A weekend residential insight meditation retreat with Donald Rothberg

Friday, May 31–Sunday, June 2, 2024, Evansville, Indiana

Judgments of a reactive and often automatic nature are very strong in most of our lives and in the dominant culture. They can distort our perceptions, make relationships with others difficult, and undermine our work in the world. In this weekend residential retreat, we will explore the nature of such judgments (and their difference from non-reactive discernment) and how to transform them. We will cultivate mindfulness, inquiry, and heart practices such as loving kindness, forgiveness, and compassion. We will also explore the somatic and social dimensions of judgments and the role of cultivating awakened qualities in transforming judgments. These tools will help us to preserve the intelligence and energy often found in judgments, using them for discernment and compassionate action, while working through judgments’ destructive and compulsive aspects, that often rest on unconscious or unexamined limiting beliefs. This retreat will include sitting and walking meditation, including instructions for several guided practices, talks and group discussion, and some basic movement practices, all in the context of a small, supportive community.

Donald Rothberg, Ph.D., is a member of the Teachers Council at Spirit Rock Center, a guiding teacher for the Marin Sangha, and a regular teacher at the East Bay Meditation Center in Oakland, California, the Southern Dharma Retreat Center, Insight LA, and New York Insight. He teaches retreats and groups on concentration and insight meditation practice, loving kindness practice, transforming the judgmental mind, mindful communication, working skillfully with conflict, and socially engaged Buddhism. He has practiced insight meditation since 1976 and has also received training in Tibetan Dzogchen, body-based psychotherapy, and trauma work. He has helped guide many six-month to two-year training programs in socially engaged spirituality, both Buddhist-based and interfaith, and is the author of The Engaged Spiritual Life: A Buddhist Approach to Transforming Ourselves and the World and the co-editor of Ken Wilber in Dialogue.

Registration: All openings for this retreat have been filled.

Check-in and registration begins at 5:30 pm on Friday May 31, and the retreat starts at 7:30 pm. The retreat ends at 4 pm on Sunday June 2. The $200 price for the retreat includes a private room with bathroom and shower, and 3 meals on Saturday, and breakfast and lunch on Sunday.

The retreat will be held at Sarto Retreat Center, which is located at 4200 Kentucky Avenue, Evansville, Indiana 47711. Located on 54 acres on Evansville’s north side, Sarto Retreat Center has 55 Guest rooms, walking grounds, a wooded area, and adequate safe parking. The retreat center is handicapped accessible.

Mailing Address:
Rothberg Retreat
c/o Mindful Heart Buddha Sangha
Bradford Park Office Complex
600 N Weinbach Ave, Suite 220
Evansville, IN 47711

For more information, email mindfulheart@gmail.com.

Dana: This retreat follows the tradition of dana, which is the Pali term for generosity. Meditation teachers and retreat leaders rely on dana to provide monetary compensation for their time teaching and leading. Dana for Donald Rothberg will be collected at the retreat (please note that the $200 retreat fee only covers the cost of room and board; it does not provide compensation for Donald). Please plan accordingly, and please email mindfulheart@gmail.com with any questions. 

Mindful Heart Buddha Sangha will host a nonresidential retreat with Bridget Rolens on March 29-31 at our meditation hall at 600 N Weinbach Ave, Suite 220, Evansville, Indiana.

Awakening through the senses

In his book Mindfulness: a practical guide to awakening Joseph Goldstein shares the wisdom of Ledi Sayadaw, one of the great Burmese meditation masters and scholars of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries:

“[Ledi Sayadaw] likened the sense bases [eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind] to six train stations from which trains travel to various destinations. Either they take us to situations of suffering, they take us to realms of happiness, or to freedom and full awakening. Consider how all the wholesome and unwholesome actions we do, with their respective karmic consequences, originate at one of the sense doors.”

The structure of the weekend will support a continuity of mindfulness while sitting, walking, eating, and moving about throughout the day. Dhamma talks and discussions will provide time to explore the teachings of the Buddha. This retreat is appropriate for both beginners and those with experience.

Bridget teaches mindfulness meditation as a spiritual practice and as a tool for stress reduction. She holds an MA in theology and a BS in Occupational therapy. Bridget has a certification as a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction teacher and a Healthy Steps trainer. She also completed the Core Coach Training of Well coaches School of Coaching. Recognized by the Spirit Rock Teachers Council as a Community Dharma Leader Bridget leads a weekly insight meditation group and offers classes and retreats. 

Basic Schedule:

Friday 3/29

 7:00 – 8:30 PM Opening of retreat (Manager’s instructions, Dharma Talk (Right attitudes for meditation), Taking Refuges and Precepts

Saturday 3/30

8:00 AM – Dharma Talk/Instruction

9:00 AM – Continue alternating sitting and walking with some instruction

12:00 PM – Lunch (brown bag)

1:00 PM – Mindful Movement

1:30 PM – Continue alternating sitting and walking

5:00 PM – Dharma Discussion

5:45 PM – Dana Talk

6:00 PM – Dharma Talk/Instruction for overnight practice

6:30 PM – Home practice

Sunday 3/31

8:00 AM – Dharma Talk/Instruction

9:00 AM – Continue alternating sitting and walking with some instruction

11:00 AM – Dharma Discussion

11:45 AM – Manager’s Instructions/Dedication of Merit

General information:

• Coffee, hot water/tea, filtered water will be available.
• Saturday lunch will be brown bag.
• It is traditional to offer Dana to the teacher in appreciation for their time and teachings.
• Registration cost is $40 (scholarships available, please see board member or Dhamma leader for info.)

Please click the link below to print the form and mail the completed form with your payment to:

Bridget Rolens Retreat

c/o Mindful Heart Buddha Sangha

Bradford Park Office Complex

600 N. Weinbach Suite 220

Evansville, IN 47711

Or put the completed form and your payment into an envelope marked “Bridget Rolens Retreat” and drop in the dana box. Reservations must be received by March 1, 2019.

Click here for registration form.

For more information, call 812-434-6643 or E-mail mindfulheart@gmail.com

On March 29-31, 2019, Mindful Heart Buddha Sangha will host a nonresidential retreat at our meditation hall at 600 N Weinbach, Suite 220, Evansville, Indiana 47711. The teacher will be Bridget Rolens.

Bridget teaches mindfulness meditation as a spiritual practice and as a tool for stress reduction. She holds an MA in Theology and a BS in Occupational Therapy. Bridget has certification as a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction teacher and a Healthy Steps trainer. She also completed the Core Coach Training Program of Wellcoaches School of Coaching. Recognized by the Spirit Rock Teachers Council as a Community Dharma Leader, Bridget leads a weekly insight meditation group and offers classes and retreats.

Forty-five years of experience in traditional healthcare and a variety of spiritual practices rooted in the Christian, Buddhist and Twelve-Step Recovery traditions, have given Bridget a strong understanding of the connection between body, mind and spirit in promoting health and well-being. Her deep passion is to help people attain freedom from the forces that bind the mind and heart in suffering.

We will publish more details in 2019.

Unfortunately we must cancel the Matthew Flickstein Retreat that we had scheduled for August 24-26.  Matt is having health issues from a bad back and is not able to travel.  We wish him well in his recuperation.  If you have already registered, our Treasurer will send you a refund.

Spots are still available for the upcoming Annie Nugent retreat at Sarto Retreat Center April 6th through April 8th. Registration deadline is March 1st.

https://mhbsangha.com/?p=1538

Price for the retreat is $160. This includes a private room with bathroom and shower, and all meals on Saturday and Sunday.

Please click the link below to print the form and mail the completed form with your payment to:

Annie Nugent Retreat
c/o Mindful Heart Buddha Sangha
Bradford Park Office Complex
600 N. Weinbach Suite 220
Evansville, IN 47711

Or put the completed form and your payment into an envelope marked “Annie Nugent Retreat” and drop in the dana box.

Reservations must be received by March 1, 2018.

Click here for registration form.

For more information , call 812-434-6643 or E-mail mindfulheart@gmail.com

The Mindful Heart Buddha Sangha is hosting a retreat with Matthew Flickstein on Friday August 24 through Sunday August 26, 2018

THE FOUR STAGES OF EMPTINESS RETREAT

This retreat delves into the deeply held views that prevent one from realizing their inherent freedom. There are four categories of views in this regard: the view of self with its corresponding belief in having total control over one’s life; the view that takes for granted that there is an external/objective world that exists beyond the mind; the view that thoughts and emotions have an independent reality beyond our perception of them; and the view that freedom is a reality that takes time and years of practice to realize. For each of these views there are corresponding contemplations and practices that enable participants to have a direct experience of the emptiness of these views. During the retreat there will also be Dharma talks, Q & A sessions, and student conferences.

Matthew Flickstein, a former psychotherapist, has been practicing and teaching insight meditation for over forty years. He founded The Forest Way in 1993. Matthew has studied with teachers from many spiritual traditions, and at one time was ordained as a monk in the Theravadan Buddhist tradition. In 1982 he co-founded the Bhavana Society Monastic and Meditation Center in West Virginia with Bhante Gunaratana. Matthew published two books through Wisdom Publications, Journey to the Center: A Meditation Workbook and Swallowing the River Ganges: A Comprehensive Practice Guide to the Path of Purification. A revised edition of Swallowing the River Ganges, entitled The Meditators Atlas: A Roadmap to the Inner World, was released by Wisdom in 2007. Matthew has recently published an e-book entitled Voices of Truth. Matthew produced two documentaries: With One Voice, a film featuring mystics from many of the world’s great spiritual traditions, and Eastern Mystics, a documentary that weaves together a tapestry of wisdom, compassion, and promise from the Buddhist, Hindu, Advaita, and Taoist traditions. Matthew currently leads meditation retreats internationally and mentors students who would like to teach meditation and share the Dharma with others.

Registration begins at 6:30 p.m. on Friday August 24 and the retreat starts at 7:30 p.m. Retreat ends on Sunday August 26 at 6 pm. This retreat will be a Vipassana style retreat with much of the time devoted to sitting and walking meditation. Dhamma talks will be given daily. There will be time to meet with the teacher, Matt Flickstein, in small groups. Noble silence will be observed throughout the retreat.

Price for the retreat is $160. This includes a private room with bathroom and shower, and all meals on Saturday and Sunday.

Please click the link below to print the form and mail the completed form with your payment to:

Matthew Flickstein Retreat
c/o Mindful Heart Buddha Sangha
Bradford Park Office Complex
600 N. Weinbach Suite 220
Evansville, IN 47711

Or put the completed form and your payment into an envelope marked “Matthew Flickstein Retreat” and drop in the dana box.

Reservations must be received by July 27, 2018.

Sarto Retreat Center is located at 4200 Kentucky Avenue, Evansville, Indiana 47711. Located on 54 acres on Evansville’s north side, Sarto Retreat Center has 55 Guest rooms, walking grounds, a wooded area, and adequate safe parking. The retreat center is handicapped accessible.

Click here for registration form.

For more information , call 812-434-6643 or E-mail mindfulheart@gmail.com

The Mindful Heart Buddha Sangha is hosting a retreat with Annie Nugent on Friday April 6 through Sunday April 8, 2018

Cultivating Wisdom and Compassion

A wellspring of joy arises when we realize the scope of the Buddha’s teachings and its impact on our relationships and activities. This silent retreat, open to all, is an invitation to explore the core teaching of mindfulness and how it supports the cultivation of wisdom and compassion. With practice, we can interact with our world with an ease of mind, especially amidst the fullness and vibrancy of everyday life.

Annie Nugent has practiced in the Theravada and Tibetan traditions since 1979 under the guidance of a range of teachers including Sayadaw U Pandita, Tulku Akong Rinpoche, and various western teachers. She was the resident teacher at the Insight Meditation Society from 1999-2003 and has since been teaching elsewhere in America, including the annual IMS 3 month retreat and The Forest Refuge. Her teaching style aims to reveal how our all aspects of our lives are opportunities to develop a clear and direct understanding of the Truth.

Registration begins at 6:30 p.m. on Friday April 6 and the retreat starts at 7:30 p.m. Retreat ends after the noon meal on Sunday April 8. This retreat will be a typical Vipassana style retreat with much of the time devoted to sitting and walking meditation. Dhamma talks will be given daily. There will be time to meet with the teacher, Annie Nugent, in small groups. There will also be an opportunity for mindful yoga each morning. Noble silence will be observed throughout the retreat, and the day will begin with a wake-up bell at 5:15 a.m.

Price for the retreat is $160. This includes a private room with bathroom and shower, and all meals on Saturday and Sunday.

Please click the link below to print the form and mail the completed form with your payment to:

Annie Nugent Retreat
c/o Mindful Heart Buddha Sangha
Bradford Park Office Complex
600 N. Weinbach Suite 220
Evansville, IN 47711

Or put the completed form and your payment into an envelope marked “Annie Nugent Retreat” and drop in the dana box.

Reservations must be received by March 1, 2018.

Sarto Retreat Center is located at 4200 Kentucky Avenue, Evansville, Indiana 47711. Located on 54 acres on Evansville’s north side, Sarto Retreat Center has 55 Guest rooms, walking grounds, a wooded area, and adequate safe parking. The retreat center is handicapped accessible.

Click here for registration form.

For more information , call 812-434-6643 or E-mail mindfulheart@gmail.com