ANNUAL MEDITATION EVENT

ONE-DAY MEDITATION WORKSHOP

Mindfulness and Awareness Meditation Intensive:An Approach to Greater Sanity, Happiness, Wisdom and Compassion

Please note: This event has been postponed.

Please refer to this special UPDATES Page on our Website, for future updates

The Aligned Center in Irvington

Led by John Baker

ABOUT THE WORKSHOP

Buddhist Meditation is a 2,600-year-old tradition, a profound and living tradition handed down over the centuries from one practitioner to the next.  It is as relevant and important today as when the Buddha first taught it: the means to engender, wisdom, compassion, and deep appreciation of life.

 In this day-long program, designed for beginners and experienced meditators alike, we will explore the two basic approaches to meditation:

• Mindfulness (shamatha) - the ability to bring one’s mind back from dreams to what is happening in the present moment.  Its benefits:

• awareness of the extent to which we spend our lives lost in reflection, 

• increased peace of mind, as we begin to step out of anxious thought, and 

• the developing ability to focus one’s mind on what is happening now. 

• Awareness (vipashyana) – the ability to be mentally present, panoramically and effortlessly, seeing the real world of the present accurately, stripped of idiosyncratic judgment and preconception, and with compassion.  It includes and builds on mindfulness and leads to enlightenment, itself.  Its benefits:

• Spatial, accurate awareness of what is going on now,

• Greater capacity for compassion: the clarity, warmth, and vivid meaningfulness of the present moment, and

• Increased accuracy and skill in relating to and dealing with our lives.

The day will consist of talks, discussion, and meditation practice.

Lunch: 1 – 2:30 pm – you may bring your lunch or eat out at one of the local restaurants.

Led by John Baker, a WBC founder and senior teacher.

Questions? Email John Baker jjoebaker@gmail.com or The Aligned Center info@ thealignedcenter.com

A close student of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, John has been a practitioner and teacher of Buddhism for 49 years. He coedited Trungpa’s Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism and The Myth of Freedom and is the author of various articles. John is the co-founder and a principal teacher at the Westchester Buddhist Center in Irvington and the New York Buddha Dharma Center in Manhattan.  He also co-founded Naropa University, serving as its CEO for the first three years of its existence and as head of the Buddhist Studies program for five years.  John also serves individuals as a life and executive coach. He has 23 years experience in business, selling the company he founded to a Fortune 500 firm.

ADDRESS & DIRECTIONS

The Aligned Center

1 Bridge Street, Suite 64, Irvington, 10533 NY

• Aligned Center is situated right above the Red Hat restaurant, next to WBC's usual Irvington location at the Eileen Fisher Headquarters

• Park in the large lot in front of MP Taverna and walk into courtyard to the right of the Eileen Fisher Lab

• Go straight ahead to the "Foundry" entrance

• The office is on the second floor right at the top of the stairs