Clarifying the Mind

A 10-Day Practice Period

in the Four Foundations of Mindfulness

~ September 23rd - October 2nd, 2022 ~

with options for Weekend or 10-Day ONLINE Sessions

with Michele McDonald, Steven Smith, Jesse Maceo Vega-Frey, and Darine Monroy

TEACHINGS

The Buddha taught that our complete liberation from the entanglements of the heart is achievable through the simple observation of all phenomenon that can be directly experienced. Through this observation, we come to see that all conditioned experiences are impermanent, undependable, and without essential selfhood. But it is hard to observe all these phenomena clearly! Developing an attention that is conducive to this kind of insight requires a profound balance between clarity and kindness, determination and dexterity, strength and suppleness. Our time will consist of an array of traditional and innovative approaches to practicing in various fields of awareness - of the body, feeling tone, the mind, and other directly observable phenomena - bolstered by the power of the brahma viharas: love, compassion, appreciative joy, and equanimity.

Join this group of teachers for a supported online Self-Retreat. While your individual schedule may vary from other yogis in the group, every participant will be offered:

~ Daily Live and Reocorded Practice Instructions

~ Dhamma talks

~ Question and Answer Periods

~ Group chanting in the evenings

~ Interviews for full time weeklong yogis

All live sessions will also be recorded so that yogis in various time zones can listen and watch at their convenience.

REGISTRATION

Yogis have three options to participate:

1. As Full-Time Yogis for the 10-Day Retreat you will be expected to hold a great-deal of seclusion and silence and participate in the full program for the full duration. These yogis will be included in the interview schedule posted each day for one-on-one teacher support during the week and have Q&A Sessions at various points. All sessions will be recorded and so can be watched again or, for yogis in distant time zones, viewed at your convenience.

The full-time Intensive option is only open to students of Steven, Michele, Jesse, and Darine who have sat retreat courses with them in the past.

If you have been sitting with us online for the past few years and would like to join full time, please get in touch with us and let's see what might work.

or

2. As Part-Time yogis for the 10-Day Retreat : you can join any sessions you are available to attend during the week and watch the recordings at your convenience. You will not be included on the interview schedule and are asked to only quietly observe the Q&A sessions.

or

3. As Weekend Yogis: Open to all - you are invited to join for the entire Friday-Sunday weekend portion of the retreat.

SCHEDULE

The daily schedule will look something like this:

(all Times Hawaii Standard - Pacific+3, Mounatin +4, Central +5, Eastern+6)

• 4am ~ Sitting Meditation
• 6am  ~ Walking Meditation
• 8am ~ Sitting Meditation
• 10am  ~ Sitting with Instructions
• 11am ~ Q&A (weekend) / Interviews (weekdays)
• 2pm  ~ Dhamma Talk
• 4pm  ~ Metta Chanting and Sit

Vipassana Hawaii regularly has participants for our online retreats from around the world. Please know that all sessions will be recorded and available on the Oriana retreat platform to watch at your convenience. Interview times will take your time zone into consideration as much as possible.

Please contact Vipassana Hawaii with any questions you may have regarding your participation.

SCHOLARSHIPS

All fees for the program will go to sustaining the basic needs of the organization. NO ONE WILL BE TURNED AWAY FOR LACK OF FUNDS.

You may pay the full price upon registration or register for a scholarship amount that matches your budget. There is no request process: just sign up for what works for you. Please be aware that this open-payment system is an experiment and a risk for us. It will certainly require those who can afford to pay more than the base price do so in order to expand our ability to provide Dhamma to those who cannot.

We look forward to supporting you in the ways we know best during these challenging times.

TEACHER DANA

In accordance with tradition, all Vipassana Hawai’i internationally respected teachers offer their teachings free of charge and are supported through the freely-offered generosity of students and supporters. Costs associated with retreats cover the growing expenses associated with online services, online storage, broadcasting equipment, and website administration - but do not support teacher time, training, effort, or energy. We believe that this commitment helps keep the purity of the teachings alive and thriving, as it has for millennia. They do not collect salaries in keeping with the time-honored tradition of sharing openly the chance for peace. This allows us to keep our registration fees as low as possible but also means that the livelihood of our teachers is precarious. As a result, we strive to give back in any for - including monetarily - so that they may continue their endeavors and share their wisdom. Vipassana Teachers must be supported in this way if we are to keep this tradition alive, healthy, and with integrity in the modern era. Dana, or generosity, can be offered by cash or check at the end of the retreat or online here.

TEACHERS

Michele McDonald co-founded Vipassana Hawai’i in 1984 with Steven Smith. She has taught Insight meditation for thirty eight years. Beyond her commitment to the Vipassana Hawai’i Sangha, she teaches extensively throughout the United States, in Canada, Burma, and various locations around the world. Michele has been a quiet pioneer having being the first woman to teach a formal retreat in Burma, side-by-side with a senior monastic figure, Sayadaw U Lakkhana, Abbot of Kyaswa Monastery. Having worked with a wide range of Asian and Western teachers, Michele is most inspired by her practice with Dipa Ma and Sayadaw U Pandita and more recently in Burma with the Mya Taung Sayadaw. She appreciates teaching at many levels of practice and has enjoyed teaching three-month retreats for experienced students as well as developing meditation retreats for youth. Her style of teaching emphasizes helping individuals find entry points into stillness that are natural for them. She encourages an understanding of the path of insight and a gentle strengthening of mindfulness and concentration so that, ultimately, people can access the peaceful depths of their experience in every moment. Michele is thrilled when students begin to love their practice as their own.

Steven V. Smith co-founded Vipassana Hawai’i in 1984 and in 1995 founded the MettaDana Project for educational and medical projects in Burma. Also in 1995 Steven helped establish the Kyaswa Valley Retreat Center in Burma, headed by Sayadaw U Lakkhana, Abbot of Kyaswa Monastery. This partnership helped usher in the beginnings of Vipassana Hawai’i’s Fusion Dhamma approach combining traditional and contemporary teaching styles in the same retreat. Anchored in the Theravadan Buddhist Burmese lineage of Mahasi Sayadaw since 1974, he was trained and sanctioned as a teacher by revered monk and meditation master Sayadaw U Pandita. Steven divides his time teaching Vipassana and the Divine Abodes (loving-kindness, compassion, joy, equanimity) meditation retreats around the world, and assisting Burmese refugee communities along the Thai-Burma border. His long term vision for preserving the Dhamma is culminating in the beginnings of the Hawai’i Insight Meditation Center (HIMC) on the Big Island of Hawai’i’s remote North Kohala coast.

Jesse Maceo Vega-Frey's teaching aims to inspire the skills, determination, and faith necessary to realize the deepest human freedom. He is a student of Michele McDonald and his approach is rooted in the tradition of Mahasi Sayadaw of Burma. As a teacher of Vipassana (insight) meditation within the broader context of Theravadan Buddhism his teaching encourages an exploration of the relationship between ethics, insight, and action. Perpetually intrigued by the dynamics between inner and outer change, Jesse is a writer of numerous essays and author of Insurgent Heart: A Vipassana Manual for the Guerrilla Yogi. Links to his writing can be found on his website: www.dolessforpeace.org as well as links to his weekly musical radio show, Mind to Mind: The Transmission. He is a spoon carver who loves to teach people about how to work with their hands and explore the relationship between labor, ownership, and kamma. He is the resident teacher for Vipassana Hawai’i and teaches around the world.

Darine Monroy has been a student of Michele McDonald and Steven Smith since 2011. She taught for Mindful Schools for over a decade in Mexico and around the world, completing the Hakomi Comprehensive Training. She has assisted Michele McDonald, Steven Smith, and Jesse Vega-Frey with their annual retreats in IMS, Vallecitos, Blue Mountains Insight Meditation Center, in Thailand, and online. Supporting people in learning more about themselves is her joy. Darine was born and raised in Mexico, and meditation retreats have been among the most meaningful experiences of her life.

Please note our Cancellation Policy:

If you cancel less than 7 days prior to the event for a non-emergency, unfortunately we cannot afford to offer a refund. Last-minute cancellations are costly and usually mean that others cannot attend the retreat.