Meditation
Immersion

Workshop Fee: $1,020 all inclusive

There are many ways to meditate, but rest is always at the heart of our practice. The more we practice, the more we come to understand rest as a state that is available to us, even through the ups and downs of our everyday lives. We touch on this as we begin to loosen up our resistance. This is where magic happens!

These qualities of rest and magic aren't about forcing any particular experience or outcome, rather they're about what happens when we become more aware of what's present. That awareness allows us to discover that there are more possibilities at any given moment than we had imagined. When we put so much of our energy into gripping the mind around a rigid, and even compulsive way of being, we limit ourselves. Resting means opening up, expanding, seeing more.

This meditation immersion will be held in partial silence. Our main practice will be shamatha aka breath meditation, with periods of somatic meditation. Each day will offer time for meditation, creative work, and communing with nature. Evenings will include Dharma talks and Q&A sessions.

Marisa Viola has been meditating and studying Buddhism since 2008. She took Refuge and Boddhisattva vows in the Tibetan Buddhist Gelugpa tradition with Venerable Robina Courtin and has had the good fortune to study with Venerable Thich Nhat Hahn and many great teachers of various lineages. She began teaching in 2013 after completing The Interdependence Project's Immersion and Teacher Training program with Ethan Nichtern.

Marisa has taught in hospitals, prisons, monasteries, corporations, and universities. As a senior teacher at MNDFL in NYC, she taught thousands of classes and in their training and mentoring program. She currently teaches at Shantigar Online and at The Open Heart Project, where she serves as the community liaison. Marisa is also available for one-on-one teaching.