Opening to Pure Awareness

Opening to Pure Awareness

 A Foundational Level Retreat: 
October 28 – November 4, 2023 in Amsterdam, NL,

This retreat is an entry level retreat that is open to everyone.
We will begin with concentration/mental stabilization, emphasizing an awareness perspective. By settling the mind in this way, we prepare for meditations that explore how the mind constructs our world, including the self, phenomena, and time. Having some experience of these “emptiness” meditations, we move naturally into meditations emphasizing non-dual pure awareness, both as it manifests in the mind active with emotion and phenomena, and in a still mind. The way of teaching will include explanation and instruction, guided meditations, and group discussion. For further information and registration please contact Coen Blom at cbl@pcblom.nl or Fredi at fmueller@active.ch

Deze retreat is een instap-retraite die voor iedereen toegankelijk is en wordt geleid door MD, PhD Susan Mickel
(info zie onderaan)
We beginnen met concentratie/mentale stabilisatie, waarbij we de nadruk leggen op een bewustzijnsperspectief.
Door de geest op deze manier tot rust te brengen, bereiden we ons voor op meditaties waarin we onderzoeken hoe de geest onze wereld construeert, inclusief het zelf, de verschijnselen en de tijd.
Omdat we enige ervaring hebben met deze ‘leegte’-meditaties, gaan we op natuurlijke wijze over op meditaties waarin de nadruk wordt gelegd op non-duaal puur bewustzijn, zowel zoals het zich manifesteert in de geest die actief is met emoties en verschijnselen, als in een stille geest.
De manier van lesgeven omvat uitleg en instructie, geleide meditaties en groepsdiscussies.
Voor meer informatie en registratie kunt u contact opnemen met Coen Blom via cbl@pcblom.nl of Fredi via fmueller@active.ch

Susan Mickel, MD, PhD

Susan has been meditating for over twenty years, first in the Christian tradition, then in the Burmese mindfulness tradition, and for over ten years now in the Tibetan Mahamudra and Dzogchen traditions.
She learned Burmese mindfulness meditation from teachers at Resources for Ecumenical Spirituality, Insight Meditation Society, Spirit Rock, and other centers. In 2001 she completed a certificate in ecumenically oriented Christian spiritual guidance from Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation. Daniel Brown was an important first teacher of Mahamudra. Her current teachers of Dzogchen are Rahob Tulku Thupten Kalsang Rinpoche, Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche, and Tulku Dawa Gyalpo. Her Mahamudra teachers are Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche and HE Ayang Rinpoche. For over fifteen years she has been teaching retreats first in the Burmese mindfulness tradition, including Christian-Buddhist retreats, and for over ten years in Indo-Tibetan Mahamudra. Training with Daniel Brown, she taught with Pointing Out the Great Way for ten years. Her personal practice and orientation is Buddhist, and she is interested in interfaith discussion and exploration. Interested in the mind since she can remember, Susan’s college major was comparative religions. She worked as a behavioral neurologist and ran a memory disorders clinic for 22 years at a large nonprofit multispecialty clinic. In 2004 she returned to school for a clinical psychology Ph.D. with the intention of learning psychotherapy and exploring her interest in the mind from a somewhat different perspective. Her dissertation research was on the impact of adult attachment style on caregiving relationships, health, and happiness. Currently she works a few days a month providing integrative evaluations of persons with mental problems that may have a neurological basis. She plans to continue work at the interfaces of neurology, psychology, and spirituality, with the guiding interest being in how one can influence people to help them decrease their suffering and increase happiness. Susan’s primary current activity is a three-year retreat in the Nyingma Dzogchen tradition, which is taking place in her home with two months a year of retreat in Dzogchen centers.