Retreat in Myanmar
This year, Mettagroup’s small band of intrepid meditators (Paola and the Metta Boys) hit the road to experience firsthand the three holiest sites in Myanmar.
The Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon, The Golden Rock on Mount Kyaiktiyo, and the Mahamuni Buddha image in Mandalay. Sann Yu Maung, our awesome Licensed Tour Guide, says that anyone who visits all of them in one fell swoop will have extraordinarily luck. So there you have it, six more people on the planet with extraordinary luck!!
hwedagon Pagoda
Golden Rock
Mahamuni Buddha
On my return to the City of Angeles, my friend Daniel Ahearn reminds me of the Taoist story: “An old farmer who had worked his crops for many years. One day his horse ran away. Upon hearing the news, his neighbors came to visit. ‘Such bad luck,’ they said sympathetically. ‘Good luck, bad luck, who knows,’ the farmer replied.” Perhaps a little Mudita: May Good Fortune Fill All the Days of All of Our Lives….
Mandalay has such a different vibe from Yangon. Smaller, slower, older.
We flew south to Inle Lake. The light there after the sun sinks below the mountains is pure lavender.
U Indaka Sayadaw said during a Dharma talk he is continually surprised by the expressions of self-hatred that so many foreign yogis express during their interviews with him. He says, “I love myself. How can you not love yourself?” Perhaps the differences in child rearing, the Myanma (Burmese) community or alloparenting parenting model verses our western nuclear families cause one group to experience self-hate and the other self-love. Perhaps the differences in western personal identification verses the eastern group identification contributes. Western striving to be better than everyone else verses the eastern desire to fit in with the group.
Sayadaw’s instructions for dealing with the self-hatred/western negative self-talk is to ignore it and focus your attention on Metta Mind. If the distraction of the negative self-talk is impossible to overcome, use a few minutes of vipassana meditation to examine the source of the negative self-talk and then when you see the root causes as empty, return your attention to the cultivation of Metta Mind.
In the Myanma-style (Burmese-style) retreat interview, a yogi is meant to limit their report what is happening in the present moment and only the present moment. The teacher will then respond with instructions of where to go from here. What do you do when lobha (extreme greed), dosa (hatred that arises from greed) and/or moha (lack of awareness of your motivations driven by greed) overwhelm poor little ineffectual Metta Mind? What I found helpful on this retreat with endless lobha, lobha, lobha, ceaseless dosa, dosa, dosa and a cavernous lobha for moha was to drop into a short stretch of vipassana, examining the content of the emotional regulating self-talk, and to come up with Metta phrases that were an exact antidote to the agitated mind. During this retreat, fearful mind was frequently triggered by a sense of being unseen. Noble silence can easily trigger the attachment mechanism. The phrase the settled my mind and allowed me easily find Metta Jhana was: People see you, people love you, people support your work.
Ignoring lobha, dosa, and moha seemed to ramp up the thinking mind. Providing a direct antidote to the content of thinking quieted the mind. Perhaps another difference between eastern and western?
Mettagroup will be going back to Myanmar next February for travel and retreat. We will be going to the Golden Rock and then Win Sein Taw Ya, the largest reclining Buddha image in the world near Mawlamyine south of Yangon. Then, a Vipassana retreat!! After the retreat, off we go to the Great Budhhas of Monywa, one standing, one reclining, then onto the 2,200 pagodas of Bagan. Registration will open in May.
Myanmar 2018: George Haas Does a Lap of Walking Meditation with Narration (VIDEO)
Join George for a walking meditation captured on retreat in Myanmar!
Spring Schedule
Spring has sprung or will on the 22nd. Which means our spring intensives will start at the end of the month. Here’s what we've got:
Meditation Interventions for the Addiction Process (MIAP)
Meditation Interventions for the Addiction Process (MIAP) is a level one course for people working with substance and process addictions. We believe that the underlying cause of addiction is attachment disturbance. That the repair of the attachment disturbance is the foundation of long-term recovery. This class incorporates G. Alan Marlatt’s strategies for relapse prevention with psychoeducation of Attachment Theory, and meditation practices focused on developing emotional regulation within ourselves and between ourselves, and mentalizing looking at what we think and process information. MIAP uses a harm-reduction model of treatment. Most people that we work with have a combination of process and substance addiction, so we work to develop a harm reduction/abstinence program that works to foster the development of attachment security. This course is suitable for any level of practitioner. Register Now >
The Meaningful Life – Level One
The Meaningful Life – Level One course focuses on developing an integrated Metta-Vipassana practice, with psychoeducation of Attachment Theory. We use a secular Buddhist approach to teach meditation, keeping intact the linkages in thousands of years of teaching at the same time not requiring liturgical belief of any kind. We believe the long-term goal of meditation practice is classical enlightenment. For many people, stabilizing their householder’s life is a prerequisite for deep practice. Using the attachment mind states as a vehicle for practice helps build in the short run the social support necessary for sustained practice in the long run. Understanding the effects of our early conditioning on our current life path deepens our understanding of the nature of our karma, and the path to release it. This course is suitable for any level of practitioner. Register Now >
The Meaningful Life – Level Two
The Meaningful Life – Level Two course is focused on deepening the understanding the dynamics of your own attachment strategy and shifting your relationships from an insecure stance to a secure ground. Relationship dynamics will be explored through an attachment lens, and the skill set of secure function will be practiced during class time. Meditation-based emotional regulation is emphasized, with instructions specific to individual attachment presentations within the Metta-Vipassana practice context. A period of The Idealized Parent Figure protocol, a guided-meditation designed to repair early attachment disturbance, developed by Daniel P. Brown Phd at Harvard, will be offered in every class. Each student will work with a mediation mentor one-on-one and will receive the Partner Attachment Interview developed by Stan Tatkin PsyD at the PACT Institute as part of the exploration of your personal attachment strategy. This course requires completion of any MIAP or TML intensive. Register Now >
The Meaningful Life Spring Retreat
Also, for people out New York way, our Spring Retreat at the Watershed Center, April 13-22, upstate in Millerton, NY is open for registration. This is a Metta-Vipassana retreat, four days of Metta practice followed by four days of Vipassana practice. The Metta practice softens and opens the heart and mind so the Vipassana can go deep. There is no substitute for retreat practice when it comes to going deep. Hope to see you somewhere along the path.
Love to you,
George