In the last 45 years, Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and other Mindfulness-Based Approaches (MBA) have spread across the USA and throughout the world. Mindfulness has become very popular in medicine, neuroscience, psychology, education, and business. At the same time, despite its popularity, its origins are not always understood. This retreat will explore and emphasize how the Insight (Vipassana) Meditation Tradition influences MBSR and emerging MBAs.
Through the practice of the four foundations of mindfulness, you will learn how the core wisdom teachings (Dharma) – the four noble truths and the three characteristics of existence – inform and inspire all MBAs.
This Insight meditation retreat will offer silent periods of sitting meditation, walking meditation, and mindful yoga, as well as practice discussions. The teachers will also offer daily talks and systematic meditation instructions that are infused with the spirit of lovingkindness. These teachings and practices will emphasize quieting the mind, opening the heart, and developing clarity and depth of practice.
Who is this retreat for?
This retreat is open to BIPOC trainees in an MBSR, MBCT, or related mindfulness-based teacher training pathway and who need an intensive silent retreat as part of their training requirements. Participants may be at different stages of the teacher training process.
The participants attending in person at the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies are members of Brown University's BIPOC MBSR teacher training cohort. The retreat experience itself is not limited to that cohort, however, and online participants from other institutions and/or training organizations will be welcomed as full members of the retreat community. Attendees should confirm with their own training institution that the retreat meets the specific retreat requirements of their teacher training pathway.
What makes this a BIPOC retreat?
This retreat is specifically intended for people who self-identify as BIPOC: Black, Indigenous, and People of Color. The retreat is designed to create a space in which participants from historically marginalized racial and ethnic communities can engage in sustained mindfulness practice within a shared context of identity, lived experience, and belonging.
The intention is not simply to offer a standard retreat to a BIPOC audience, but to cultivate a retreat environment that is attentive to the experiences, strengths, challenges, and forms of resilience that participants may bring with them. The teaching, relational environment, and community agreements will reflect an awareness of culture, identity, power, belonging, and the ways these can intersect with contemplative practice and the process of becoming a mindfulness teacher.
Retreat teachers
Bob Stahl has a long history of teaching mindfulness and serving historically marginalized communities. For the past three years, Bob and Abraham Dejene have also been offering retreats specifically for BIPOC participants who are completing retreat requirements within MBSR and MBCT teacher training pathways.
Bob brings decades of experience teaching MBSR, leading intensive mindfulness retreats, and supporting the development of mindfulness teachers. Abraham brings his experience as an MBSR teacher and teacher trainer, along with a particular commitment to expanding access, representation, and belonging for historically marginalized communities within mindfulness teacher training.
Together, Bob and Abraham bring complementary experience in intensive retreat practice, MBSR teacher development, culturally responsive teaching, and creating spaces in which participants can bring the fullness of their identities into contemplative practice.
Experience for online participants
The online option is not intended to be a livestream of the in-person retreat.
We hope that online participants will have as complete and integrated a retreat experience as possible within the virtual format. They are invited to engage fully in the retreat schedule rather than observing from the outside, and will have opportunities to meet with the teachers.
The essential retreat concludes at the same time for both online and in-person participants. Any activities involving the Brown University cohort that take place after the formal retreat has ended are separate from the retreat itself and do not affect the experience or completion of those participating online.
Remote attendance and participation
For those attending remotely, please consider taking time off from work and other responsibilities in order to immerse yourself in the retreat. For inspiration, support, and to help hold the intensive retreat experience, we will encourage everyone to keep their videos on as much as possible throughout the retreat. Please let us know in the retreat questionnaire (to be sent out prior to the retreat) if you feel you cannot keep your camera on during meditation sessions.
Mindfulness-based program prerequisite
If you are registering for this retreat as a requirement for teacher training in a Mindfulness-Based Program (MBP) such as MBSR or MBCT, you must fully attend the retreat. For any questions about this requirement, please contact one of the teachers: Abraham Dejene (abraham_dejene@brown.edu) or Bob Stahl (bob@mindfulnessprograms.com).