Metta as a Gateway
to Holding Life
An Half Day Online Retreat with
Pawan Bareja and Arinna Weisman
May 27th, 2023 10am - 2:30pm PST
We are curious, spontaneous, and open-hearted when we are nourished by Buddhist teachings of Loving Kindness and Compassion. These practices help us relate to ourselves and others from a place of caring, clarity and empowerment.
Metta supports our hearts’ natural capacity to respond with warmth, and tenderness. Sometimes, though, our hearts feel locked down with defenses of protection and habitual patterns. The miracle of our selves is that with patience and perseverance we can access this energy and over time we develop a sense of inter-connectedness with all creation.
We can also practice compassion which gently turns us towards our suffering caused by a sometimes unfriendly inner and outer world. It helps us meet our inner critic with clear-seeing and kindness.
This half day is open to all who are interested in joining us.
Registration is free and there will be an opportunity to offer dana / donations for the teachings at the close of the retreat.
Pawan Bareja, PhD has practiced Vipassana meditation since 2001. She is a graduate of the Spirit Rock Teacher Training, a Buddhist Ritual Minister and a Community Dharma Leader at Spirit Rock. She has taught classes and daylongs on healing trauma using mindfulness at Spirit Rock, San Francisco Insight, EBMC, and Esalen. In her private practice as Trauma Resolution Practitioner, Pawan works with a diverse population of clients and teaches mindfulness meditation. For the past 18 years, Pawan has been a senior assistant at Somatic Experiencing trauma healing trainings and has traveled to India to teach this work to professional care providers.
Arinna Weisman has studied insight meditation since 1979 and has been teaching since 1989. Her root teacher is Ruth Denison who was empowered by the great Burmese lay teacher Sayagyi U Ba Khin. She is the founding teacher of Insight Meditation Center of the Pioneer Valley and the Guiding Teacher at Dhamma Dena. She is co-author of the book, A Beginner’s Guide to Insight Meditation and a contributor to Women Practicing Buddhism: American Experiences, edited by Peter Gregory and Susanne Mrozik.