Awake in the Body: Buddhist Meditation and Shadow Work

We will become our opposite if we do not learn to accommodate the opposite within us. — Carl Jung

At the heart of contemplative life is the archetypal journey home to our essential nature, our basic goodness. The Buddha taught that we come to experience this essential nature through the embodied integration of meditative quiescence (shamatha) and contemplative insight (vipashyana). In this workshop, we will cultivate quiescence and insight through the “four applications of mindfulness” of the body, feelings, mental states, and phenomena, which invite us to develop a self-aware gaze, or metacognition.

We will meditate indoors and out and learn how to work with challenges along the path through Feeding Your Demons® (FYD). This Buddhist-based practice is an exquisite five-step process in which we offer attention and compassion to our inner obstacles, our “demons,” rather than struggle with them. In this context, demons are those thoughts, emotions, and behaviors that block our experience of freedom. A 2018 FYD pilot study found that FYD was associated with increased self-compassion, emotion awareness and self-regulation, satisfaction with life, and decreased stress, craving, depression, and intolerance for uncertainty. FYD transcends spiritual constructs, serving as a meaningful tool for anybody, regardless of religious affiliation or personal philosophy.

In this retreat, you will experience:

• Meditation indoors and in nature, gazing over the Pacific Ocean, weather permitting.
• Discussions on the seminal Buddhist teachings called the “four applications of mindfulness.”
• Feeding Your Demons (FYD) practice.
• FYD with drawing/art. 

All are welcome. Please bring loose, comfortable clothing, a journal, and writing implements. Paper and art supplies will be provided. If you have art supplies you like, such as colored pencils, pens, pastels, or watercolors, feel free to bring them.

Recommended Reading: The 4 Foundations of Mindfulness in Plain English by Bhante Bunaratana and Feeding Your Demons: Ancient Wisdom for Resolving Inner Conflict by Tsultrim Allione.

This workshop includes an additional $5 for materials.