Open Mind, Wise Heart: Contemplative Practice in Personal & Professional Life

This course is offered by Royal Roads University & is sponsored by Hollyhock Leadership Institute. 

The personal transformations that can happen with regular contemplative practice—more patience, compassion, insight, discernment and right action, for example—can play a part in positive social change, in organizations, businesses, institutions and governments.

Scientific research shows that meditators' brains reduce anxiety and distress and have increased capacity for creative thinking.  Learn and deepen the practices of loving kindness and insight meditation, which help us pay attention in each moment, non-reactive and without judgment.
In time, with sustained commitment, these practices cultivate a wise and compassionate approach to life.

This weekend retreat includes meditation instruction, periods of silence and of walking. Dialogues and discussion support the how-to of bringing a contemplative perspective to decisions and challenges of impact, and ways of bringing mindful attention to the things we do, and don’t do, everyday. Dana, or donations, may be made to the teachers.

Facilitators:

Charles Terry is a founding board member of the Centre for Contemplative Mind in Society.
His careers include corporate lawyer, poverty lawyer, law professor, founder and Director of The Door in NYC serving 5,000 inner city youth per year, Director of Philanthropy for the Rockefeller family, and consultant to foundation boards, trusts and non-profit organizations.  He currently works with leaders in positive sustainable change, including the Bravewell Collaborative and the Tipping Point Network.

Steven Smith is founder and guiding teacher of Vipassana Hawaii and of the Kyaswa Valley Retreat Center in Burma. Anchored in the Theravadan Buddhist tradition of Southeast Asia since 1974, he leads meditation retreats at remote and exotic centers worldwide, including BC.
Steven is Executive Director of the MettaDana Health/Education Project in Burma, of which Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the Democracy movement in Burma and a Nobel Peace prize recipient, is an advisor. Steven is a senior program advisor to the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society.

Michele McDonald has taught Buddhist meditation practice worldwide for 25 years, including 20 years at Insight Meditation Society in Massachusetts, and the annual retreat at Kyaswa Monastery in Burma since 1998.  She is a founder of Vipassana Hawaii and teaches regularly in BC, with a focus on sustaining the traditional teachings while making them accessible in contemporary culture.
Michele has a special interest in mentoring youth and is particularly drawn to the teachings on liberation—the very real possibility of freedom from greed, hatred and delusion in this life.