Living Dharma Program | 2024

Overview

Experience the profound wisdom of the Buddha’s Noble Eightfold Path in this dynamic program designed for devoted meditators and Buddhist practitioners. This training invites us to connect with the transformative teachings of sīla, samādhi, and pañña (ethics, meditation, and wisdom) as we consider how to cultivate mindfulness, kindness, and balance given the mounting stresses of modern life that impact us on both individual and global levels.

Together we will explore the eight limbs of the Dharma path: Wise Understanding, Wise Motivation, Wise Action, Wise Livelihood, Wise Communication, Wise Effort, Wise Mindfulness, and Wise Concentration. Then, supported by these key Buddhist teachings, we will consider how we’d like to live and respond to today’s pressing challenges—from increasing social inequity to the climate crisis—with awareness, wisdom, and compassion.

Our meditation practice is deeply intertwined with the world around us—socially, politically, and globally. Throughout this practical and experiential program, we will cultivate a vibrant learning community where we will learn, practice, and integrate these 2600-year-old teachings into our contemporary lives. Join us and transform your practice while fostering a life rooted in the gifts of mindfulness, resilience, and purpose.

About the Mark Coleman & Dawn Mauricio

Mark Coleman has trained extensively in the Buddhist tradition, both in the Insight meditation and in the Dzogchen tradition. He is a senior teacher at Spirit Rock Meditation Center and has taught insight meditation retreats since 1997.

Mark is a life-long nature lover and is passionate about guiding people into the beauty of meditation and nature. He has led wilderness nature retreats worldwide for over twenty years. Through his organization Awake in the Wild Mark leads year long nature meditation teacher trainings in the US and Europe.

Co-founder of the Mindfulness Training Institute Mark also leads year long professional mindfulness teacher trainings in Europe and the US. He is author of Awake in the Wild – Mindfulness in nature as a path to self-discovery, Make Peace With Your Mind, From Suffering to Peace and his recent book A Field Guide to Nature Meditation.

He lives in Sausalito, Marin and likes nothing more than hiking, biking and kayaking in the outdoors.

Dawn Mauricio (she/her), a Filipina-Canadian, has been practicing and studying Insight Meditation since 2005. She has graduated from the first teacher development group of True North Insight, and Spirit Rock’s Mindfulness Yoga and Meditation Training, Dedicated Practitioners’ Program, and 4-year Retreat Teacher Training. She teaches with a playful, dynamic, and heartfelt approach People of Color and folks of all backgrounds. Dawn leads daylongs, retreats, multi-year programs, and workshops in Canada and the US for Spirit Rock, True North Insight, and Sacred Mountain Sangha. Dawn is a co-founder of the True North Insight BIPOC practice group, serves on the guiding teachers council of True North Insight, and the leadership council for Sacred Mountain Sangha. She is also the author of “Mindfulness Meditation for Beginners”. For more information, visit dawnmauricio.com.

About Spirit Rock & Insight Meditation

Spirit Rock is a spiritual training institution in the Insight Meditation tradition grounded in the Buddha’s teachings in the Pāli discourses. Our vision and mission is to bring people to a depth of realization of the Buddha’s path of liberation through direct experience, and to provide practitioners with teachings to manifest wisdom and compassion in all aspects of their lives, for the benefit of all beings. We welcome practitioners of all backgrounds and levels of experience to join communities of learning, support, and connection in our spiritual sanctuary and refuge.

This course is part of Spirit Rock’s new Dharma Institute, which offers in-depth study of the teachings and practices of the Buddha and the Insight Meditation lineage, along with professional trainings and continuing education. 

Spirit Rock was founded in 1986 by a group of Insight Meditation teachers, including Jack Kornfield, who, along with Sharon Salzberg, Joseph Goldstein, and Jacqueline Schwartz, founded Insight Meditation Society (IMS) in Barre, MA, in 1976. These centers, along with Gaia House (Devon, UK), are among the first centers teaching Insight Meditation (vipassanā) in the West. Read more about the founding of Spirit Rock and IMS in Jack Kornfield’s article “This Fantastic, Unfolding Experiment.” 

Insight Meditation is based in Theravāda (“The Way of the Elders”) Buddhism, as practiced in Sri Lanka, Burma (Myanmar), and Thailand, though our teachers carry many different lineages within—and outside—Theravāda. Our primary practices are based in the Mahāsī lineage of Burmese vipassanā and the Thai Forest Saṅgha lineage of Ajahn Chah. Read more aboutour Buddhist Lineage and listen to talks from teachers about the roots of our practice.

Questions?

Visit Help for additional information and guidance. After visiting the Help page, if you still need support with the Online Learning Platform, email OLPsupport@spiritrock.org.

For course-related questions, please get in touch with us at trainings@spiritrock.org