“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, in the expert’s mind there are few.”
-Shunryu Suzuki Roshi
When we learn to pay attention with mindfulness to our moment to moment experience as it really is, we see things with new eyes, we experience what Suzuki Roshi refers to as beginners mind. In this weekend immersion, we will explore Insight Meditation and the new possibilities it can open in relationship to awakening creativity.
Creativity can show up in countless ways: the mind’s flexibility to envision and imagine new ways of being, living, and working, in our relationships, or in how we express our deeper values in life. Creativity may be expressed for you through an art practice and a chosen medium or multiple mediums, or it may be that you’re not clear where the creative impulse longs for expression in your life and you want to take some time in contemplation and community to reflect on your own relationship to creativity and mindfulness. All forms of creativity are welcome and the format of this immersion will be more open than a traditional silent retreat.
Time will be spent in sitting and walking meditation in silence and with instruction, as well as with journaling prompts, mindful inquiry and short Dharma talks exploring the theme with Q and A and discussion.
On Saturday we will have a special guest teacher, Elaine Su-Hui. Elaine is an artist, Dharma practitioner, meditator and the founder of Inner Fields in NYC. She will be offering a talk on the relationship between Dharma and creativity. More information on Elaine’s work: elainesuhui (IG).
On Sunday we will have a special guest teacher, Kathryn Garcia. Kathryn is an artist, Dharma practitioner, and meditator. She will be offering a talk on how her meditation practice informs her artistic work and how her work informs her practice.
Schedule (PT):
Weekend Creativity + Insight Immersion Schedule: Day one June 5, 2021
10:00 –11:00 Welcome, opening meditation, weekend immersion orientation
11:00 – 11:30 Walking meditation
11:30 – 12:00 Sitting meditation
12:00 – 12:30 Walking meditation
12:30 – 1:00 Dharma talk
1:00 – 1:15 Q and A + mindful eating instructions
1:15 – 2:30 lunch
2:30 – 3:00 sitting meditation
3:00 – 4:00 Creativity + Insight talk- special guest speaker Elaine Su-Hui
4:00 – 4:15 Walking meditation / stretch break
4:15 – 4:30 Journaling exercise
4:30 – 5:00pm last sitting meditation and closing of day one
Day two Sunday June 6, 2021
10:00 – 10:30 Opening meditation
10:30 – 11:00 Walking Meditation
11:00– 12:00 Creativity + Insight Talk- special guest speaker Kathryn Garcia
12:00 – 12:30 Walking meditation – “walking the question” reflection
12:30 – 1:00 small group mindful inquiry practice + community sharing
1:00 – 2:15 lunch
2:15 – 2:45 Sitting meditation
2:45 – 3:15 Walking meditation
3:15 – 3:30 sitting meditation
3:30 – 4:00pm Closing of immersion
*schedule subject to slight changes
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Elaine Su-Hui is the founder of Inner Fields NY; an experiential, collaborative proje
ct exploring the intersection of Buddhism, radical ecology and artistic practice. Through a creative methodology grounded in gift economics and communal intimacy, Inner Fields designs public programs and curated events aimed at breaking down hierarchical and commodity-based forms of interaction, and building relationships steeped in ecological wisdom. Initially founded in Elaine’s apartment in Brooklyn, events were shared and promoted by word-of-mouth; largely from Elaine selling her artworks on the streets of her neighborhood and propagating conversations around interbeing and change, one person at a time. Inner Fields is now a small collectivized organization of eight artists, writers, scholars and educators, and due to the global pandemic is currently being hosted online.
Whether she is investing in long term, relational practices or slow, material processes made by hand, Elaine prioritizes depth of connection as her primary marker of cultural impact. Throughout all her work, she aims to re-orient the collective mindset towards greater mutuality, ecological reverence and regenerative change.
Kathryn Garcia lives and works between Los Angeles and the Mediterranean. Inspired by her spiritual practice and travels to ancient and sacred sites, Garcia works in a variety of media, including site-specific performance, video, sculpture, and drawing. Provocative and oftentimes interactive, her work engages with the Goddess Archetype as a means of reclaiming identity vis a vis the female body. Garcia’s bodies – her body, or the constructed bodies seen in her drawings, are created as vehicles for spiritual experience where a female body becomes a sacred site. Her interactive works explore themes such as healing, mindfulness, participation, interconnectedness, and the experiential in art and are meant as offerings to the public. These offerings take place within immersive sculptures that the artist considers temples. Early on in her career, Garcia worked on international projects with Emi Fontana and Rirkrit Tiravanija, such as Women in the City (2008), Palm Pavilion (2008) and Asile Flottant (2010). Garcia’s work has been exhibited in the US and abroad, including The Orange County Museum of Art, Santa Ana; LAXART, Various Small Fires, 356 Mission, and Harmony Murphy Gallery, all in Los Angeles; Pace Gallery, Invisible Exports, GBE, Participant, PS1-MOMA, all in NY; Ballroom Marfa, Texas; The Power Station, Dallas; Nina Johnson, Miami; Southard Reid, London; Embajada, Puerto Rico; Arredondo/Arozarena, Mexico City; and DESTE foundation, Greece.
