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.
