Grief, Joy, and Awakening: An Insight Meditation Retreat

Instructor(s): David Chernikoff

Course Description:

Grief, Joy, and Awakening: The Heart of the Path

Experiences of grief and joy play an essential role in the process of spiritual awakening. In this program, we’ll deepen our understanding of grief and joy on the conceptual levels while we also expand our affect tolerance on the level of direct “felt experience.” There will be dharma talks, experiential exercises, heart-felt discussions, and a significant amount of meditation practice in Noble Silence. In a caring, supportive learning community, we will open ourselves to the “ten thousand joys and the ten thousand sorrows” as we discover the wisdom of what Sharon Salzberg has called “a heart as wide as the world.”

Noble Silence:

Noble silence will be observed following each evening session through breakfast the following morning. Additional silent practice periods will be scheduled throughout the program.

Experience Level:

Suitable for beginning and experienced practitioners.

Cancellation Policy:

If you need to cancel your registration, please contact us as soon as possible. If you cancel two or more weeks before a program begins, cancellation fees are $50 for all programs longer than two nights and $25 for weekend programs. If you cancel less than two weeks before your program begins, your full deposit is forfeited. If you received financial assistance, cancellation fees are $50 for all programs longer than two nights and $25 for weekend programs.

Covid-19 Safety Protocol:

Please review our Covid-19 Safety Protocols here: https://www.buddhistinquiry.org/covid-19/.

DEI:

As we work to become a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive community, we invite feedback/suggestions you may have regarding ways that we can make participation in the program more accessible and welcoming. Please email us at contact@buddhistinquiry.org.

About the Instructor(s):
• 

  David Chernikoff

  David Chernikoff, LCSW, M.Div., is a meditation teacher, spiritual counselor, and life coach who taught psychology and meditation at Naropa University for many years. In the early 1980s, he worked at Ram Dass’s Hanuman Foundation Dying Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico and then became the director of Mesilla Valley Hospice in Las Cruces, N.M. He later spent three years in Nepal doing public health development work for the Seva Foundation and studying with Tibetan Buddhist teachers. After returning to the U.S. he became the education and training director for the Spiritual Eldering Institute, now called Sage-ing International. In that role, he taught conscious aging programs throughout the U.S., in Canada, and in Ireland. David is currently one of the guiding teachers of the Insight Meditation Community of Colorado and has a private practice in Boulder.