with Doug McGill
March 26-28, 2021
Fee: $125 (11 online sessions)
“Relaxation” means infinitely more than is normally understood in modern society where we have lost understanding of true relaxation.
In reality, fully relaxing the body and mind embraces the entire spiritual path from its first step of returning home to awareness, to the final liberating breakthrough of “nirodha,” the end of all suffering.
The Buddha defined the end of suffering as the release of all the ways that we so tightly cling to experience—now that’s relaxation!
So this weekend retreat is dedicated to understanding what true and deep relaxation really is—and mastering that truly restful, healing, energizing and unifying relaxation.
There’s virtually nothing that we do, that we don’t do better if we are relaxed. And of course, relaxation just feels incredibly good.
Our guide on this journey of deep relaxation and awareness will be Sayadaw U Tejaniya, the Burmese monk and meditation teacher who builds his approach on the foundation of deep relaxation.
“To be relaxed and in the right frame of mind is of prime importance,” says the Burmese monk and teacher, Sayadaw U Tejaniya, who will be the primary teacher for this retreat. “Everything else comes later.”
“Meditation is acknowledging and observing whatever happens, whether pleasant or unpleasant, in a relaxed way,” he says.
On this retreat we’ll learn crucial relaxation insights, tips and skills such as how to:
Increase energy and awareness by relaxing
Save and use energy more skillfully throughout the day
Instantly calm and relax in every situation
Use skillful relaxation to initiate “flow”
Keep the whole system in continuous ease
Important Note
This weekend retreat is the first of four retreats being offered in 2021, one per quarter, in a series entitled “Awareness is One Love.” The retreats follow the traditional insight (vipassana) progression from Relaxing in Ease, to developing Wisdom, to Love, to Love in Action. Because the skills developed on each retreat build upon each other, there is a strong advantage in taking all four retreats. However, everyone is free to take any one or more of the retreats, as they would like.
For more information or to register for the “Awareness is One Love” series of four retreats in 2021, click here.
If you still have questions, feel free to email me at dougmcgill@gmail.com, I’ll be happy to reply.
Beginners of all levels are invited!
Doug McGill founded and for 16 years was the Guiding Teacher of the Rochester Meditation Center in Rochester, MN. In 2019, he edited “Relax and Be Aware: Mindfulness Meditations for Clarity, Confidence and Wisdom,” by Sayadaw U Tejaniya. Since 2013 he has published “The Daily Tejaniya,” a daily email practice reminder from Sayadaw. Since 2013 he has taught a six-week “Introduction to Awareness Meditation” class several times a year. He learned insight meditation from Steve Armstrong, Kamala Masters and S.N. Goenka; and non-dual self enquiry from Rupert Spira. From 1979 to 1999 he was a reporter at The New York Times and a bureau chief for Bloomberg News based in Tokyo, London and Hong Kong.
Read testimonials from Doug’s meditation classes over the years.
A sliding fee scale is available, contact dougmcgill@gmail.com to discuss.
Retreat Schedule (Central Standard Time)
On this retreat we’ll do everything we normally do on the weekend—wake up, have breakfast, walk the dog, clean the garage and everything else. Except on this special weekend, we’ll meet online several times each day to learn how to maintain continuous mindful awareness and thus support the arising of a calm and stable mind, love and wisdom in our lives.
The retreat’s daily schedule alternates between “Online” sessions consisting of a short group meditation and instructions for each new meditation, and “Practice” periods for applying that new meditation in our daily life:
Friday
7 to 8:30 PM: Welcome to the Retreat!—A Dharma Talk on “Relaxing Deeply as Awareness”
Saturday
9 AM: “Awareness of the Body” (First Foundation of Awareness)
11:30 AM: Check-In
1:30 PM: Check-In
3:30 PM: “Awareness of Feelings” (Second Foundation of Awareness)
7 PM: A Dharma Talk on “Relaxing in Every Moment of Daily Life”
Sunday
9 AM: “Awareness of the Mind” (Third Foundation of Awareness)
11:30 AM: Check-In
1:30 PM: “Awareness of Dhammas” (Fourth Foundation of Awareness)—Guided Meditation: “My Body is Within Me”
3:30 PM: Staying With It—Guided Meditation: “Be Everything”
4:30 to 5:30 PM: Group Sit and Closing Circle