Awakening Body, Mind and Heart: The Joy of Mindfulness

This 7-day silent online retreat with James Baraz, Suzie Brown, Zoe Zohs and Nadine Levy will provide you with the precious opportunity to deepen your practice and engage in embodied mindfulness from your home environment. The focus of the 7 days will be on cultivating joy, ease and balance through the practice of sustained mindfulness, embracing mind, body and heart and offering experience a soft place to land. Each day will include two sessions of mindful movement, a Dharma talk and meditation instructions. The retreat will support you to deepen into stillness and actively cultivate wholesome states of mind that promote joy and gratitude in the present moment.

The daily schedule will span from 7am to 7pm (Australian Eastern Standard Time) and will include periods of online and offline practice. Small group interviews with the teachers will also be offered. 

The retreat is open to all and no particular experience is required. The retreat can be used to fulfil the retreat requirement for the Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program (MMTCP). *

Cost: tiered registration. Please choose the fee most appropriate to your financial circumstances. Benefactor contributions will be used to support scholarship positions.  Registration fee does not include dana (donation) for the teachers which, in keeping with the Buddhist tradition, will be encouraged as a practice of generosity.** 

Your teachers:

James Baraz has been teaching mindfulness meditation classes and retreats in the US and internationally since 1978. He is a founding teacher of Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, California where he started the Community Dharma Leader Program, Kalyana Mitta Network, and the Family Program.  James has been teaching his popular “Awakening Joy” online course since 2003. He serves as a Guiding Teacher to One Earth Sangha, a Virtual EcoDharma Center devoted to Buddhist responses to Climate Change. James is a guiding teacher of Insight Meditation Community of Berkeley (IMCB) where he leads a weekly sitting group. His books include Awakening Joy: 10 Steps to Happiness and Awakening Joy for Kids.

Suzie Brown has been teaching Insight meditation for the past eight years, having trained with her Australian teachers Subhana Barzaghi and Carol Perry, as well as with US Insight teacher, James Baraz. She was co-founder of the Melbourne Insight Meditation group and offers Insight, Mindfulness and Ecodharma retreats in NSW and Victoria and online. Suzie is also trained as a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) teacher and has been teaching MBSR courses and workshops for over 10 years. She has specialised in teaching mindful parenting, mindfulness for anxiety, and mindfulness for chronic pain—all themes that relate to her personal experience - as well as the Buddha’s four divine abodes: lovingkindness, appreciative joy, compassion, and equanimity. She has also worked as a climate and environmental activist for two decades and teaches ecodharma and mindful approaches to dealing with climate anxiety and grief.

Zoe Zohs is based on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia, and has been teaching and mentoring meditation and movement practices since 2006. She has truly enjoyed the honor of leading or co-facilitating yoga teacher training courses since 2013. Working with people over a long period of time to support and witness real-life changes and integration of our evolving process is a sacred reward. Zoe has a passion for the embodiment of mindfulness meditation and mentors in a way that gives space for you to find your own way. She enjoys reaching into the group wisdom for a rich learning experience. Zoe is currently studying a dharma teacher training with James Baraz and for a degree in social work. She believes that we not only have access to our most wise and compassionate selves, but we can speak to this in others also. This whole process is an absolute joy.

Nadine Levy, PhD, has been practicing Buddhism for 20 years across the Zen and Insight traditions, and she has undertaken dharma teacher training with James Baraz and with the Insight Meditation Institute. By day, Nadine works as an academic at a Buddhist higher education institute in Wollongong, Australia, where she teaches mindfulness and compassion science to teachers, health professionals, and post-graduate students. Nadine has led multiple meditation groups, retreats, Buddhist study groups, and compassion courses over the last decade and is passionate about the wisdom of the body and other ways of knowing. Her teaching style is intuitive, organic, participant-centered, and inquisitive. She enjoys adventures with her six-year-old son and partner and taking in the mountains she is lucky enough to live close to, as well as taking time out for silent retreat practice.

All four teachers are Mentors in the Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program (MMTCP).

*Subject to MMTCP's attendance and completion requirements 

** If finances are an obstacle to participation, please contact the Retreat Manager. Subject to availability, no one will be turned away.

Here is the schedule of the retreat so you can plan for it. If you have any other questions, feel free to contact us.

Awakening Retreat Schedule 11-17 June 2023 (Australian Eastern Standard Time - AEST)

11 June: 11:15am Start; 12-16 June: 7am to 7pm; 17 June: 7am to TBA

7:00am AEST (2pm PT)  – Guided movement practice 

7:45am – Instruction & Guided Sitting practice 

8:30am – 9:45am BREAK (OFFLINE)

9:45am (4.45pm PT) Stillness/sitting practice 

10:30am – Self-directed movement practice (OFFLINE)/Group meetings with US participants 

11:15am (6.15pm PT) – Dharma talk 

12:15pm – stillness/sitting practice 

12:45pm – 2:15pm BREAK (OFFLINE)

2:15pm (9.15pm PT) – Stillness/sitting practice 

3:00pm – self-directed movement practice  (OFFLINE)/Group meetings

3:45pm – stillness/sitting practice/Group meetings 

4:30pm – Cup of tea (OFFLINE)

5:15pm – Guided movement practice 

6:15pm –  Guided Meditation 

7:00pm – Conclusion of daily schedule

NOTE: THIS TIMETABLE MAY BE SUBJECT TO MINOR ALTERATIONS

*Opening day will begin at 11:15am Australian Eastern Standard Time on 11th June, closing day will also be a shorter day with finishing time to be determined and communicated to participants closer to the retreat beginning date. 

**MMTCP student attendance and practice participation (with camera on) must be observed and confirmed for at least 5 formal practice sessions per day that can include a combination of talks; guided/instructional meditations; Q&A periods; silent meditations; guided mindful movement; and small group/individual teacher meetings.

*** To convert to your time-zone please use the following site and include the relevant dates so that any daylight savings changes are captured: 

Time Converter and World Clock - Conversion at a Glance - Pick best time to schedule conference calls, webinars, online meetings and phone calls. (worldtimebuddy.com)