FEATURED ARTICLE:
Reflection from Zen Teacher David Loy Can Buddhism help us understand the ecological crisis?
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Healing Ecology - A Buddhist Response
To The Climate Emergency
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Does Buddhism provide any special insight into the ecological crisis? Do its teachings imply a different way of understanding the biosphere, and our relationship to it, which can really help us at this critical time in history, when we are doing so much to destroy it?
David will offer a public talk on Friday & then a Retreat/Workshop on Saturday/Sunday.
Option to stay over at San Geronimo Lodge
David R. Loy is a professor, writer, and Zen teacher in  the Sanbo Zen tradition of Japanese Zen
Buddhism. He is a prolific author who lectures nationally and internationally, focusing primarily on the encounter between Buddhism and modernity: what each can learn from the other. He is especially concerned about social and ecological issues. He also leads meditation retreats. Sliding scale retreat fee: $60 - $150
Fee for Friday Evening Public Talk $10 per person.
If you wish to stay overnight, contact San Geronimo directly at (575)751-3776 for special discount rate.
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LISTENING, CONTEMPLATION & MEDITATION: Study Retreat on The Art & Practice of Loving
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with Ven. Dhammadinna
& Tenzin Jesse
November 13 - 20, 2015
Columbine Inn
Taos Ski Valley, New Mexico
Open to both experienced & beginning students
This retreat will combine the practice and study of metta, or loving friendliness meditation. The Buddha taught metta meditation to quell fear and anger, to promote harmonious relationships, and to purify the mind in concentration. The benefits of this practice touch every aspect of our lives. We will draw from a handful of sources for our study, including suttas from the Pali canon and teachings from the Tibetan tradition on bodhichitta, the awakened heart. We'll also give attention to Western neuropsychology. Each of these contribute a distinctive strand of meaning to the fabric of this practice.  Ven. Dhammadinna took robes in 1983 in the Theravadin tradition. She moved to Burma with her teacher & remained in Asia for 21 years, studying with U Pandita Sayadaw and Ajahn Buddhadasa, among others. She has taught Buddhism & led meditation retreats in Thailand, England, India and the US. In Dharamsala, His Holiness the Dali Lama accepted her as his personal student in 2000. In 2006, she co-founded Bodhiheart Sangha Meditation Center in Seattle with Tenzin Jesse. Ven. Dhammadinna is deeply committed to the practices of samatha & vipassana meditation as shared by both the Theravada & Mahayana Buddhist traditions.  Tenzin Jesse began studying Tibetan Buddhism in 1993, practicing with teachers in the Gelug, Kagyu & Nyingma traditions. She has completed the 7-year Lama Tsong Khapa Master's Program, a traditional Buddhist monastic curriculum. In 2004 she moved to India to study with the Dalai Lama & received ordination there from His Holiness. She returned to Seattle in 2006 & with Ven. Dhammadinna founded BodhiHeart Sangha, where she now teaches.
Sliding Scale Fees:
$498 (low) $698 (actual cost) $898 (benefactor)
Partial Scholarships Available - Application Necessary
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Manifesting Spiritual Aspiration by
Deepening Practice...
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For Experienced Students
 Please contact TMH office re: spaceAugust 16 - 25, 2015
Teachers:
Gina Sharpe
& Larry Yang
Columbine Inn
Taos Ski Valley, New Mexico Co-sponsored by NY Insight & East Bay Meditation Center (CA)
 
For those who have been undertaking study & practice for at least 4 years.
Sliding Scale Fees: $744 (low) $994 (actual cost) $1244 (benefactor)
Ample scholarships funds available
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The Mountain Hermitage
always needs donations to help with operating expenses & to support those who would not be able to attend our retreats without financial help.
Your gift will sustain this precious refuge of The Mountain Hermitage allowing us to offer the  teachings and practices that bring greater wisdom, compassion, peace and happiness to our individual lives and out into the world.
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We invite you to visit The Mountain 
Hermitage
community on our Facebook page.
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Reflection from Teacher David Loy:
Can Buddhism help us understand the ecological crisis?
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"We are here to overcome the illusion of our separation."
-- Thich Nhat Hanh
"I came to realize  clearly that mind is nothing other than mountains and rivers and the great wide earth, the sun and the moon and the stars. "
-- Dogen
Is the ecological crisis a larger version of our usual individual predicament, according to Buddhism? The Buddha emphasized the connection between dukkha - "suffering" in the broadest sense - and the delusion of a self that feels separate from others and from the natural world. Because this self isn't real, it is always insecure, haunted by a sense of lack. We usually misunderstand the source of this lack and try to fill it up by grasping at things outside ourselves: if only I had enough money, consumer toys, fame, etc... I can't get rid of this separate self, because it doesn't exist, yet I can "let go" of myself and realize my interdependence with everyone and everything else. "I" am not behind my eyes, somewhere between the ears, but one of the countless ways the world is manifesting, right here and now. The meaning of my life changes from self-preoccupation (" What can I get out of this situation?") to compassion ( "What can I do to make this situation better for everyone?"). We also have a collective sense of self, which today feels separates from the earth. This too involves an uncomfortable sense of lack: how can we secure ourselves? Again, we misunderstand the source of the problem and have become obsessed with never-ending economic growth and exploitation of the world's resources. But why is more and more always bette  r if it can never be enough? We can't "return to nature" because we've never left it. The earth is not only our home but our mother, and we never cut the umbilical cord. Our bodies don't end at our feet: their need to breathe, drink and eat reminds us that each of us is a microcosm of the great macrocosm, one of the countless manifestations of a biosphere that includes many millions of other species. Today the path of awakening includes realizing our non-duality with the earth, and living according to that realization. That means healing what we have damaged - which will heal us too.
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Looking forward to 2016...
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CLICK ON UNDERLINED RETREAT TITLE TO SEE ON WEBSITE
For more information on all these retreats, you can contact us...
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Limited scholarship support available for all of our retreats. Application Necessary.
Extensive information on the website: www.mountainhermitage.org
NOTE: We now accepts credit card payment through PayPal for retreat balance.
Contact TMH office for details.
May our practice serve towards the welfare, the happiness & the awakening of all beings.
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 "We need to take up an ancient lesson, found in different religious traditions and also in the Bible. It is the conviction that 'less is more.' A constant flood of new consumer goods can baffle the heart and prevent us from cherishing each thing and each moment. To be serenely present to each reality, however small it may be, opens us to much greater horizons of understanding and personal fulfilment. Christian [and Buddhist - editor] spirituality proposes a growth marked by moderation and the capacity to be happy with little. It is a return to that simplicity which allows us to stop and appreciate the small things, to be grateful for the opportunities which life affords us, to be spiritually detached from what we possess, and not to succumb to sadness for what we lack. This implies avoiding the dynamic of dominion and the mere accumulation of pleasures.... "Yet all is not lost. Human beings, while capable of the worst, are also capable of rising above themselves, choosing again what is good, and making a new start, despite their mental and social conditioning. We are able to take an honest look at ourselves, to acknowledge our deep dissatisfaction, and to embark on new paths to authentic freedom. No system can completely suppress our openness to what is good, true and beautiful..." Excerpted from Pope Francis' recent encyclical on climate change, "Laudato Si
(Praise Be), On the Care of Our Common Home"
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February 21-28, 2016 Finding Freedom Through Insight Meditation with Brian Lesage at San Geronimo Lodge
June 5- July 10, 2016 Five-Week Vipassana Retreat with Sayadaw Vivekananda & Marcia Rose at Columbine Inn 
