When we lean in to our present moment experience, we can truly taste and know the ingredients of our lives. We can let go of the self referential way of experiencing things and contact what is most true and present. This is how we become free from suffering.
Links included for events already open for registration
2020 Residential Retreats
Spring Renewal Residential Retreat, 3 or 7 night option, April 23 – 26, extended option to 4/30, Bethany Hills, Kingston Springs TN
Heartwood Refuge Retreat Center Residential Meditation Retreat, The Power of a Tender Heart, June 24 – 28, Jeff Samuels teaching assistant. Registration open, info here.
Big Bear Retreat Center, Big Bear California, Making Peace with Your Ego: Finding Freedom through Letting Go, co-led with Gullu Singh, August 4 – 9. Registration open, info here.
Fall Retreat with Red Clay Sangha, September 23 – 27, Location in Georgia TBA
Late Fall Residential Retreat at Bethany Hills, Kingston Springs, TN. December 3 – 6 with extended option to 12/8.
Special Event
Buddhist Tour of India, March 14 – 28. Varanasi-Bodhgaya-Dharmsala-Armitsar. Full information here.
Daylong and Half Day Retreats, Winter – Summer
The Power of Intention: Setting Your Course of the New Year and Beyond, Half Day Retreat, Jan. 1, Nashville Friends House, details soon
Mindful Meditation Workshop for ADHD and Anxiety, February 1 with Terry Huff
Daylong Meditation Retreat, Deepening your Practice, May 23 in Nashville
Spirit Rock Meditation Center Daylong Retreat with Trudy Goodman, The Dharma of Desire: From Longing to Loving Presence, July 19
Additional daylong and half day retreats will be added as scheduling permits.
Saturday, November 23, Nashville Friends Meeting
9 a.m. – Noon, Led by Lisa Ernst
Right Concentration is the final leg of the Buddha’s eightfold path but it is frequently misunderstood. Concentration and mindfulness differ, although right mindfulness is a support for meditative concentration. Skillful concentration often leads to the jhanas, the eight altered states of consciousness that can deepen joy and improve your insight practice. In this half day retreat we will explore meditation through the lens of concentration and the jhanas as a path to awakening.
The morning will consist of instruction, meditation and discussion. This retreat is suitable for all levels of experience although an existing mediation practice is recommended.
Cost is $50. A reduced fee, scholarship spot is available in the case of financial need. Email onedharmaretreat@gmail.com to inquire. Payment can be made through Paypal here. donate button or by check here . If paying by check, be sure to include your email address. Venmo is available @onedharma.
Silent Residential Meditation Retreat
Thursday Evening, December 5 – Sunday Noon 12/8 with Optional Extension to 12/10
Bethany Hills Retreat Center, Kingston Springs, TN, Led by Lisa Ernst
Please note: As of 10/9 we have one three night spot and one five night spot still open
All of our joys and sorrows, thoughts and feelings arise and fall away in a field of awareness that is clear, expansive and open. In this retreat we will explore how mindfulness, concentration and open awareness support each other. We will learn how developing the capacity to rest in awareness creates a wider container to meet even our most challenging and stressful thoughts and emotions with insight and compassion. It also stabilizes concentration (samadhi) and strengthens insight (prajna). This retreat is designed to invigorate and nourish, not only our formal mindfulness and concentration practices, but also our daily activities.
This silent retreat is suitable for all levels of experience. It will include sitting and walking meditation, instruction, dharma talks and private meetings with the teacher. Retreat cost is $330 if paid by November 7; $360 after. The five night option is $465 if paid by November 7; $495 after. A $100 deposit holds your spot. Fee covers lodging and all meals. There will be a separate opportunity at the retreat to make a *dana offering (donation) to the teacher. Email onedharmaretreat@gmail.com for questions. Please note that your registration isn’t complete and we can’t hold your spot until you process your deposit fee.
Lisa Ernst is a meditation teacher in the Thai Forest/Spirit Rock lineage of Ajahn Chah, Jack Kornfield and Trudy Goodman. Lisa leads classes and retreats nationally and is a visiting teacher at Spirit Rock meditation Center in Woodacre, CA.
Cancellation Refund Policy: More than four weeks from retreat start date – $30 cancellation fee; four weeks to 20 days from start date – $100 cancellation fee. No refunds are available for cancellations less than 20 days from retreat start date.
Lovingkindness and Interconnection in Challenging Times
Thursday evening, September 26 – Sunday Noon September 29
Led by Lisa Ernst
Note: This retreat was rescheduled on very short notice because of a scheduling mixup with the retreat center. If you can get away on short notice, spots have opened up due to the date change. This is a very low cost retreat, $175 for room and board!
How do we keep our hearts open and remember interconnection even when so much of our world is polarized right now? The dharma offers a wellspring of wisdom and tools that can refresh and renew us. Surrounded by the peace of the rural landscape, we will engage in practices that support our mental stability, help us step out of our reactive patterns and reset our hearts to continue our journey with loving attentiveness and wise action.
This retreat, hosted by Red Clay Sangha, will be held mostly in silence. It will include periods of sitting and walking meditation, daily instructions and dharma talks, q&a and optional meetings with the teacher. All levels of experience are welcome. This is a low cost retreat with additional financial support available to anyone in financial need.
Lisa Ernst is a meditation teacher, visual artist and founder of One Dharma Nashville. She has been meditating for over 25 years in the Zen and Vipassana traditions and received teaching authorization in the Thai Forest/Spirit Rock lineage of Ajahn Chah, Jack Kornfield and Trudy Goodman. Lisa offers meditation training and retreats nationally and she is a visiting teacher at Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, CA.
Go here to register: https://redclaysangha.org/event-3228179
Even if you’ve been meditating for many years, you probably encounter old patterns that seem impervious to your mindful awareness. Maybe at times these patterns are dormant, but during challenging moments they reappear and perhaps feel intractable. Often these patterns become entangled in identity – stuck and unfixable with no space between the knots. It may seem no amount of meditation can penetrate this mess.
What to do? I suggest bringing out a tried and true inquiry. When you first began meditation practice, you may have engaged the simple practice of asking, “who am I?” Done correctly, this inquiry penetrates and quiets the analytical mind since there is no logical answer. You access something truer and more immediate. You can also bring this inquiry to your stuck places, the patterns that often feel impenetrable. Here are a couple of inquiry examples: “who is the one who is always anxious?” or “who is the one reacting, the one who has always reacted?” You’re asking the question here and now, but you’re applying it to a narrative that has persisted for a very long time, has a history and a story.
This inquiry can momentarily stop the reactive pattern and the attendant thoughts. Its not designed to bypass anything but to create a different vantage point, to dis-identify from a strong and ingrained sense of self that gets entangled in the pattern. Then you have space to experience how the dilemma shows up in present time in the body and emotions. This is the ground of insight. Deep, limiting beliefs may come to light that may have been obscured in the reactivity.
When I engage this inquiry practice, I often feel lighter and less stuck; at other times a deep sadness may arise from witnessing how a pattern has perpetuated itself for so long. But in every case I clearly see how the “I” and “mine” of the narrative have contributed to and further entrapped me in the pattern. Once the entanglement is seen and self-identification released, there is space to respond from a wiser, more compassionate part of myself, I find freedom to act in accordance with my truest values and insight.
The essence of love and compassion is understanding, the ability to recognize the physical, material, and psychological suffering of others, to put ourselves “inside the skin” of the other. We “go inside” their body, feelings, and mental formations, and witness for ourselves their suffering. Shallow observation as an outsider is not enough to see their suffering. We must become one with the subject of our observation. When we are in contact with another’s suffering, a feeling of compassion is born in us. Compassion means, literally, “to suffer with.”
Thich Nhat Hanh
Daylong Workshop led by Lisa Ernst
Saturday, October 19, 9:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m., Nashville Friends Meeting
Contemplative inquiry is a vital skill for practitioners and facilitators for cultivating focused, open attention. It is the art of embodying presence and mindful listening, while reflecting a deep and heart-felt sense of kindness and curiosity. These qualities ground and support us in the unfolding nature of experience, expanding awareness and inviting reflection on what we experientially observe. Through the practice of inquiry, we begin to disrupt and release rumination, limiting beliefs and conditioned responses, while bringing more intention and joy to our lives and interactions.
In this daylong you will learn to incorporate inquiry practices inro your own meditation and strengthen your ability to incorporate these skills when working with others. Inquiry practices free the mind from habitual stories, narratives and patterns of avoidance that prevent present moment awareness and compassion from unfolding. These skills are suitable for personal investigation, facilitating groups and working one on one with clients.
This workshop, led by Lisa Ernst, will include instruction, meditation, group interaction and practice in the inquiry process. The cost is $75 – $125 sliding scale. Please pay at the highest level you can afford so that others who need to pay less can also attend. (This is not a “dana” daylong and compensation to the teacher is included in your fee.) A scholarship spot is available. Email onedharmaretreat@gmail.com Payment can be made here.
Three or Five Night Silent Meditation Retreat
Thursday Evening, 12/5 – Sunday Noon 12/8, Optional Extension to 12/10
Bethany Hills Retreat Center, Kingston Springs, TN
Registration opens September 3
All of our joys and sorrows, thoughts and feelings arise and fall away in a field of awareness that is clear, expansive and open. In this retreat we will explore how mindfulness, concentration and open awareness support each other. We will learn how developing the capacity to rest in awareness creates a wider container to meet even our most challenging and stressful thoughts and emotions with presence and compassion. It also stabilizes concentration (samadhi) and strengthens insight (prajna). This retreat is designed to invigorate and nourish, not only our formal mindfulness and concentration practices, but also our daily activities.
This silent retreat will include sitting and walking meditation, instruction, dharma talks and private meetings with the teacher. Retreat cost is $330 if paid by November 7; $360 after. The five night option is $465 if paid by November 7; $495 after. A $100 deposit holds your spot. Please indicate if you will be attending the three or five night option. Fee covers lodging and all meals. There will be a separate opportunity at the retreat to make a *dana offering (donation) to the teacher.
Lisa Ernst is a meditation teacher in the Thai Forest/Spirit Rock lineage of Ajahn Chah, Jack Kornfield and Trudy Goodman. Lisa leads classes and retreats nationally and is a visiting teacher at Spirit Rock meditation Center in Woodacre, CA.
Cancellation Refund Policy: More than four weeks from retreat start date – $30 cancellation fee; four weeks to 20 days from start date – $100 cancellation fee. No refunds are available for cancellations less than 20 days from retreat start date.
Ancient Roots, Living Branches: Discovering Buddhist India
March 14 – 28, 2020
Led by Lisa Ernst and Expert Local Guides
This tour is an exploration of both ancient Buddhist history and living Buddhist traditions. First we explore the ancient sites in the North and East of India, where the Buddha practiced and taught, including Bodhgaya and Sarnath, then to the mountains of Dharmsala, home to the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan community in exile. Next we visit Amritsar and the extraordinary Golden Temple.
The tour is guided by expert local guides in India, while Lisa Ernst, meditation teacher and founder of One Dharma Nashville, will offer meditation and dharma discussions along the way in various locations, from hotel gardens to Tibetan monasteries. For information including the complete itinerary, pricing, etc., go to http://www.soulofindia.com/join-a-group-tour/ancient-roots.
