Thriving in Difficult Times: Day-Long Online Retreat

This ON-LINE retreat, for new and experienced meditators, focuses on the earliest meditation instructions of the Buddha called "easing awake" through agenda-less, non-dual awareness. This practice works with loving kindness, joy, compassion and equanimity.

Sifting through the earliest records of the Buddha's talks (as compared to later commentators), we find a simple, elegant, and powerful practice. When he died, his teaching became an "ism", Buddhism. As it spread into other countries, cultures, and eras his teachings or "map" was copied and re-copied. Shortcuts, bypasses, scenic tours, and alternate destinations were added and deleted. Compared to the versions of his teachings most widely known, his original meditation emphasized:

**Tranquility: an open, receptive awareness favored over highly focused, one-pointed concentration

**Simplicity: loving kindness, serenity and insight all tightly integrated rather than treated as separate practices

**Stages: the practice matures through stages, each of which builds upon and goes beyond earlier stages (or "jhana")

**Ease: relaxing as more important than striving Presented by Easing Awake