Yin Dharma:
Exploring the Feminine in Our Practice
A Year-Long Program
Sebene Selassie
With
Pamela Weiss and Thanissara
Audre Lorde describes a deep knowing that touches into a “feminine plane” within each of us that she calls the erotic. It is rooted in the senses and has a vital connection to the earth and our individual and collective human bodies, regardless of gender. This way of knowing has been dismissed and even vilified in patriarchal cultures, and women and gender nonconforming people in particular have been devalued and oppressed for their connections to this wisdom. In this yearlong course, we will explore the possibilities of a contemporary Vipassanā practice enlivened and deepened by this feminine wisdom.
We will investigate this feminine wisdom and its place—and dis-placement—in Theravāda traditions through inquiry and practice. How did women find power and voice to express a feminine Buddhist practice? When and why were women distanced from power in Theravāda communities and their voices and wisdom suppressed? What resources can we find in classical Buddhist traditions that can inform and inspire feminine practices today? Together, we will explore the potential of the erotic, nature, devotion, musicality, mystery, and the body to inspire feminine wisdom as power to transform individual Buddhist practice and also our communities.
This offering is open to participants of all genders. Our exploration of the feminine will acknowledge the limitations of a false gender binary while at the same time highlighting and investigating the historical and contemporary denigration of the feminine.
A Chinese Ming dynasty porcelain figure of Guanyin.
Yin Dharma Path Program
Between each module there will be ongoing practices and readings as well as facilitated small group check-in meetings and monthly peer-led gatherings online.
Participants commit to all three residential courses and the online components in between.
Financial assistance may be requested on the registration page.
Module 1 (Residential – October 22–27, 2021)
Online Meetings: 11:00–1:00 PM EST (Dec 4, Jan 8, Feb 12, Mar 12)
Module 2 (Residential – April 29–May 4, 2022)
Online Meetings: 11:00–1:00 PM EST (Jun 11, July 9, Aug 13, Sept 10)
Module 3 (Residential – October 7–12, 2022)
Sliding Scale Pricing for the Full Program:
Supported: $1845
Mid Level: $2295
Sustaining: $2895
Benefactor: $3645
Paid in three equal installments before each residential module:
Cost of each retreat:
Supported: $615
Mid Level: $765
Sustaining: $965
Benefactor: $1215
Course fees do not include payments to teachers.
Students are invited to support the teachers with dana (generosity) at the end of each residential module.
Applications Open: June 10, 2021
Applications Close: August 15, 2021
Notification about registration status: August 27
Payment due: Two weeks from date of acceptance letter
Open spaces offered on rolling basis
Course Starts: October 22, 2021
Module 1 (Residential – October 22–27, 2021)
with Sebene Selassie and Pamela Weiss
In this module, we will explore our connection to lineage, ancestry, and the earth. We will spend time practicing outdoors together: sitting on the ground, walking in the woods, and integrating the natural world into our awareness. We will also examine Buddhist texts and historical scholarship that reveal the androcentric bias woven into early Buddhism and consider ways to practice that are free from patriarchal overlays.
Module 2 (Residential – April 29–May 4, 2022)
with Sebene Selassie
In this module, we will delve into devotional practices of chanting and bowing, uncovering the musicality and movement often missing from our current forms. We will also look at the colonial period and the “invention” of modern Insight practice.
Module 3 (Residential – October 7–12, 2022)
with Sebene Selassie and Thanissara
In this module, we will interrogate our contemporary lenses of science and materialism by investigating the mystery of what is beyond our rational explanations of practice. We will explore postcolonial and feminist interpretations that help us integrate the body’s feminine wisdom into the possibilities of practice.
Sebene Selassiebegan studying Buddhism 30 years ago as an undergraduate at McGill University, where she majored in Comparative Religious Studies. She has an MA from the New School, where she focused on race and cultural studies. Sebene serves on the Leadership Council of Sacred Mountain Sangha and is passionate about making the dharma accessible and relevant for our times. Her first bookYou Belongwas published by HarperOne in 2020.
Pamela Weiss is a Buddhist teacher and the author of A Bigger Sky: Awakening a Fierce Feminine Buddhism(North Atlantic Books, 2020). She lived as a monastic at Green Gulch Farm and Tassajara Zen Mountain Monastery, completed retreat teacher training through Spirit Rock Meditation Center, and was the first lay person to receive Dharma Transmission in the Suzuki Roshi lineage. Pamela is passionate about bringing Buddhist practices off of the cushion into daily life, integrating feminine perspectives and ways of knowing into the teachings, and weaving the sacred into the heart of the world. She lives in San Francisco with her husband and little dog, Grover, and is working on a fictional account of the lives of early Buddhist nuns.
Thanissarabegan practice in the Burmese school of U Ba Khin in 1975. She spent 12 years as a Buddhist nun in the Forest Tradition of Ajahn Chah. She has facilitated meditation retreats internationally the last 30 years and has an MA in Mindfulness-Based Psychotherapy Practice. She is cofounder, with Kittisaro, of Dharmagiri Sacred Mountain Retreat in South Africa and the Sacred Mountain Sangha in California, which runs a two-year Dharmapala Training. She has authored several books including Time to Stand Up: An Engaged Buddhist Manifesto for Our Earth — The Buddha's Life and Message Through Feminine Eyes(North Atlantic Books, 2015),Listening to the Heart: A Contemplative Journey to Engaged Buddhism(North Atlantic Books, 2014), andThe Heart of the Bitter Almond Hedge Sutta(CreateSpace, 2014).
