FEATURED ARTICLE:
Venerable Dhammadinna On the Wisdom of Compassion
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LISTENING, CONTEMPLATION & MEDITATION:
Study Retreat on The Art & Practice of Loving
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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.
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Venerable Dhammadinna took robes in 1983 in the Theravadin tradition. She moved to Burma  with her teacher and remained in Asia for 21 years, studying with U Pandita Sayadaw and Ajahn Buddhadasa, among others. She has taught Buddhism and 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. Venerable Dhammadinna is deeply committed to the practices of samatha and vipassana meditation as shared by both the Theravada and 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 and with Venerable 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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Healing Ecology - A Buddhist Perspective
on the Eco-Crisis & Social Justice
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September 18-20, 2015
San Geronimo Lodge,
Taos, New Mexico
Public talk on Friday evening:
Why Buddhism and the Modern World Need Each Other
The highest ideal of the Western tradition has been to restructure our societies so that they are more socially just, while the most important goal for Buddhism is to awaken and realize one's true nature. Today it has become obvious that we need both...because each project remains incomplete without the other.
Retreat/Workshop on Saturday/Sunday
(with option to stay over at San Geronimo Lodge):
Does Buddhism provide any special insight into the ecological crisis? Do its teachings imply a different way of understanding the biosphere & our relationship to it, which can really help us at this critical time in history, when we are doing so much to destroy it?
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 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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Manifesting Spiritual Aspiration by
Deepening Practice...
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For Experienced Students
 Please contact TMH office re: space
August 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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Reflection from Ven. Dhammadinna on The Wisdom of Compassion...
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Sometimes people think vipassana, or insight, is one thing and compassion is another. If you think like that you won't see the wisdom in compassion. And that's a pity because there is a special wisdom in the compassionate perspective.
If you are earnest about vipassana, you are used to turning toward something that arises in the field of awareness. We are well trained in that. And we know mindfulness will deepen our comprehension of any contact. Not only that, but mindfulness will drive away the deluding power of pleasure, pain and the perceptions of lasting happiness. The heart essence of vipassana is to relieve us from our default mode of taking everything personally. That's liberation.
Compassion also turns toward any turbulence that arises in the field of awareness.  When something stirs us up, we have lost our inner wholeness. Our distress deepens when we feel intimidated by our emotions --- it's like that, a disturbing feeling and then a feeling about the feeling.
By the power of empathy, compassion turns toward suffering and offers a deep acknowledgment of our disturbance. That deep, mindful acknowledgment frees us to feel all of what is there without defensiveness. We don't need to fear being overwhelmed because the compassionate mind acts as a companion supporting us in understanding dukkha/suffering. The compassionate perspective drives away the deluding power of inner alienation and fear. You could say that these things "self liberate" and that's the heart essence of compassion.
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Looking forward to 2016...
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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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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 accept 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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" Abandoning unskillful states that cause suffering is not something we do out of f ear of or contempt for those states, or out of contempt for ourselves for having those states arise in the mind. Abandoning the unskillful isn't accomplished by angrily shoving or pushing away our habits of separation. Rather it comes as we learn to truly love ourselves and all beings, so that love provides the light by which we bear witness to those burdens, watching them simply fall away..."Sharon Salzberg in "Lovingkindness:
The Revolutionary Art of Happiness"
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other magazines... read his current Tricycle article 
