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Awareness: Balancing Wonder and Terror

In this two-day, non-residential retreat, dhamma teacher Steve Armstrong will offer teachings and instructions that cultivate stable awareness of all experience. Awareness: the balanced activity of five faculties, develops with trusting, persevering, remembering, observing and understanding. Each of these qualities of being will be identified, questioned, experienced and understood in a way that supports self-monitoring of our spiritual life. Gradually we will understand the fullness of life encompassing all the wonder and terror of being human on this precious earth.

The format of our time together will include scheduled sittings with instructions, group debrief or check-in as to how practice is going, lots of opportunity for Q’s and A’s as well as mini-dharmettes on each of these five activities of awareness. Rather than a fixed pre-determined schedule, we will follow the flow of the group energy and if more time is needed with Q’s & A’s then the walking or movement periods between sittings may be shorter. The instruction will develop from identifying our base-line trust or confidence and our spiritual urgency in these times. The challenges of life will be identified and investigated with direct observation of our beliefs and assumptions, hopes and fears. By sharing our experiences we will come to a mutual understanding that values all of life. This is a natural progression in practice so there will be something for everyone. Suitable for beginning students as well as for more experienced students.

Steve Armstrong has studied the dhamma and practiced insight meditation since 1975. He served for many years at the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts as Executive Director, Board member and senior teacher of the annual three-month retreat. As a monk in Burma for 5 years, under the guidance of Sayadaw U Pandita, he undertook intensive, silent practice of insight and lovingkindness meditations, as well as studying the abhidhamma with Sayadaw U Zagara of Australia. He continues his practice under the guidance of Sayadaw U Tejaniya in Rangoon. He has been leading meditation retreats internationally since 1990 and is a co-founding director and teacher of the Vipassana Metta Foundation dhamma sanctuary on Maui. He also directs the Burma Schools Project having funded and overseen construction or renovation of over 115 schools, 6 clinics, 2 large nunneries and supporting many other nunneries in Burma. Out of compassion for future generations, he has planted more than 2500 trees for a dhamma forest sanctuary on Maui. He was the Managing Editor of the Vipassana Metta Foundation's translation committee that brought to publication by Wisdom Publications, the Manual of Insight, by Mahasi Sayadaw.

Thank you,

Rod House (registrar)