Join Jon Aaron as he shares his wisdom of living from an open heart in stillness and peace. We are offering a Four-Day Meditation Retreat with time for Q&A and reflection, May 15-18, 2025, beginning with dinner at 5pm and ending at noon.
Peace as Practice: Strengthening Compassion and Expanding Mindfulness While Living in a Frantic World
Together we will explore ancient teachings about heart practices, and how these work in tandem with mindfulness. Grounded in a Buddhist orientation as well as drawing on other wisdom traditions, we will learn and deepen our practice of what is referred to as the Four Divine Abodes: loving-friendliness (metta), compassion (karuna), resonant joy (mudita) and equanimity (upekkha). Each of these practices is understood as appropriate responses to what arises internally and in our world. In this way, we can develop a more capacious, sustainable and creative way of meeting life’s challenges.
These days will be held in Noble Silence, including giving ourselves a well needed break from our devices. This can support us to unravel our nervous systems and experience a more natural, luminous nature of mind.
The retreat will include guided and silent sitting meditation, walking meditation, chanting, poetry and dharma talks. Prior retreat experience will of course be helpful, though it is perfectly appropriate for first timers as well. There will be several opportunities during the retreat group for Q&A and 1:1 meetings.
Cost and Location:
Colombiere Conference and Retreat Center, Clarkston, MI
Private rooms with shared bath; vegetarian meals
Cost for Room, Board and Facilities: $440. A deposit of $240 will save a room for you. Total amount due 3 months before the retreat (Feb 15). Refunds before March 15 less $25 processing fee. For information about scholarships please contact the Still Mountain Teacher’s Council.
In keeping with Buddhist practice, the teacher is not paid from the registration fees. During the retreat, you will be given the opportunity to practice generosity by offering dana (monetary gifts) to the teacher.
For more information, email retreats@stillmountainmeditation.org.
More about Jon:
Jon Aaron has been a teacher at the New York Insight Meditation Center since 2006. As of September 2024, he has returned (at least temporarily) to his midwestern roots. He is currently living in Chicago, where he is already active in that beautiful city’s mindfulness and Buddhist meditation scene. His principal dharma teachers have been Matthew Flickstein of The Forest Way and Kittisaro and Thanissara of the Sacred Mountain Sangha. He is a Certified Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction teacher and trainer and has taught over 150 cycles of this seminal curriculum. He is a co-founder of The Global Mindfulness Collaborative. Though his primary teaching is through classes, 1:1 mentoring, and daily guidance, he enjoys leading retreats throughout the U.S. In 2020, with his partner Upayadhi, he established Space2Meditate.com, an online community for meditators that started in the context of the pandemic and is still thriving. He is also a certified Somatic Experience Practitioner®. With his friend, the scholar Doug Smith, he co-hosts the podcast Diggin’ the Dharma (Digginthedharma.com), which is now in its third season.
Most important to Jon is how Dharma and mindfulness practices are integrated fully into our lives off the cushion, allowing greater spaciousness and clarity to deal with personal, environmental, and social challenges.
