — Morning meditation 7:00 am; Breakfast break 8:30-10:00 am; Lunch break 12:00-2:00 pm; Dinner break 5:30-7:00 pm.
Last Day — The closing session typically ends by 12:00 pm.
These times are just for reference. An expanded schedule will be provided in pre-retreat information emailed during the week prior to the event.
About the Teachers
Lama Willa Blythe Baker
Lama Willa Blythe Baker, Ph.D. is the Founder of Natural Dharma Fellowship in Boston, MA and its retreat center Wonderwell Mountain Refuge in Springfield, NH. She was authorized as a dharma teacher and lineage holder in the Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism after twelve years of monastic training and two consecutive three-year retreats. She also […]
Learn more about Lama Willa Blythe BakerLama Liz Monson
Lama, Managing Teacher, Spiritual Co-Director Elizabeth Monson, PhD, is the Spiritual Co-Director of Natural Dharma Fellowship and the Managing Teacher at Wonderwell Mountain Refuge in Springfield, NH. Liz was authorized as a dharma teacher and lineage holder in the Kagyu Lineage of Tibetan Buddhism after over 30 years of studying, practicing, and teaching Tibetan Buddhism […]
Learn more about Lama Liz MonsonKim Albert
Let your mind rest. Spend time in community and refill your cup through accessible, safe and engaging Kripalu style yoga. Release tension and open your heart through self-inquiry and guided meditation. Kim Albert took her first yoga class in 2002 and immediately felt the mind, body and spirit connection as well as the power of […]
Learn more about Kim AlbertCategories : *Hybrid, *Live Online, *Residential, Lama Liz Monson, Lama Willa Baker, Movement, Retreats