Financial Support

Our mission is to make all of our programs accessible. Every fee-based offering has a limited number of pay-what-you-can spots available to support self-identified people of color, members of marginalized groups (queer people, transgender people, and  people with disabilities) and those in financial need (those for whom the cost to attend is not financially possible). 

These spots are offered on a first come, first served basis. Please pay at the highest level you can afford. In order for this support to be available, we rely on those who can afford to pay the full price to do so.

Find out if spots are available by clicking REGISTER NOW on the event you are interested in.

Safety 

We work to protect the safety of all students. We reserve the right to remove any student from any class, sitting group, retreat, or any event if the student is disruptive to the safe learning environment we maintain for all.

Cancellation & Refunds

We reserve the right to cancel a class or special event due to low enrollment or other circumstances which would make the event non-viable. If InsightLA cancels an event you’ve registered for, you will be offered a full refund. If an event has to be postponed for any reason, you will have the option to either receive a full refund or transfer your registration to the same event at the new, future date. If you cancel, we apply a 5% credit processing fee and the refunded amounts are listed below:

MBSR, MSC, & MBHC, Mindfulness for Beginners & Special Events

7 days – 95% Refund
<7 days – No Refunds – Credit given if requested or donation to InsightLA

Fee-Based Non-Residential Retreats (note: Donations are non-refundable)

>7 days – 95% Refund
<7 days – No Refunds – Credit given if requested or donation to InsightLA

Residential Retreats

> 8 weeks – amount paid less $100
4-8 weeks – amount paid less $175
2-4 weeks – amount paid less $300
< 2 weeks – No refund

Residential Retreats with Financial Support:

> 8 weeks – amount paid less $75
4-8 weeks – amount paid less $100
2-4 weeks – amount paid less $200
< 2 weeks – No refund

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  • Location Online
  • Experience Levels All
  • Date/Time Saturday, April 17, 2021
    10:00 AM - 12:00 PM PT

Refund and Event Policies

In this talk and interactive webinar workshop, participants will 

  • Investigate the concept of bodichitta
  • Be guided in a mindfulness practice around our intention to help
  • Practice somatic distress tolerance around skillful non-action
  • Explore ways to help without patronizing
  • Cultivate a practice of curiosity and deep listening 
  • Root into our deepest intentions of liberation, both personal and collective
  • Have time for Q and A

It might be said that cultivating bodichitta and becoming an embodied boddhisatva is a way of orienting ourselves towards personal and collective awakening… and along with that, exists a desire to alleviate suffering for all beings. Awakening + alleviation of suffering = compassionate action, right? Maybe. It depends on what someone’s perception of “compassion” is.

The term idiot compassion can feel like a jolt: how can those two words even be associated with one another in the same sentence? We’ve been told having a loving heart and generosity are the marks of being on a loving and spiritual path. But what if we get confused, our “helping” lacks balance, and we’re unclear as to why we’re really giving – and whether our gift is the “right” or skillful one to give?

The term idiot compassion is said to have originated with Trungpa Rinpoche, although some point to it being coined by Russian spiritual guide Gurdjieff. Whatever it’s origin, Pema Chodron likens it to the modern term “enabling,” where the one offering the so-called “gift” lacks clarity on their deepest intentions and motivations underneath their “compassionate action.” For me, the word co-dependency also comes to mind.

So, it begs the question: how do we cultivate greater insight around what we’re really doing, and why we’re really doing it? How can the circle of compassion indeed include ourselves – and – how can we become aware of what might be a bit of a “near enemy” of what looks like compassion… perhaps recognizing our actions as more of a disguise hiding our own impulse or need (to fix, to feel useful, to be seen as a “good person”)?

As we get clearer, how do we then, instead of reflexively following that impulse or habit, learn to respond appropriately with whatever doing or nondoing… action or lack of action… that’s really needed in any given moment? 

In our current day and social and political climate, we may also use this framework as a basis to support a deeper understanding of what’s been termed “white saviorism” – something often found in the “helping professions” where white practitioners such as therapists may have an urge to “help” a marginalized community in a performative way without fully engaging that community’s agency, consent and input in a collaborative way. Sometimes, this kind of “helping” behavior can feel like pity, patronizing, or condescending to those on the receiving end.

Before we jump to “doing for others,” we may first ground ourselves in the realization that our own personal efforts to tolerate any of our own distress around whatever hard truths may be difficult for us to bear (personal traumas, systemically oppressive systems, and more) that we want to ‘help’ can be misguided if not coming out of a place of, as Thich That Hahn says, deep listening, reflection, understanding, and then compassionate action.

For reflection:
Bodhicitta has been the subject of many large and weighty tomes. The Four Great Vows in the Zen tradition provide a wonderfully succinct, pragmatic, and profound articulation of bodhicitta:
Beings are numberless: may I free them all.
Reactions are endless: may I release them all.
Doors to experience are infinite: may I enter them all.
Ways of awakening are limitless: may I know them all.
The first of the four vows says Beings are numberless: may I free them all. It speaks to a heartfelt wish that others not suffer. In the practice of bodhicitta, we actively cultivate a wish that others be free of pain and struggle.
-Ken McLoud, Tricycle Magazine, Summer 2018 excerpt

______________________

This event will be recorded and emailed to everyone that registers.

 

Fierce Compassion vs Idiot Compassion: Knowing Your Deepest Intention or Your Small Sense of Self

In this talk and interactive webinar workshop, participants will  Investigate the concept of bodichitta Be guided in a mindfulness practice around our intention to help Practice somatic distress tolerance around skillful non-action Explore ways to help without patronizing Cultivate a practice of curiosity and deep listening  Root into our deepest intentions of liberation, both personal... Read more

Pricing Options
Class Fee $35

Financial Support

Our mission is to make all of our programs accessible. Every fee-based offering has a limited number of pay-what-you-can spots available to support members of marginalized groups (people of color, queer people, people with disabilities) and those in financial need (those for whom the cost to attend is not financially possible).

These spots are offered on a first come, first served basis. Please pay at the highest level you can afford. In order for this support to be available, we rely on those who can afford to pay the full price to do so.

Register Now

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