This program will be a sacred gathering of wisdom keepers, teachers, and community leaders with a deep, embodied love for and active spiritual practice of caring for our planet. In this time of polycrisis, where overwhelm is everywhere around us and inside of us, we will give ourselves space and time to feel, return to our bodies, grieve, and also let in the joy and refreshment of the Earth and our true nature.
Over a five-day and four-night program, May 9-13, at the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies in Barre, MA, thirty invited contemplatives will gather to explore and embody our love for our planet, practice in community, find rest, and offer our shared wisdom to one another. We will center practices that bring joy, pleasure and fulfillment in our care for our world.
Our time together will include:
- Daily opening and closing contemplative time to share in meditation and teachings from our collective ancestral wisdom traditions to care for our planet and all beings.
- Daily guided/supported accessible movement, including dance and InterPlay
- Wisdom Sharing/Teachings
- Daily guided mindfulness practice for self-care, grounded in Earth-centered wisdom
- Mindful walks and hikes in nature, alone and together
- Time to eat our food in silence so we can deeply enjoy it as a gift of the Earth and all beings
- Quiet time and space for personal practice
- Spacious time for rest and contemplation
- Community Building/Relationship Building
- Participatory Resource Sharing and Engaged Learning
- Singing and storytelling around the fire
Together we will create a schedule that is spacious and fluid enough for all of us to find deep rest and contemplation. Within this schedule, each participant will be asked to contribute an element from their earth-rooted contemplative/spiritual practice or share how they bring these teachings to their community.
The uniqueness of what we are called together to hold and the practices we will engage in to do this are intended to foster invaluable relationships and bonds we hope will last well beyond the time of our program. We hope to leave with inspiration, knowledge, and the potential for new embodied ways of building and caring for contemplative practice communities in their future actions for our planet.
This program is facilitated by Kaira Jewel Lingo. It is organized and funded by the BESS Family Foundation.
Participating in the program is free. We expect each participant to attend the full program so that the container of the program is held sacred. (Gratitude to Beatrice Anderson, Karen Waconda, and Margaret Fletcher for their program language which I have adapted from their previous BESS-funded Ecodharma program).
Program Format: This program will include walking and sitting meditation, presentations, ritual, movement, singing and storytelling, relationship building, and time for rest and contemplation.