Embodied Presence:
Cultivating Wakefulness, Generosity, and Flexibility

A Training Retreat for Teachers of Mindfulness-Based Interventions

Taught by
Melissa Blacker, Florence Meleo-Meyer and Saki Santorelli

Menla Mountain Retreat – Phoenicia, New York
October 22-26, 2010

Program Tuition: $680 ($580 if you register on or before 7/15/10)*
*There is a limited amount of tuition assistance available. If you are requesting assistance, please let us know by email at cfm.oasis@umassmed.edu

Housing: There is an additional cost for housing based on the type of room you choose. See the pre-registration form for details

To apply: Click here for the pre-registration form (MS Word format)

Note: The pre-registration form can be used in two different ways after you download it. You can fill it out on screen, save the completed form on your computer, and then email it to us at cfm.oasis@umassmed.edu. Alternatively, you can print it, fill it out by hand, and then send it to us by fax (508-856-1977) or regular mail (Center for Mindfulness, UMass Medical School, 55 Lake Avenue North, Worcester, MA 01655).

 

In the complexity of the mindfulness classroom, issues regarding the edges of self and other emerge and must be met by the teacher with a combination of dynamic synergistic qualities:

  • Being awake and resting in the fullness of the moment,
  • Being generous, kind and attentive to deep listening and speaking from silence,
  • Being flexible enough to creatively approach serendipitous experiences that emerge – internally, interpersonally, and through the collective wisdom generated by everyone in the classroom.

These qualities, which are both essential and subtle, are already present in every one of us and can be evoked and nurtured in countless ways. In this training retreat, we will cultivate these qualities through mindfulness practice in silence and stillness, through dialogue and inquiry about salient teaching challenges, and through structured improvisational play and discovery in community.

The design of this training/retreat has been created in response to many requests from MBI teachers to deepen the specificity, sensitivity, and subtlety of their teaching. Guided by three seasoned MBSR instructors, every day will begin at 6 AM with a long period of silent meditation practice, including silent breakfast, until lunch. Each afternoon, you will have the opportunity to work with a different instructor in a focused, small group seminar. In the evenings we will explore teaching as an improvisational art. The whole group will gather together to discover the possibilities of the unfolding moment through structured music, dance, art and theater improvisation and sharing of poetry and other creative expressions.

Participants will learn to:

  • Cultivate more refined, non-judgmental awareness, presence and clarity
  • Investigate options for responding to a variety of classroom situations with expanded awareness and flexible strategies for enhanced teaching skills
  • Learn to recognize and appreciate the synergy of discipline and freedom through creative expression
  • Deepen connections with colleagues committed to mindfulness practice

Prerequisites:

  • Regular retreat attendance (at least 2 teacher-led, 5-10 day silent mindfulness retreats)
  • Teaching experience (facilitating at least 3 cycles of a mindfulness-based intervention.)
  • Attendance of at least one CFM Oasis Institute training

Come join in the co-creation of a unique community of mindfulness teachers engaged in four days of practice, dialogue and play. The program will begin on Friday, October 22 at 4:00 p.m. , and will conclude after lunch on Tuesday, October 26. It will be held at Menla Mountain Retreat, located three hours north of New York City, at the foot of Pantherkill Mountain, in a secluded valley that has been a source of renewal and inspiration for over a century. Click here for directions and information for the retreat center.

The natural beauty of the valley’s exquisite landscape combined with the intimate, simple elegance of Menla Mountain Retreat provides an ideal setting for Embodied Presence.

 

Come, come, whoever you are
Wonderer, worshipper, lover of leaving.
It doesn't matter.
Ours is not a caravan of despair.
Come, even if you have broken your vow

a thousand times
Come, yet again, come, come.

— Rumi (translate by Coleman Barks)