Marin Sangha Daylong
With Sally Armstrong

Calming the Restless Mind
Saturday, June 3, 2017
9:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
St. Luke Church, our usual Sunday night location

Most of us come to meditation practice with an interest in developing more peace, calm and harmony in our minds, our bodies and our lives. So we practice meditation with these intentions, but when we sit down to meditate, let's face it -- we spend a lot of time thinking. What do we think about? The heart of these movements of the mind is answering the questions, "Am I OK?", "Was I OK?", and "Will I be OK?" We need to examine the core issues that lead us to dwell on these questions if we are to create a more skillful relationship to our thoughts. The Buddha talked about this kind of thinking, and called it unwise attention that leads to all kinds of suffering. Our obsession with these questions is also the cause of a huge amount of restlessness. Restlessness is one of the major hindrances to calming the mind and deepening our meditation, and can be seen as both the cause and the effect of all the other hindrances. The hindrances are those energies in meditation that obstruct clear seeing: desire, aversion, sleepiness, restlessness and doubt.

In this daylong we will explore simple calming meditation techniques, as well as learning to work with skillfully with whatever is a disturbance -- whether it is the different aspects of the hindrances, or the subtlest manifestations of restlessness. We need to understand these processes and find the stillness that is available in our experience here and now. Then we can truly be with things as they are, and cultivate calm, clarity and understanding in our meditation and our lives.

Please bring a lunch. Bring a cushion if you wish. Chairs will be provided.

Dana for the teacher. Dana for rent.
Dating back to the time of the Buddha, those who offer the teachings and those who receive them have been interdependent. Marin Sangha is very glad to be able to continue this tradition. Dana is deeply appreciated.