Non-Residential Retreat

Living with Harmony: Befriending Ourselves,
   Befriending Others

An Insight Dialogue Non-Residential Retreat
July 31 – August 2, 2020
Led by
Sharon Beckman-Brindley and Phyllis Savides

Meditation is a path of making friends with ourselves, a path of coming to know and cherish our basic goodness. We all come to practice because we sense this internal goodness and long to dwell more easily and reliably within it, to live in our limited selves and our limited world with a happiness, ease, harmony and serenity that knows no bounds. Just as we can learn to tune a musical instrument well, accomplishing this kind of harmony is a skill we can cultivate, learning to enter into the balance of receiving and giving, of effort and grace, that allows goodness to be revealed in both ourselves and others.

This non-residential meditation retreat will combine periods of silent sitting and walking meditation with the relational meditation practice of Insight Dialogue (ID), a practice of speaking and listening that brings together the deep wisdom teachings of Buddhism with our everyday relationships and inquiries. ID has the same traditional roots and purposes as silent meditation: mindfulness, compassion and liberating insight while investigating together our lived present moment experience. See metta.org for more on the practice of Insight Dialogue.

Sharon Beckman-Brindley, a clinical psychologist, is co-founder and a current teacher at the Insight Community of Charlottesville (IMCC) and a senior teacher of the relational meditation practice of Insight Dialogue.  Her offerings blend deep inquiry into the Dhamma with practical insights from modern western psychology

Phyllis Savides, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, currently serves as the Director of the Albemarle County Department of Social Services.  She has been practicing insight meditation for over 25 years and has participated in residential and non-residential Insight Dialogue retreats for nearly that long. She is a member, and occasional leader, of a weekly on-line Insight Dialogue cohort taught by senior Insight Dialogue teacher Mary Burns. 

Dates and Times: Friday, July 31, 7:30 PM – 9 PM
                                 Saturday, August 1, 9:00 AM – 5 PM
                                 Sunday,  August 2,  9:00 AM – 1 PM

Location:  Whitehall Meditation, Farmhouse at Wyndefields, 2766 Browns Gap Tpke Charlottesville, VA

Registration:  The registration fee is $30. Donations (dana) to the teachers will be collected at the retreat.  Scholarships are available. To register, contact Robert Hodge (whitehallmeditation@gmail.com)

To register, click here.