Everyday Life as Mindfulness Practice

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Overview

Join us for a foundational series on the common-sense teachings of mindful awareness. With a focus on interactive discussion, meditation, and community building, Sylvia (via video recording) and Heidi (live via Zoom) will share practical, accessible, timeless teachings and tools that support the integration of mindfulness, non-harming, and kindness into the complexities of our everyday lives. Connect and be nurtured by the support of saṅgha, shared stories, and meaningful moments as we explore how to bring our practice more fully into everyday life.

This iteration of the series will involve interactive discussion, led by facilitating teacher Heidi Bourne, and will include Dharma talks, discussion and reflection, guided meditation, and Q&A.

With easy, accessible instructions based on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness, ethics (sila), and lovingkindness (mettā), this course series will offer an opportunity to take your practice off of the cushion and into the world.

About Sylvia Boorstein, PhD & Heidi Bourne

Sylvia Boorstein, PhD, has been teaching Dharma and mindfulness meditation since 1985. She is a founding Spirit Rock teacher, a psychologist, mother, grandmother, and great grandmother. She is particularly interested in emphasizing daily life as mindfulness practice and including informed citizenship and social activism as integral to spiritual maturation.

Heidi Bourne is a meditation teacher in the Insight Meditation tradition and is the founder and guiding teacher of Pacific Mindfulness. She has been teaching since 2005, offering classes, a series of courses, nature retreats, and trauma-informed and resiliency-focused professional programs. She holds certification in mindfulness facilitation from UCLA, trauma resiliency from the Trauma Resource Institute, and is a member of the International Mindfulness Teachers Association. Heidi is especially interested in the integration of common sense, accessible and timeless teachings of awareness, ethics, and compassion into the complexity of our everyday lives. She is known for her grounded, down-to-earth humor and presence. She has a background in nursing, 35 years in small business ownership, and lives with her family in northern California.

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.or g.