Join Yenkuei Chuang and Janet Surrey for an evening of practice and discussion via this online session hosted by Delaware Valley Insight and the Unitarian Society of Germantown.
This program is appropriate for both new and experienced meditators — all are welcome. The class is being taught over two sessions, 9/23 and 9/24. Register for each session separately if you'd like to attend both (strongly recommended), but you are welcome to attend one and not the other.
Please add delawarevalleyinsight@gmail.com to your address book to ensure you receive any communications for the event. If you have any difficulties joining the zoom or registering for a DVI class, please reach out to the email above or call Steve Ellis @ (215) 626-2929.
Dana (Generosity) will be well received and shared with Yenkuei and Janet to support them in offering this program.
Class Description: Insight Dialogue is an interpersonal meditation practice that weaves together three elements — each powerful in itself — the cultivation of meditative qualities of the awakening heart and mind, the wisdom teachings of the Buddha (dharma), and the power of our natural human relatedness. Insight Dialogue has the same purposes and roots as silent, insight meditation: developing mindfulness, compassion, and the release of liberating insight. The practice concentrates the power of relatedness in inclining us toward living our lives with awareness, wisdom, deep compassion and wise action in challenging times. The retreat is meant for both new and experienced practitioners of Insight Dialogue.
Friday PM will serve as an introduction to the practice, with a particular emphasis on cultivating and deepening mindfulness (sati) together, The first meditation guideline PAUSE will be introduced.
In the Saturday daylong retreat (See 9/24 event for registration), the six guidelines of Insight Dialogue will be introduced: PAUSE, RELAX, OPEN, ATTUNE TO EMERGENCE, LISTEN DEEPLY, and SPEAK THE TRUTH. There will be periods of silent practice, dharma talks, and contemplative practice, speaking and listening in dyads and small groups. Contemplations will be offered that support the investigation and understanding of the sources and release of suffering in our lives. We will address the suffering of our world, living with and responding to the realties of our complex, multilayered social, racial and cultural identities and relations.
Teacher Bios
Yenkuei Chuang 莊琰珪 (she/her): Yenkuei is a licensed psychologist, somatics practitioner, and trauma-sensitive mindfulness instructor ordained in Thich Nhat Hanh’s Order of Interbeing and trained in Insight Meditation/Early Buddhist Teachings. She is currently in the Teacher’s Development Cohort of Insight Dialogue. Yenkuei is passionate about helping people transform their suffering and find freedom, belonging, and power in the richness of their intersectional identities. She wrote her Ph.D. dissertation on the Development of Bicultural Competence. Her recent writings have been published in Lion’s Roar (Erased No More, 2020) and The Arrow (Dukkha of Racism, 2022).
Janet Surry: Janet Surrey, PhD is an Insight Dialogue Teacher. She teaches Insight Dialogue retreats worldwide and leads a longstanding practice group in the Boston area. Her first meditation teacher was Vimala Thakar. She has practiced in the Insight tradition for over 30 years, and trained as a Community Dharma Leader at Spirit Rock. Since 2007, Jan has worked intensively with Gregory Kramer and is currently serving on the Teachers Council of the Insight Dialogue Community. Jan is a practicing clinical psychologist and founding scholar of the Jean Baker Miller Training Institute at the Wellesley Centers for Women. She is on the faculty and board of the Institute for Meditation and Psychotherapy. She is the author of The Buddha’s Wife: The Path of Awakening Together.