The Wisdom of Non-Meditation: A Practice Retreat

Instructor(s): Willa Blythe Baker and Elizabeth Monson

Program Description:

In this long weekend, we will explore experientially the unique approach of Mahamudra, a style of practice found in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. In Mahamudra, we engage a style of sitting called non-meditation, a practice with potential to profoundly deepen and transform our meditation experience. In the practice of non-meditation, although there is a sitting practice, we loosen up a great deal around techniques, allowing meditative ease to find us naturally. Non-meditation acknowledges that the resources of peace, joy and compassion that we seek are already present innately, so efforts to artificially create these in our lives often end up undermining the process of their emergence. Instead, we are invited into a new relationship with meditation practice as discovery or adventure, relying on the power of space and openness to prompt our inner Buddha to emerge naturally. As we open to meditative ease, we find fresh ways of holding and relating to “hindrances” as our friends and allies in practice. This program includes a significant practice component. For those who have struggled with a tendency to over-effort in their meditation practice, or if your practice has grown stale, non-meditation can provide a much-needed tool for balance, resilience and renewal. The program will also utilize several Vajra Songs (short profound instructions) on meditation practice for textual study, with a program text to be announced.

About the Instructor(s):
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  Willa Blythe Baker

  Willa Blythe Baker, Ph.D., is the founder of Natural Dharma Fellowship and its retreat center Wonderwell Mountain Refuge in Springfield, NH. She was authorized as a lineage holder (lama) in the Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism after twelve years of monastic training and two consecutive three-year retreats. Willa is the author of several books, including The Wakeful Body: Somatic Mindfulness as a Path to Freedom (Shambhala Publications, 2021) and The Arts of Contemplative Care (with Dr. Cheryl Giles, Wisdom Publications, 2012). She is currently working on a translation of a memoir by the Dzogchen master Jigme Lingpa.

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  Elizabeth Monson

  Elizabeth Monson, Ph.D., is the Spiritual Co-Director of Natural Dharma Fellowship and the Managing Teacher of Wonderwell Mountain Refuge, a Buddhist meditation retreat center in Springfield, NH. She holds a Doctorate in Religious Studies with a focus on Tibetan Buddhism and Ethics from Harvard University. She has been studying, practicing, and teaching Buddhism for over thirty years and has been ordained as Lama in the Kagyu tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. Elizabeth just completed a biography of Tales of a Mad Yogi: The Life and Wild Wisdom of Drukpa Kunley, for Shambhala Publications (April 2021). Elizabeth also regularly leads pilgrimages to Bhutan.