Coming Together A Three-day Insight Meditation Retreat
Taught by Howard Cohn September 30 – October 2, 2022 Chapel Rock Camp Prescott, Arizona
The sweetness of being in person and practicing together will be our guiding theme, and we will use the lifting power of community to help our mind and body come together and harmonize. With the essential building blocks of a well-collected mind and a caring heart, we will recover the natural Peace and Ease that is our inherent state.
— Howard Cohn
Insight Meditation
Vipassana (insight meditation) is the simple and direct practice of moment-to-moment mindfulness. Through careful and sustained observation, we experience for ourselves the ever-changing flow of the mind/body process. This awareness leads us to accept more fully the pleasure and pain, fear and joy, sadness and happiness that life inevitably brings. As insight deepens, we develop greater equanimity and peace in the face of change, and generosity, compassion, and wisdom become the guiding principles in our lives.
The Retreat
This two-night residential retreat will follow the Buddha's path of cultivating awakening and freedom, the central purpose of the Buddha’s teaching. A committed meditation practice provides the opportunity to realize an unfettered heart and mind, opening the way for genuine happiness. Practice helps us move beyond our usual spiritual or material comfort zone and opens us to a wider view of ourselves and our world. Through Insight Meditation and Loving-kindness practices, we can release our hearts from constriction and confusion and experience freedom and ease.
The retreat is composed of instructions, sitting meditation, walking meditation, question and answer sessions, and evening Dharma talks, and is suitable for beginners and experienced practitioners alike. Interviews with the teacher may be scheduled as time and numbers permit. Silence is observed throughout the retreat in order to provide an optimal environment for internal work. And we will be given instructions for the practice of loving kindness — cultivating friendship toward oneself and all other beings.
Check-in and set-up for practitioners will begin on Friday at 12:00 noon, September 30. The retreat begins at 2:00 p.m. Friday and ends after lunch on Sunday, October 2. Registration will be open to 40-50 participants; minimum age to participate is 15 years.
We will require full COVID-19 vaccinations and at least two boosters, and will follow CDC guidelines. Masking will be optional. If you experience symptoms of, or test positive for COVID or any other illness in the week prior to the retreat, we ask that you not attend.
Our Teacher
Howard Cohn is a founding teacher of Spirit Rock Meditation Center in northern California. He has led the Mission Dharma sitting group in San Francisco for over 35 years, been in private practice as a psychotherapist, and led Vipassana retreats worldwide since 1985. He incorporates the influences of Theravada, Zen, Tibetan Dzogchen and Advaita Vedanta in his teaching, with an emphasis on reawakening our intrinsic freedom. Among his many teachers and mentors are Jack Kornfield, Joseph Goldstein, U Pandita Sayadaw, Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, Tsoknyi Rinpoche, and the Advaita Vedanta Master H.W.L. Poonja. Howie is known by his students for his kindheartedness and warm sense of humor. In keeping with our ancient tradition of dana (generosity), Howie offers the teachings freely. The opportunity is always available to offer dana to Howie to help him continue his faithful and full-hearted conveyance of the Buddhadharma. You may do so here:
We will gather together at the Chapel Rock Camp and Conference Center in Prescott, Arizona, originally "the unceded land of the Yavapai people" and currently owned and operated by the Episcopal Diocese of Arizona. This beautiful, 18-acre center in the pines is about two miles west of downtown Prescott, and adjacent to Aspen Creek.
Facilities provided to us include a meeting/meditation hall, the dining hall, and two sleeping lodges with bunk beds. Each lodge (Cox and Kleindienst) has two shared bathrooms and four separate rooms, with windows that can be opened for ventilation. All beds are lower bunks. Options to camp in a tent or vehicle are not available at Chapel Rock.
The cost for all practitioners is $155 per person, which covers six vegetarian meals and lodging for two nights. Residents of Prescott may choose to sleep in their own homes, but the fee is the same for all attendees. We will strongly encourage all practitioners to stay on-site throughout each day, including meal times, to maintain meditative continuity and to promote a sense of community. Meals to be served: Friday - dinner; Saturday - breakfast, lunch & dinner; Sunday - breakfast & lunch
Your fee will cover our use of the facilities, our meals, and other expenses. We cannot offer refunds for cancellations. If you must cancel, your fee will be used as a donation to Prescott Insight for the retreat scholarship fund. Please plan to pay by check through the U.S. Postal Service, or by check or cash when you arrive for check-in. No one will be turned away for lack of funds. If you are unable to pay part or all of the retreat fee, please email us here after registering, and before September 15, 2022.
To pay by check please make it payable to: PIM Retreat Planning 6773 E. Savoy Place Prescott Valley, AZ 86314
Our teacher receives no compensation from your fee for his teachings. Honoring early Buddhist traditions, he offers his time, energy, and wisdom free of charge. The teachings of the Buddha have been sustained by the 2,500 year old tradition of dana, a Pali word meaning "generosity.” Practitioners are encouraged to help Howie lead a life devoted to teaching the dharma by offering a donation, in any amount, before or after the retreat. In the act of giving, we develop our ability to let go, cultivate a spirit of caring, and honor our inter-connectedness.
The retreat is open to the first 50 registrants on a first-come basis. Once those positions are filled, registered names will be placed on a waiting list in the order in which they are received. If you must cancel after registering please let us know as soon as possible to allow others to plan ahead. During the week prior to the retreat we will send important, detailed information.