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May 2008
The Institute is now on Facebook . If you have a Facebook account, you can become a fan of the Institute, share our events with your friends, participate in discussions online, and find out about upcoming classes and workshops.
Contents:
May Full Moon Chant - May 19
Upcoming Retreats
Upcoming Workshops
Off the Cushion - ID Adewale on the Practice of Vegetarian Cooking
Sunday Dharma Talks
May Full Moon Chant
Date: Monday, May 19
Time: 8 - 9:30 pm
Cost: Free
Join students, friends, and staff in chanting the Vajra Guru Mantra on the full moon in April. The chant includes short periods of meditation.
Please call (510) 843-6812 if you are attending for the first time or if you have questions about the chant.
Upcoming Retreats
To register, call: (510) 843-6812
cottage accommodations at Ratna LingDeveloping Clarity
May 26 - 31
Begins Monday morning and concludes Saturday at 4:45 PM.Insight meditation (Vipassana) is the focus of this retreat.
Silent practice will be balanced with instructions on how to calm the stream of distracting thought. Includes the workshop "Kum Nye for Sustaining Inner Balance" on May 31.
Cost: $364 (nonresidential); $550 (residential).
Instructors: To be announced.
Silent Retreat
June 2-7
Begins Monday morning and concludes Saturday at 4:45 PM. Includes the "Foundations for Mindfulness" workshop on June 7.This retreat's practices are done in silence with suitable instructions for meditation and study given individually to each participant. The retreat is designed to allow participants to deepen their meditation practice in the supportive environment of the Nyingma Institute.
Cost: $364 (nonresidential); $550 (residential).
Instructors: Meditation staff.Kum Nye: Breath, Energy, Feeling
June 9-14
Begins Monday morning and concludes Saturday at 4:45 PM. Includes the "Revitalizing Inner Energy" workshop on June 14.
In this Tibetan yoga retreat, students use breath and movement exercises to stimulate and direct the energy of body and mind, visualization practices to awaken and sustain inner vitality, and meditation practices to foster serenity.
Cost: $364 (nonresidential); $550 (residential).
Instructors: Jack van der Meulen, Donna Morton, and Santosh Philip.
Kum Nye: Attuning to the Present Moment
June 16-21
Begins Monday morning and concludes Saturday at 4:45 PM. Includes the "Embodiment of Beauty" workshop on June 21.Advanced Kum Nye practices invite a fuller experience of the rich multidimensionality within each moment.
Cost: $364 (nonresidential); $550 (residential)
full listing of Spring Retreats
Upcoming Workshops
To register, call: (510) 843-6812Weekend workshops introduce new ideas in a gentle, meditative atmosphere.
Unless otherwise noted, Saturday workshops begin at 10 AM,
conclude at 4:45 PM and include a vegetarian buffet lunch.
Pre-registration is necessary for all Spring workshops.Training for Freedom, May 9-10
Friday, 7-9 PM; Saturday, 10 AM - 4:45 PM.
Classic Buddhist education uses three trainings - shila (ethics), samadhi (meditation), and prajna (wisdom)
- to develop wholesome knowledge and power.
This workshop will introduce you to these traditional tools for clearing away confusion and karmic patterns.
Cost: $95.
Instructors: Sylvia Gretchen and Barr Rosenberg.
Prerequisite: A sincere interest in Dharma Studies and consent of the instructors.
Invoking Blessings, May 17Students will study a text by a great 19 th century Tibetan teacher on how to invoke the presence of the Buddha.
Cost: $80.
Instructor: Sylvia Gretchen.
Prerequisite: consent of the instructor.
Compassion, Mindfulness, and Well-Being, May 24
Learn to catalyze healing and manage physical and emotional challenges
through awareness and compassion practices that improve well-being.
Cost: $80.
Instructor: Robin Caton.
Kum Nye for Sustaining Inner Balance, May 31
Kum Nye movement, breath, and sitting practices balance body and mind as they stimulate deep feelings of joy. Students learn techniques that help sustain a balanced and joyful outlook throughout the day.
Cost: $80.
Instructor: Jack van der Meulen.
Off the Cushion - - Interview with ID Adewale on the Practice of Vegetarian Cooking
Chef ID poses with students from last Fall's 4-Month Retreat
For two years, ID has been the Nyingma Institute's head chef. He joined the Institute after spending 8 years learning the art of macrobiotic cooking from Roichi Chiara at Open Sesame in Brookline, Massachusetts and Mary-Anne Justman at the Casa de Luz macrobiotic community in Austin, Texas. ID's joyous laughter and singing can often be heard in the Institute kitchen as he prepares delicious vegetarian meals for the Institute's residents, retreats, and workshops.
How does your cooking practice intersect with your spiritual life?
Meditation goes on throughout my work and my day, and my attitude and state of mind during cooking is of utmost importance. I strive to have a mind that is clear and free of resentment. You can become aware of so many small things: the distribution of your weight, the tightness and looseness of the muscles in your body, balance, your presence and gentleness with where you are. You try to develop total engagement and awareness with where you are at that time and work with it. This clearness and softness and awareness of body helps you begin to transform poison to virtue. The spiritual path of internal development and training teaches one conviction, but also not to be so rigid that one can't yield to anything.
Macrobiotic teachings tell us that one's mind is revealed through one's work. The imbalance of ingredients (like too salty or too sweet) is a revelation of what's going on inside the cook.
Additionally, I work with the food I have and the mind I have and I try to apply it. The end result is less about perfection as opposed to producing something nourishing from what I have at the time.
Sometimes people see potential in us that we don't see. A master or a teacher is able to see this before we are able to. I have had experiences in my life that have taught me great lessons about the student/teacher relationship. My first macrobiotics teacher truly helped me in cutting through a pattern of thought that I think had been very destructive for me in my life. And now, rather than being called to cooking, I feel that it calls me, finds me, speaks to me.
When I first began to study macrobiotics, I would often leave work and immediately go to an Aikido class. There was then an immediate practical application of what I'd been taught. I learned about flowing with energy and working with what is coming toward you, working with what is there.
I feel so grateful that I am here at the Nyingma Institute because this sort of cooking is not just about making great food. It is truly the internal development of the individual, and being able to see the great and the small and the fact that one does not exist without the other. Being in this community, I see that there is more of my self that was not known to me before that is now having the chance to come out.
Do you have any hints for people who are interested in becoming vegetarians or those who don't have a lot of cooking experience and would like to get started?
Cookbooks are wonderful but I think that we are all able to hear beyond our normal hearing and see beyond our normal seeing. When beginning, a cookbook can support you, but it can also teach you to look for what is not there, what you don't have. Eventually, one must strive for originality and expression of one's own uniqueness. Everyone has a story to tell. And when you learn to work with what is there you also produce less waste.
I think that attitude is the most important thing. It is important to be open and without judgment. Listen to yourself and go beyond your ordinary eyes and ears. When you're doing something you have not done before it is normal to be a little nervous, but over time and with practice you get better and better. It's like the saying "Physician, heal thyself". Your kitchen becomes your doctor's office. The food becomes your medicine. Be gentle with yourself and have patience. Understand that food can dictate the quality of your life. Have respect for the food you put into your body and learn to care for it because it literally becomes you .
I also recommend that you don't put the flame on as high as it will go and try to get cooking in "no time"! Like a scientist, temper the food and see the changes over time. If you watch and listen, the food will reveal itself and you will understand how to work with it.
Wisteria and blooming roses greet the senses as visitors arrive at the Institute
May Dharma Talks
6 - 7 PM every Sunday
May 4, 2008
Mantra and Prayer Wheels: An Avenue to Light
For centuries mantras have been chanted and prayer wheels have turned in Tibet. In the past forty years, this tradition has established itself in the West as well. Mark Henderson, the coordinator for the Prayer Wheel project at the Nyingma Institute will speak about his experience of mantra and prayer wheels as a path of light that bestows balance and harmony.
May 11, 2008
Heart Practices for Daily LifeOpening the mind and heart to compassion and loving kindness can become a part of your daily routine. Mary Gomes, Nyingma teacher, mother, and psychology professor, will present meditations that can awaken a spirit of caring and can relieve the 'burnout' and despair so common in the world today. Everyday actions can be guided by deep and abiding love.
Tibetan yoga (Kum Nye) includes exercises that release tension and bridge the gap between body and mind. Many of these exercises involve holding a position for a period of time while focusing the mind on feeling. Kum Nye teacher Jack van der Meulen will describe how Kum Nye can bring our breath, senses, and awareness into a state of balance. He will also lead participants in an exercise from the "Balancing and Integrating" section of Kum Nye Relaxation by Tarthang Tulku.
May 18, 2008
Balancing Inner Energies
