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Sanctuary

Spiritual Practice and Social Justice

Sanctuary is a two-year program consisting of six separate trainings. You can attend each training as you are able. There is no preferred sequence. Each training stands on it own. Each one has a different primary focus and different content.
As part of the Sanctuary program we also recommend that you attend our December Retreat at Manzanita Village in order to gain maximum value and benefit from the series.

Sanctuary is a set of programs to integrate and balance spiritual practice with social justice perspectives.It will help you initiate, or deepen an existing, spiritual practice that can be woven into everyday living. We explore and unravel issues of burnout, grief, integrity, sex, relationships, money, sexuality, creativity - all the most loaded topics.

We are not looking to promote any particular point of view - either political or spiritual. Our intention is to guide you on a journey that will inspire you to ask deeper questions, and to embody your full strength, human integrity, and creative capacity.

THE ALCHEMY OF LEADERSHIP

September 19-21 NEW DATE
Michele Benzamin-Miki and Caitríona Reed
Registration includes accommodation and food

Sanctuary is an integration of traditional Mindfulness and Meditation training alongside training in leadership skills, non-violent principles, strategic visioning, and a multiplicity of cutting edge personal development and change tools to help you become master of your own mind and life.

- Adopt a mind-set so that in any situation you choose how you respond
- Ask "What can I learn here?" rather than "Why is this happening to me?" or "Whose fault is this?"
- Become the cause of what happens in your life, rather than a bundle of consequences, effects, and reactions.

Our work together will draw from multiple disciplines, including training in traditional meditation practices and Dharma teachings.
It will make use teachings, tools, and perspectives including:

2008 Sanctuary Dates:

March 20-23

July 19-26
~ The Alchemy of Leadership

September 19-21 NEW DATE

Without a destination or a goal how will you ever arrive there? And if you are so focused on your goals that you forget where you are right now, how will you know where to begin? To pursue your dreams, AND to live fully in the present, THAT is the key. Caitríona Reed

Buddhist practices drawn from Vipassana and Zen traditions

Dharma teachings, Buddhist and 'Sacred' Psychology

Contemporary understandings from Neuroscience

Neurological Repatterning and Neurolinguistics (NLP)

Deep Ecology

Global and Personal Grief work

The use of language, communication patterns, and reframing skills

Vision Quest under the guidance of our colleague Merlei Cassell a neighbor at Los Coyotes Reservation and a story keeper in the Cahuilla tradition.

We will use games, interactive exercises, writing exercises, periods of meditation and silence interspersed with teaching and team projects.

This is a very full content-packed program!

Some of our objectives for the program are:

* to develop tools for personal sustainability for activists
* to deepen perspectives around personal responsibility and the interconnectedness of all our actions and thoughts
* to provide tools for expressing the sacred, sustaining the sacred in our lives
* to provide tools for community building and healing
* to give a context for activism work that honors our ancestors as well as future generations
* to apply aspects of Buddhist teaching to revolutionary theory and practice
* to give a basic grounding for participants in basic Buddhist practices
* to provide a foundation for those who may themselves become teachers in the realm of socially-engaged spirituality and Buddhist practice

Oppression takes many forms, internal and external, individual and collective. The relationship between the two has influenced our lives in many ways. When we begin to explore the subtle effects of the many kinds of oppression we face in our lives, we are already on the road towards liberation.

Liberation is neither entirely collective, not entirely individual. The interplay between the two is varied and subtle. The exploration of that interplay is revealing, a discipline, and a self-liberating process in itself.

To be effective as agents for change we are called to be practical, adaptable, and open. A doctrinaire approach self-limits. Rigid adherence to particular points of view and doctrines limits our capacity to see, act, and interact with others. Systems of thought are best used as tools, rather than articles of absolute faith. This implies that we travel deeper than we have in the past. It does not imply cynicism or mere eclecticism

2008 Dates

March 20-23
Arrive Thursday afternoon or evening for an early Friday morning start, continuing through Sunday lunch.

July 19-26 .
Arriving Saturday afternoon or evening for an early Sunday start and ending Saturday lunchtime.

September 19-21 New Date
Arrive Thursday evening if necessary for a Friday afternoon start, continuing through Sunday lunch.

Winter Retreat December 26 - January 3
attendance at the winter retreat, or part of it, if possible

* Meetings will be held at Manzanita Village. Facilitators: Caitríona Reed and Michele Benzamin-Miki

* Participants are also asked to prepare information about a new, or ongoing, project or action which they will use as a point of focus during the week, and as an ongoing collaborative process with other participants.

* Participation for the full week is required.

REGISTRATION

March and September weekends $300
July 19-26, 2008 $800

These prices INCLUDE accommodation and food!

To register by mail send a check to
Ordinary Dharma
PO Box 67, Warner Springs, CA

To Register by Credit Card or Paypal

You are also invited to offer dana

Dana is an optional additional donation that enables us ,
to continue to offer retreats and trainings at Manzanita Village at these rates.

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Contact Us

Ordinary Dharma,
PO Box 67,
Warner Springs,
CA 92086

760-782-9223 Manzanita Village
760-782-0655 Fax

manzanita@fivechanges.org