InsightLA Schedule

Join Us for Vesak Celebration! Potluck and Midnight Sit




 


Teacher(s):
TRUDY GOODMAN AND CHRISTIANE WOLF
TEACHER BIO

Trudy Goodman and Christiane Wolf

Trudy Goodman is Executive Director and Founding Teacher of InsightLA. Trudy was a psychotherapist in private practice for 25 years  and studied Buddhist meditation for 36 years with Asian and Western teachers. She was the fourth teacher of MBSR, mindfulness-based stress reduction, which she taught with its creator, Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn. She is the Guiding Teacher and co-founder of the original Institute for Meditation and Psychotherapy in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In Los Angeles, Trudy co-founded Family Path and Growing Spirit, family mindfulness programs, with Susan Kaiser Greenland and has worked with children all her life. She is a contributing author: Guilford 2005, Mindfulness and Psychotherapy; Springer, 2008 Clinical Handbook of Mindfulness.

Christiane Wolf is the Director of MBSR programs at InsightLA and a certified senior MBSR teacher by the Center for Mindfulness, University of Massachusetts Medical Center. A board licensed Ob/Gyn in Europe, she also holds a PhD in Psychosomatic Medicine from the Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany. Besides MBSR she teaches Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), Mindfulness-Based Childbirth and Parenting (MBCP) and beginning and intermediate level Buddhism classes. Her areas of expertise include working with patients who have cancer and chronic disease, and working with pain in the general population as well.

Date(s): May 5 (Saturday)
Time: 7:15pm - 12:00am
Description: On the night of the full moon in May, people gather in Buddhist monasteries around the world to celebrate the Buddha's birth and enlightenment. For six years the Buddha practiced with dedication and determination; after a long night of sitting under the Bodhi-tree, he finally understood how to free the heart from suffering. This momentous insight is honored in the monasteries with quiet sitting and walking meditation all through the night; the lay community joins in to practice and give to those in need.

Here is the story of this night more than 2500 years ago:
"During the first watch of the night, when the Buddha-to-be's mind was calm, clear and purified, light arose in him, knowledge and insight arose. He saw his previous lives, at first one, then two, three up to five, then multiples of them .. . ten, twenty, thirty to fifty. Then 100, 1000 and so on.... As he went on with his practice, during the second watch of the night, he saw how beings die and are reborn, depending on their Karma, how they disappear and reappear from one form to another, from one plane of existence to another. Then during the final watch of the night, he saw the arising and cessation of all phenomena, mental and physical. He saw how things arose dependent on causes and conditions. This led him to perceive the arising and cessation of suffering and all forms of unsatisfactoriness. With the complete cessation of craving and aversion, his mind was completely liberated. He attained to Full Enlightenment."

It's important to note: the Buddha spent the next 40 years teaching what he saw during the final watch of the night -- he taught what can be verified in our own experience and bring suffering to an end. He didn't spend his time teaching about past lives, planes of existence, or the workings of karma and rebirth, which he called an "imponderable." He even quipped, if you ponder this, it can drive you crazy! What he wanted us to see for ourselves is the arising and passing away of phenomena, the conditioned nature of our lives, and how looking deeply into this can bring peace to our hearts.

We'll come together to share a meal, meditate, listen to a dharma talk and then meditate some more. You are welcome to come for part of the evening or the whole time. Come find out that you can practice longer than you think! Play with your limits -- explore what may be possible for you as we sit, with trust and confidence that the Buddha's awakening is a real possibility for each one of us.

Schedule:

7.15 - 8.00 PM: Potluck dinner (let us know if you want to bring something)
8.00 - 8.30 PM: Sitting
8.30 - 9.00 PM: Dharma talk
9.00 - 9.15 PM: Break
9.15 - 10.00 PM: Sitting again, if you like, starting with chanting
10 - 10.20 PM: Walking
10.20 - 11 PM: Sitting
11 - 11.15: Walking
11.15 - 12 AM: Sitting
Location: InsightLA Olympic
1430 Olympic Blvd.
Santa Monica, CA 90404
Please note: Parking is metered everyday except Sunday.
Directions: See Map
Contact the teacher Contact by email (expect responses Monday - Friday, only)
Level: All Levels
Cost: by donation (all donations of the evening will go into our scholarship fund)
Enrollment Limit: 70 | There are still openings for this event.
Contact Information: Christiane@insightla.org