The Seeing That Frees: Cultivating Calm, Clarity, and Freedom in Difficult Times
November 19 @ 4:00 pm – November 22 @ 1:00 pm
Avila Center for Community Leadership, Durham NC
Join Triangle Insight Meditation Community teachers Ron Vereen and Sharon Shelton for a four day, three night silent residential retreat. In this retreat, we will explore how mindfulness helps us meet life’s challenges with greater steadiness, wisdom, and compassion. Together, we will investigate how perception shapes our experience, how thoughts and emotional reactions proliferate into suffering, and how awareness can interrupt habitual patterns. Drawing on the Buddhist Insight tradition and practice, we will learn to bring curiosity to every aspect of our experience, including uncertainty, loss, fear, and even mortality itself. Through meditation, Dharma talks, silence, and community, we will discover how freedom becomes possible not by avoiding difficulty, but by seeing it clearly.
This is a residential-only retreat, most suitable for those with some meditation experience, and scholarship assistance is available. Priority registration is offered to people who identify as BIPOC or LGBTQ+ and to active participants in the Triangle Insight Meditation Community and Mindful Families of Durham. But everyone is welcome as space allows!
If you have questions about the retreat, please email Triangle Insight Meditation Community at info@triangleinsight.org.
Learn more about our teachers:
Sharon Shelton teaches retreats, courses, and meditation groups, and mentors people who want to bring more awareness, compassion, and freedom into their everyday lives. She serves as a member of the Teaching Council of Triangle Insight Meditation Community and as a mentor for the Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program founded by Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield. She is also a founding advisor and lead teacher with the online program Banyan. Her teaching is rooted in the Insight Meditation tradition and shaped by nearly three decades of practice. She has studied with and been influenced by teachers Tara Brach, Jack Kornfield, Joseph Goldstein, Sharon Salzberg, Ruth King, Tuere Sala, Bhikkhu Analayo, James Baraz, Cheri Maples, Gil Fronsdal, and others whose wisdom continues to guide her path.
Ron Vereen is a retired psychiatrist who has been practicing mindfulness and Insight meditation since 1992. He is a founding member of Triangle Insight Meditation Community, where he serves as the leading teacher. He has been teaching mindfulness in Duke’s MBSR program since 1999. Ron is a graduate of the Community Dharma Leader Program at Spirit Rock Meditation Center, and he has completed the Integrated Study and Practice Program of the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies. His principal teacher is Rodney Smith. He has also studied with Shinzen Young, Leigh Brasington, Taraniya Ambrosia, Andrew Olendzki, and Narayan Helen Liebenson. Ron’s interests include exploring the interface between Western and Buddhist psychology.
REGISTRATION PROCESS:
There is an application process for this retreat, with preference given to people who identify as BIPOC or LGBTQ+ and to those who regularly participate with offerings from Triangle Insight Meditation Community or Mindful Families of Durham. When your application is approved, we will send you a link for paying a $75 deposit along with instructions for finalizing payment. Admissions will continue until the retreat is full, after which applicants will be added to a waiting list. Often, there are late cancellations which allow those on the waiting list to be admitted.
RETREAT COST:
- Single room (includes single-room accommodations and meals): $600 (there are limited singles, so you will increase your chances of being admitted to the retreat if you are willing to share a room)
- Shared room with one other person (includes shared-room accommodations and meals): $450
- This cost doesn’t include dana, that is, donations to the teachers and retreat manager, who offer their services freely and without other compensation. You’ll be given an opportunity to offer dana at the end of the retreat.
Payment will be made in two installments: a $75 non-refundable deposit will hold your place at the retreat, and payment of the remaining balance by the due date will complete registration. Those on the waiting list will not be charged the $75 deposit until they are added to the retreat if a cancellation occurs.
Cancellations: Refund requests will be honored if made by October 19, minus a $30 processing fee. After October 19, the registration fee is only refundable if your space is filled, minus a $30 processing fee. The $75 deposit is not refundable.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION:
The retreat container
After the opening program on the first night until the noon meal on the fourth day, everyone is invited to enter into silence throughout the buildings and grounds. At times, such as the Q&A sessions, silence will be lifted in the meditation hall.
This supportive silence invites all yogis to refrain from verbal and written communication with others, including telephone calls, texts, and emails. Yogis are encouraged to leave their devices at home or, at a minimum, turned off. There will be an emergency number for emergencies, with an on-site retreat manager ready to assist.
Meals
Meals will be provided by Chef Netta of Netta’s Pantry. Coffee and tea will be available during the retreat. Meals will be vegetarian. Please let us know allergies and food intolerances at the time of final payment. We can usually accommodate dietary restrictions.
Lodging
A limited number of single rooms are available, and double rooms with two full-sized beds will be shared by two participants. Some rooms are more accessible than others.
Accessibility
Please help us make this retreat as accessible as possible by telling us about your accessibility needs on the application.
Location of the retreat
The retreat venue is the Avila Center for Community Leadership, a 20-minute drive from downtown Durham and a 35-minute drive from the Raleigh Durham (RDU) airport.
Avila is a nonprofit community center, where people and groups connect, deepen their work, and rejuvenate. The mission of the center is to support and connect community organizers and leaders working together for systemic change in the South and beyond. The buildings are surrounded by 50 acres of green space and trails.
You can learn more about Avila at this link.
If you have questions about this retreat, please contact info@triangleinsight.org.
Presented by the Triangle Insight Meditation Community and Peace Hill at Avila.