Sunday, May 18 – Natural Awareness: Everyday Practices for Discovering Innate Wisdom with Lama Willa Miller

Sunday, May 18 – Natural Awareness: Everyday Practices for Discovering Innate Wisdom

Lama-Willa

A daylong retreat offered by Lama Willa Miller at Tashi Gatsel Ling

Sunday, May 18 from 11am-4pm (with a break from 1-2pm)

 

You may want to either bring a bag lunch or pick up take-out in Freeport to eat during the break.

Suggested donation is $50. (No one will be turned away for lack of funds and any donation is welcome. Please make check out to “Natural Dharma.”)

Space is limited to the first 40 participants who register. (If more people are interested, a waiting list will be kept in case of cancellations.)

Please send an email to lauriemcd@hotmail.com and put “Lama Willa” in the subject line to register. (Deadline is May 14.)

If possible, please bring a cushion to sit on.

Natural Awareness: Everyday Practices for Discovering Innate Wisdom

Most of us believe that happiness can be established if we just have the right conditions in our life–the right job, the right home, the right spouse, etc. The timeless teachings of the Wisdom traditions, however, tell us otherwise. The causes for happiness are not primarily external: Happiness is found by discovering the enlightened qualities of our deeper being. In the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, this deeper being is sometimes called natural awareness. Natural awareness is not something that we create or fabricate, and it is not something outside of our everyday experience. Natural awareness is present right within the everyday, every moment. It is our birthright. In this one-day meditation retreat, Lama Willa Miller will introduce and explore the topic of natural awareness. Participants will learn foundational meditation practices to begin to access natural awareness in our everyday lives, and will be introduced to the trajectory of the path to natural awareness. In this retreat, Lama Willa will draw from her book Everyday Dharma: Seven Weeks to Finding the Buddha in You. Books will be available for purchase at the event for $15 and can be signed if you wish. (It is not necessary to have or to buy a book for the teaching, however.)

Lama Willa Miller has studied and practiced in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition for the last twenty years in the non-sectarian Kagyu, Nyingma and Shangpa lineages of Tibetan Buddhism. Her teachers and guides have included Kalu Rinpoche, Bokar Rinpoche, Dilgo Khentse Rinpoche, Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche, Lama Norlha Rinpoche, Lama John Makransky and others. She completed two traditional Three Year Retreats in the nineties, was authorized as a lama [Buddhist minister] in 1999, and teaches Tibetan Buddhist practice, meditation and yoga in the Northeast. Her teaching specialties include natural meditation (mahamudra), heart-cultivation (lojong), deity practice, and practices for deep retreat. She is interested in the practical integration of meditation into daily life, and the power of nature to inspire authentic presence. She is the author of Everyday Dharma: Seven Weeks to Finding the Buddha in You (Quest Books), and the Arts of Contemplative Care (Wisdom Publications), and is the Founder and Spiritual Director of Natural Dharma Fellowship and Wonderwell Mountain Refuge. Lama Willa is a Visiting Lecturer in Buddhist Ministry at Harvard Divinity School, and has a PhD from Harvard University.

Tashi Gatsel Ling
20 Independence Drive
Freeport, ME 04032
207-776-9927
www.tashigatselling.com