5-Night/6 Day Silent Mindfulness Meditation Virtual Retreat
Coming Home to our Hearts An on-line “Virtual Retreat” from the comfort of your own home.
Exploring and practicing the foundational teachings of Mindfulness in a 5 night silent on-line retreat. Led by certified MBSR and Meditation Teachers Beth Mulligan and Hugh O’Neill x Attendance at this retreat meets the 6-day / 5 night retreat requirement for many mindfulness teacher trainings, including, MBSR, Mindful Self Compassion and MBCT.
Co-sponsored by the UCSD Mindfulness Based Professional Training Institute. and filling the retreat prerequisite for many Mindfulness-Based programs.
5-Night/6 Day Silent Mindfulness Meditation Virtual Retreat
April 6th - 11th 2020
12:00 am - 11:59 pm
Led by Beth Mulligan and Hugh O’Neill
This retreat is also intended for anyone seeking the time and spaciousness to support their personal meditaiton practice, all levels of experience are welcome, and is not limited to those wanting to teach Mindfulness. Silent retreat practice is a vital way to nourish our personal meditation practice, which is life-enhancing for everyone and particularly important for those who work with mindfulness-based interventions. This mindfulness retreat is an opportunity to renew and deepen your practice of mindfulness meditation and living fully. The retreat will follow a rigorous traditional retreat schedule, in a supportive and beautiful environment, enhanced by silence with experienced teachers.
Questions?
For Noriko, email mindfulness@UCSD.edu or call 858-249-6893
Announcing a unique opportunity to attend a silent retreat from your own home!
During this time of so much fear, change, and uncertainty, we need each other and opportunities to practice Mindfulness and Equanimity the most. How to do this without gathering? The UCSD Center for Mindfulness is offering this unique opportunity to engage in a silent retreat, from the comfort of your own home.
The teachers will be holding the retreat virtually, and guiding you through the retreat just as they would in person, while you can stay healthy, safe and sleep in your own bed, while having full days of mindfulness meditation practice, walking meditation and Mindful Movement, talks, and teachings. There will be opportunities to meet in small groups once during the retreat.
If you’d like to join us, we invite you to consider how you can set up your week, so you can have as little external input as possible and really drop into the center of peace with in you. Even though we’d normally ask you to refrain from work emails, reading and writing, these are extraordinary times and we know you’ll have to stay informed and connected to family and friends, so in this instance we’ll ask you to keep it to a minimum, which is good for your mind and heart anyway.
Program Details
Much of our time will be spent engaged in sitting and walking meditation with periods of Mindful Movement. The teachers will offer daily talks, and interviews. Buddhist foundations of MBSR will be highlighted.
Who Should Attend?
This retreat fulfills the prerequisite for Mindfulness-Based teacher trainings and so is appropriate for anyone on the MBSR teacher training pathway, as well as active Mindfulness teachers and open to anyone interested in the practice of mindfulness in a traditional retreat format. If you Identify as a person of color, there is funding available for you attend this retreat, if you are on the UCSD MBSR Training Pathway.
Program Goals
- Provide a safe and nourishing experience for the cultivation and development of a deep and grounded mindfulness meditation practice.
- Foster a rigorous retreat experience – independent of a specific religious outlook
- Offer excellent support and guidance from highly trained and experienced teachers and meditation instructors.
- Practice noble silence to develop a strong foundation for deepening meditation practice.
For those who are new to meditation practice, please be aware that practicing for a week in silence can be an intensive and challenging – as well as a highly rewarding – experience.
Daily Schedule will run from 6:00 AM PST-to 8:00 PM PST and will consist of periods of guided and unguided meditation, Movement, Walking, and talks by the teachers
Participant Guidelines
Attendance:
Participants are strongly encouraged to attend all practice sessions.
Silence:
Means no conversation except during formal interviews. No reading, writing or use of technology except under special circumstances where you may need to maintain contact with the outside world i.e. (illness of a family member, etc).
Attitudes:
- Non-judging
- Patience
- Beginner’s mind
- Trust
- Non-striving
- Acceptance
- Letting go
Expectations:
- Self-care
- Confidentiality
- Listening and participating
- Silence
- Non-disruptive
- Genuine effort
- No food or drink (except water) in meditation room
Instructors
Beth Mulligan
Beth Mulligan, PA-C is a certified MBSR teacher, teacher trainer, and adjunct faculty through the UMASS Center for Mindfulness. She has been teaching MBSR for over a decade to diverse populations; from the critically ill, to non-profit organizations, the underserved, educators, and corporate leaders. She currently teaches at the Susan Samueli Center for Integrative Medicine at UCI and Insight LA. Beth teaches the 10-week and nine-day practicum for teachers in training nationally and internationally. Beth is a certified Mindful Self-Compassion teacher and teacher trainer and does international training for the Center for Mindful Self-Compassion.
Beth has a background in primary care medicine as a Board Certified Physician Assistant having graduated Magna cum Laude from Duke University and has practiced medicine for over thirty years. She is a long time student of Charles Tenshin Fletcher, Roshi at Yokoji Zen Mountain Center where she has lived in residence. Beth is the Guiding Dharma teacher at Insight Community of the Desert and is a certified yoga instructor.
Beth is the Author of The Dharma of Modern Mindfulness, New Harbinger Publications
Hugh O’Neill
Hugh O’Neill is co-owner of Mindful-Way.com, and a certified MBSR Teacher and International teacher trainer and retreat leader. Hugh has studied and practiced meditation and yoga for more than 20 years. His many years of creative and management experience in the media industry, including significant time working in international news and documentary production, combined with his intensive training in Mindfulness Meditation programs enable him to skillfully relate the concepts and practices of mindfulness with sensitivity and compassion to a wide range of populations. His experience working in the news business in Ireland and Northern Ireland has given him personal experience with Gun Violence; combined with his training in Trauma Informed Mindfulness makes him a key part of our work with offering MBSR to Survivors Empowered.. Hugh has taught more than 100 MBSR courses and dozens of other mindfulness programs at universities, medical centers, corporations and government agencies including the US Navy. He is the lead instructor on a multi year- multi site NIH study on MBSR for Parents of developmentally delayed children. Hugh has also been a presenter at the International Scientific Conference on Mindfulness, is a regular event speaker, and is the lead mindfulness teacher in a number of clinical research projects. Hugh has trained in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction with the originator of the MBSR program, Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn Ph.D. He has studied and lived in residence at Yokoji Zen Mountain Center under the guidance of Zen Master Charles Tenshin Fletcher, Roshi, and is Certified as an MBSR teacher through the UCSD Center for Mindfulness.