Mindfulness Hamilton Fall Retreat: Exploring Four Mindful Awareness Baskets

Exploring Four Mindful Awareness Baskets
Saturday, October 25th, 9am to 4pm
St. Cuthbert’s Presbyterian Church, 2 Bond Street N, Hamilton

Join us for a one-day workshop with Har-Prakash Khalsa to explore four fundamental yet contrasting and complementary approaches to developing Mindful Awareness. Har-Prakash will guide us through a meditation for each approach, followed by a discussion where participants may share meditation experiences and ask questions. 

The Four Mindful Awareness Baskets are:

1. Naming and Knowing – This approach empowers focused attention, enabling us to recognize and establish a steady level of mindful awareness. It is particularly beneficial for those who experience distractions during meditation or throughout their day – which is just about everyone!
2. Nurture Positive – This technique focuses on finding, creating, and sustaining positive emotions and thoughts. It serves as a counterbalance to the negativity bias and distressing emotions we encounter, and cultivates an optimal foundation for improving our behaviors, situations, and relationships and achieving our goals. 
3. Do Nothing – The heart of the Do Nothing technique is the ability to skillfully let go of controlling or directing our attention while remaining effortlessly aware. This can lead to a sense of freedom from our conventional, limited identity.  
4. Turn Back – This approach turns our attention back toward pure awareness and can lead to a deep sense of fulfillment that is independent of conditions.

The Four Mindful Awareness Baskets is based on a framework developed by Shinzen Young that organizes the methods of diverse contemplative traditions, East and West. Sufficiently practicing and integrating these approaches leads to the following: 

• Experiencing who you are at the deepest levels. 
• Reducing your suffering and increasing your fulfillment.
• Showing up fully to your life and being of optimal service to others.  

This workshop is suitable for meditators of all levels.

Har-Prakash has been teaching and practicing meditation since 1984. He is the creator of the Cultivating the Jewel of Mindfulness Practitioner Training Program and Retreat Guide, based on Shinzen Young’s mindfulness system and psychological-relational teachings.

You can find more about Har-Prakash and what he offers at https://www.cultivatingthejewel.com. Listen to a Mindfulness Hamilton podcast with Har-Prakash 3 | Har-Prakash Khalsa by Hamilton Talks Mindfulness

Fees*:
Early bird:  Member  $80 Non-member $100** Financial Hardship $50

After October 18th: Member $90  Non-member $110 Financial Hardship $60

*Fee includes snacks and drinks during breaks. Please bring your own lunch.
**Membership to Mindfulness Hamilton is $25 a year