Steady in This Moment: Equanimity and the Courage to Care with Devin Berry

Join Devin Berry and the DVI sangha for a retreat day of practice and discussion.

UPDATE: We are at capacity for the in-person event at Summit Presbyterian Church. If you'd like to still join us you can still register and join Devin online on Zoom.

Description

We live in unsettled times. Urgency pulls at us. Injustice breaks our hearts. The mind wants to fix, resist, or shut down. The Buddha offered equanimity (upekkhā) as a steady, balanced presence - one that allows us to meet this moment fully without being overwhelmed, bringing clarity instead of reactivity.

Equanimity is often misunderstood as distance or neutrality. In the Buddha’s teaching, it is a spacious awareness that allows us to care deeply without being consumed. It is sometimes described as “seeing with patience”, the ease and clarity that come from understanding a bigger picture.

In this daylong retreat, we will explore equanimity as one of the Four Brahmavihāras and as a foundation for wise and compassionate response in a changing world. Through mindfulness of body, feeling, and mind, we practice seeing clearly without being caught.

Practicing in Sangha, we discover that balance and resilience are not solitary achievements but qualities that grow in community. Together, we cultivate an inner steadiness that supports care, discernment, and the courage to stay engaged.

Open to both new and experienced practitioners.

Teacher Bio

Meditation teacher, Devin Berry, began practicing in 1999. His teaching is rooted in the Buddhadharma and mindfulness daily life practices. Devin’s training includes Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction teacher training, the East Bay Meditation Center Commit to Dharma Program, Spirit Rock’s Dedicated Practitioners Program, and Insight Meditation Society’s four-year Residential Retreat Teachers Program. Devin also co-founded both the Teen Sangha and Men of Color Deep Refuge Group at East Bay Meditation Center in Oakland.  In addition, almost 20 years ago, Devin began some of the first mindfulness programs in SF Bay Area schools, including weekly mindfulness groups for youth.

Devin began working with youth over 25 years ago as a frontline advocate for marginalized youth living on the streets, in recovery and exploitation. Over the years Devin’s work has included leading wilderness camp programs for teens, Rites of Passage programs for tweens, and a summer camp for boys. 

After retiring from youth work, Devin co-created Deep Time Liberation, an ancestral healing journey that explores the impact of ancestral legacy and intergenerational trauma on Black Americans. He is passionate about the power of witnessing and storytelling as a liberation tool. Devin is a father and teaches nationally.

Learn more about Devin here.