Saturday and/or Sunday
March 24 – 25 2012
Join us at the beautiful Planting Fields Arboretum in Oyster Bay, NY
Please RSVP to grnislandsangha@gmail.com
Free Will Donation
This two day offering by Michael and Fern offers practicing with Mother Earth on Saturday for families and children (and the child in ourselves) and on Sunday for young adults and adults. Come for one or both days and enjoy the beauty of the Arboretum, the practice of mindfulness, lovely teachers and community. Saturday March 24th 10am – 4pm : A Day for Families and Children Celebrating the Two Promises: Cultivating Understanding and Compassion The day’s program will combine meaningful activities for families with a fun filled creative program for children and teens, and meditation, teachings, and discussion for parents/adults. Juice, tea and snacks provided. Please bring a vegetarian lunch for your family.It will be an opportunity for parents and children to learn basic life skills not taught in schools, such as:
- how to breathe and be centered
- find nourishment in the beauty and simplicity of life
- embrace anger and other strong emotions with acceptance, calm, and ease
- learn from our four legged friends in an nearby meadow (horse & dog activities by the Kaeli Kramer Foundation)
- have lots of fun!
Sunday March 25th 10am – 4:30 pm: Mindfulness Practice as a Base for Sustainable and Regenerative Living: Breathing with the Earth This one day retreat will offer us the opportunity to train in mindfulness, to rest in our breathing, and to connect with our vast and wonderful Dharma body – the body of the Earth and Cosmos. During this Day of Mindfulness, through sitting meditation, walking meditation, singing, chanting, teachings, discussion, and a special Land-based practice of Touching the Earth, we will find fulfillment in simple things and in each other. It is a time to let the miracle of life be our primary source of nourishment. Tea provided. Please bring a vegetarian lunch for yourself. Dharmateachers Fern Dorresteyn and Michael Ciborski and members of MorningSun Mindfulness Community in New Hampshire will guide the weekend. Fern and Michael are beloved friends and teachers, who met as Waldorf students, lived as Buddhist monk and nun for 7 years with Dhyana Master Thich Nhat Hanh in Plum Village, France and trained and worked intimately with Thich Nhat Hanh and the monastic community to organize, support, and offer meditation retreats around the world. Many of these retreats were for families and children of all ages from many countries. In 2003, Michael and Fern departed Plum Village and returned to lay life. Now married, with three children, they have founded MorningSun, a spiritual community and education center based on the practice of mindfulness. Driving Directions please see http://www.plantingfields.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=55&Itemid=63 Train Oyster Bay is the last stop on the Oyster Bay line of the Long Island Railroad from Penn Station. Planting Fields is approximately 1 ½ miles west. Sangha Transport from the train station to Planting Fields is available by reservation please send request to grnislandsangha@gmail.com This Weekend of Mindfulness is cosponsored by the Community of Mindful Living Long Island: Green Island Sangha http://greenislandsangha.blogspot.com, The Kaeli Kramer Foundation https://kaelikramerfoundation.org The MorningSun Community www.morningsuncommunity.org, Community of Mindfulness NY Metro http://www.communityofmindfulnessnewyorkmetro.blogspot.com Jeanne Anselmo“Our goal is to create a beloved community and this will require a qualitative change in our souls as well as a quantitative change in our lives.” ~Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.