April Practice Support Group
Sundays, April 16, 23 & 30
10:00-11:45am Pacific Time

led by
Dharma Teacher Emeritus,
Anna Douglas

As the Buddha understood it, our suffering is intimately related to craving for and clinging to what we deem to be desirable objects. As the Buddha described so elegantly in the Four Noble Truths, we can discover for ourselves how it is that we suffer, and how we can liberate ourselves from suffering.

In the Practice Support Group, David has been teaching on the Five Aggregates of Clinging as we experience them in our meditation practice and daily life. Anna will be back teaching the PSG in March and April. She will continue on the theme of craving and clinging, but will focus on how we become identified with particular desires, and doggedly pursue them. We will look at what the Buddha called the Six Realms of Existence. Trungpa Rinpoche described them as “styles of imprisonment” that humans are attracted to. They perpetuate our suffering, and thus keep us imprisoned. Freeing ourselves from craving involves a deep investigation. This will be the focus of the PSG in March and April.

We invite you into a time of deep investigation of that which perpetuates suffering. As always, we will explore with Mindfulness and Metta in guided sitting, through inquiry in dyads or tryads, and group discussion. It is essential to learn how to observe and talk about craving, not just as a personal private experience, but as a universal and powerful tendency in human consciousness that we encounter on a daily basis. It is a potent subject for a sangha to explore together.

WHEN

April Practice Support Group
Sundays, April 16, 23 & 30
10:00-11:45am PT

Note: During Daylight Savings Time Arizona is the same as Pacific Time

WHERE

Like all our current offerings, this class will take place via Zoom, an online meeting platform. 

 COST

April PSG - 3 class series: $100-$25
For those of you on a limited budget pay what you can. No one will be turned away.

Sit every day and the teachings come alive!  

The Practice Support Group is designed to help you establish a consistent and nourishing daily practice.   Whether you sit 10, 20, 30 or 40 or 50 minutes daily this class will help you to find a length and frequency that works for you. When questions or challenges arise there is the opportunity to explore them in the weekly group.  

Participating in a Dharma group is one of the most supportive things we can do to help our meditation practice grow.  

Anna Douglas, PhD., is the founder of Insight Meditation Tucson, and one of the founding teachers of Spirit Rock Meditation Center.  In 1986 she was one of five Dharma students invited to train in Jack Kornfield's groundbreaking program of practice and study for new teachers.  Although Anna's background is in psychology and the arts, she has had the good fortune as well as the deep aspiration to be able to do many long retreats in the vipassana/insight tradition.  For many years her focus in teaching was to guide people in long retreats.  She also created and taught mindfulness retreats for yoga practitioners and teachers,  and for 15 years taught an annual creativity retreat using painting and writing as the mediums of exploration.   In more recent years Anna's teaching has included classes and retreats on aging and dying. She is grateful for the many wonderful opportunities for practice and for teaching she continues to enjoy.  This includes offering spiritual guidance to those for whom the Dharma is an ongoing wellspring of spiritual nourishment and inspiration.  Anna is available for individual mentoring/guidance in the practice of insight meditation.    Even as old age and various forms of decrepitude advance, her deepest wish is that the blessings of Dharma continue to be felt and shared for the benefit of all!