“With Awareness Comes Choice”–a Residential Retreat at Southern Dharma Retreat Center

Southern Dharma Retreat Center will host a retreat with David McKay Thursday, December 5 through Sunday, December 8. A description follows. We’d love to see you there! For more information, go here: https://southerndharma.org/retreat-schedule/1371/with-awareness-comes-choice/

We suffer from that which we cannot see. We each have been trained to accept automated processes of thought within our minds, and the self-defeating ‘reality’ which these thought patterns create. The result is that we suffer in separation from our authentic nature. Someone who is ‘unconscious’, who identifies with these thought patterns and cannot see the illusion they create, experiences no real choice. That person will simply feel, think, and do what their conditioned mind determines that they will feel, think, or do.

This is the dilemma we are working to escape through spiritual practice. In order to think and experience freely, to live spontaneously, and embody our authentic nature, we need to be aware of the processes by which we are made to experience ourselves as separate from the natural unfolding of each moment. With awareness comes real choice, including the profound choice to live beyond our assumptions and to look for ourselves to see who and what we actually are and what our lives truly call us to.

Over the course of this weekend retreat we will explore the simple, practical, and powerful tools of awareness practice; how to use these tools to let go of conditioned mind and move into present moment awareness; and how to apply these tools to the particular circumstances of our everyday lives.

The structure of this retreat will be relaxed and spacious. The schedule will include periods of sitting and walking meditation, workshop sessions, individual guidance, meals, and plenty of time to rest, enjoy the mountain forest around the property, and just be. Outside of the workshop sessions and individual guidance this retreat will be conducted in silence. Practitioners with all levels of experience are welcome.