Category: 2021 Events

Cancelled: Mindfulness Retreat for Young Adults

Unfortunately low registration has led us to cancel this retreat – for now. We plan to host more events like this in future for young adults, and hope that you will stay tuned to our website or email list and join us again. Meanwhile, many young adults join us for our regular Wednesday night sit, and for our other classes and retreats, and it would be lovely to see you there, too!

Developing Your Stress Toolkit

with Jessica Morey
cofounder of Inward Bound Mindfulness Education (iBme)

Half-day Retreat – Ages 15 – 25

This retreat is for: teens, students, young professionals,
all young adults welcome!

When: Saturday, February 5, 2021, 1:00 pm – 6:00 pm (CST)
(2-7 Eastern, 11-4 Pacific)

Colorful handprints in a circle. Image by Gordon Johnson from Pixabay
  • Learn mindfulness: Learn go-to mindfulness tools you can use anywhere, any time for ease and presence.
  • Experience meditation through a variety of guided practices from longtime meditation teacher, Jess Morey.
  • Develop a stress toolkit: Learn some simple yet effective tools to deal with everyday life stress.
  • Have Fun! This half-day retreat includes games and connections that make mindfulness engaging and applicable for your life!

Where: Online (zoom link will be sent upon registration)

Cost: by donation $0 to $50 – We want this to be accessible to all young adults, to offer what you can.

We invite the sangha to support the youth of our community. Please consider making a donation to support the teacher. (Use the registration link below and select “Community support for the teacher” to specify the amount you wish to donate.)

What you’ll need: Just yourself! For young adult perspectives on iBme, check out https://inwardboundmind.org/teen-retreats/retreat-experience/

Hosted by the Saskatoon Insight Meditation Community (SIMC)
For more information, please contact Madeline Docherty at youth@saskatooninsight.com

To register:
https://saskatooninsight.com/forms/view.php?id=42836

Jessica Morey leads meditation retreats across the US and offers one to one meditation and leadership coaching. She is a cofounder and lead teacher of Inward Bound Mindfulness Education (iBme), a nonprofit organization bringing in-depth mindfulness training to youth. She began practicing meditation at age 14 on teen retreats offered by the Insight Meditation Society (IMS) and graduated from the IMS Teacher Training Program in 2021. She has been leading meditation retreats since 2009 and is honored to currently serve as the Board Chair of the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies.

Before founding iBme, Jessica worked in clean energy and climate policy. Her published works range from the chapter ‘Ordinary Awakening’ in Blue Jean Buddha to Conflict Resolution of the Boruca Hydro-Energy Project: Renewable Energy Production in Costa Rica. She combined these areas of passion in an article in the Shambhala Sun, Bodhi Trees, about the potential of Buddhist practice to heal our relationship with the natural world. She holds a BA in Environmental Engineering from Dartmouth College and Masters degrees in Sustainable Development and International Affairs. She loves dancing, yoga, and being outside.

Jessica is based in Concord, Massachusetts.

Closer Than We Think

This is for a past event. For current events, please visit our Upcoming Events page.

A community exploration of how we prepare for, and support each other, in the transition of dying & the moment of death

This online 6-month course will deepen community as we inquire together into these important questions and how they can help us to live life more fully now. Our intention is to form small groups of 6-8 within the larger group, that will meet together in supportive inquiry for the length of the course.

Lead by Jeanne Corrigal, guiding teacher for the Saskatoon Insight Meditation Community.
Special guest Nikki Mirghafori will join us for session 3. Nikki is a senior teacher in the Theravada tradition, and one of her deep interests is the power of practicing with death awareness.

When: 6 sessions, including 5 evenings and 1 day long
Tuesdays 7 pm – 9 pm CST, Dec 7, Jan 11, Feb 8, April 12, May 10
Saturday, March 12 daylong, 10 am – 4 pm CST
See times in other zones, below.

There is no fee for this group, but purchase or accessibility to a foundational book, Awake At The Bedside: Contemplative Teachings on Palliative and End-of-Life Care, edited by Koshin Paley Ellison and Matt Weingast, is encouraged. Each session we will have short readings from this book, other readings, or audio selections for reflection.

Where: Online Zoom (link provided to registrants)

Cost: by dana/donation to support the teachers

Course Prerequisite: basic familiarity with Insight Meditation practice, and a commitment to a daily practice, because of the need to steady the mind and heart as we reflect on this material.

Registration is now closed. Thank you for your interest. Send us an email if you would like to be on a waitlist for future offering.

For more information, contact: contact@saskatooninsight.com

Jeanne Corrigal is the guiding teacher for the Saskatoon Insight Meditation Community, and a graduate of the 2017-2021 IMS teacher training program. She deeply appreciates metta and nature based practices. She has been practicing since 1999, and is a graduate of Spirit Rock’s Dedicated Practitioner and Community Dharma Leader Programs. Jeanne is certified with Indigenous Focusing Oriented Trauma Therapy (IFOT), is a certified MBSR teacher, and she has trained with Mindful Schools and Somatic Experiencing. She is Metis, and one of her first teachers in loving presence was Cree Elder Jim Settee.

Nikki Mirghafori, PhD, is a Buddhist teacher and Artificial Intelligence scientist. She is a lineage holder in the Theravada tradition, empowered by the Burmese master Venerable Pa Auk Sayadaw, as well as the Spirit Rock Meditation Center, Insight Meditation Society, and the Insight Meditation Center. She serves on the Teachers Council and Board of Directors at the Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, CA, and also as a Teacher at the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, CA. She’s a Stanford-trained compassion cultivation instructor, a Berkeley ex-academic, and author. Nikki is of Persian heritage, and aspires to serve as a doula for wisdom and compassion. https://www.nikkimirghafori.com

Session times in other time zones

DateSaskEasternPacific
Tue Dec 7, Jan 11, Feb 8 7 pm-9pm8pm-10pm5pm-7pm
Sat Mar 12 daylong10am-4pm11am-5pm8am-2pm
Tue Apr 12, May 107 pm-9 pm9pm-11pm6pm-8pm
Session times in Saskatchewan, Eastern, and Pacific zone
Click links for each day to see a chart with times around the world

Joy Mini-retreat Dec 4

This is for a past event. For current events, please visit our Upcoming Events page.

Joy
An Inner Light to Uplift the Heart

Saturday, December 4, 2021
10 am – 1 pm CST
Online

In these times especially, it is important to ground and center ourselves as we enter this season, made complex by our continuing COVID situation. In the midst of this, there are many flavours of joy which are still, and always, accessible. This retreat will turn to this inner gift, and explore joys that are reliable, nourishing, uplifting, fun, sustaining, and liberating.

Jeanne and James both find joy in the heart of our practice, and look forward to the joy of being with the sangha.

This is offered on a dana basis.

Register here:
https://saskatooninsight.com/forms/view.php?id=48259

Northern Lights illuminating a night sky with green hues, silhouetted by bare trees. https://www.piqsels.com/es/public-domain-photo-sxtnf
Jeanne Corrigal - The image shows a smiling individual standing outdoors in front of a lush evergreen tree. The person has curly, shoulder-length brown hair with prominent gray streaks at the front. They are wearing a vibrant blue top and a textured, multicolored blue scarf. A backdrop of green pine needles fills most of the background, providing a natural and fresh setting.

Jeanne Corrigal is the guiding teacher for the Saskatoon Insight Meditation Community, and a graduate of the 2017-2021 IMS teacher training program. She deeply appreciates metta and nature based practices. She has been practicing since 1999, and is a graduate of Spirit Rock’s Dedicated Practitioner and Community Dharma Leader Programs. Jeanne is certified with Indigenous Focusing Oriented Trauma Therapy (IFOT), is a certified MBSR teacher, and she has trained with Mindful Schools and Somatic Experiencing. She is Metis, and one of her first teachers in loving presence was Cree Elder Jim Settee.

James Lowe has practiced meditation for over 15 years, with Adrianne Ross, Michele McDonald and Steven Smith as his main teachers. James has over 20 years of teaching adults in community agencies and institutions, primarily teaching the Brahma-Viharas to volunteers and healthcare practitioners. As a psychotherapist, he sees life as learning, and thus helps clients learn to use the Dharma in a one on one setting. James is currently interested in exploring different ways to teach the dharma in nature, online, and in smaller groups. He especially likes smaller groups where people get to share their practice with one another. His greatest wish is to make the dharma accessible and personal to all people. To connect with James, visit www.jameslowe.com.

Cancelled: Awakening Together: Nurturing Beloved Community

We are disappointed to let you know that we have cancelled the daylong with Devin Berry and Jeanne Corrigal – the registration was a bit low. Devin is going to visit our sangha on Wednesday, January 12, 2022, so we invite you all to join us then. Also, to celebrate Beloved Community with us, you are welcome to come to one of our drop in Community Circles too!

Our next online retreat, with our beloved Susie Harrington, is Feb 11 – 13 – let’s gather then!

In this daylong we will call on our ancestors, including Martin Luther King, Thich Nhat Hanh, and Cree Elder Jim Settee, to support us in building connection and allyship in today’s world.

Practical, daily applications of ancient teachings will guide us in connecting through our diverse identities and experiences, into ways we can stand strongly and kindly together, in these times.

Registrants in this daylong will be invited to upload a photo (optional) of a biological, spiritual, or nature ancestor, for sharing in a community ceremony on Saturday afternoon. We will also have a special community reading of our sangha intention poem.

In the spirit of community and deepening practice, Devin and Jeanne both wish to connect with those who want to, in group practice talks. The schedule will allow some opportunity for this.

When I met Martin Luther King Jr., in 1966, we spoke about Sangha building. The beloved community is the Sangha. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

November 6, 2021
Online via Zoom

10 am-4 pm Saskatchewan
12 pm-6 pm Eastern
9 am-3 pm Pacific

Registration closed.

Devin Berry
Jeanne Corrigal

Devin Berry began his practice with Thich Nhat Hanh’s Plum Village sangha and has been practicing Insight meditation since 1999. His practice primarily focuses on daily life and long retreat practices that point to the liberative teachings of the Buddha. Devin was formerly a teacher at East Bay Meditation center in Oakland, CA where he co-founded both the teen and men of color sangha. He co-founded Deep Time Liberation, an ancestral healing journey that explores the impact of ancestral legacy and intergenerational trauma on Black Americans. Devin teaches regularly at Insight Meditation Society (IMS). He currently serves on the boards of Insight World Aid and Barre Center for Buddhist Studies. Devin recently relocated from the San Francisco Bay Area to Western Massachusetts and teaches nationally.

Jeanne Corrigal has been practicing since 1999, and is the Guiding Teacher for the Saskatoon Insight Meditation Community. She is a graduate of the 2017-2021 IMS teacher training program, and also Spirit Rock’s Dedicated Practitioner Program, and Community Dharma Leader Program. She is trained with Mindful Schools, and a certified MBSR Teacher (Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction). She is influenced by many teachers, including Thich Nhat Hanh. Jeanne is Metis, and one of her first teachers in loving presence was Cree Elder Jim Settee.

Thich Nhat Hanh
Martin Luther King Jr and Thich Nhat Hanh
Jim Settee

Image credits: Thich Nhat Hanh, Martin Luther King Jr and Thich Nhat Hanh, Jim Settee from Jeanne’s files

Community Circles

This is for a past event. For current events, please visit our Upcoming Events page.

You are warmly invited to our Community Circles: the Wise Heart, starting October 26. This is a time for us to meet each other in small groups and explore the dharma with gentle relational practices.

This year we will have fun cultivating the heart qualities of kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity.

There are two ways you can participate:

  • 1) Drop in or sign up for any or all of the 6 Tuesday evenings
  • 2) Our intention is to provide an opportunity for practitioners to connect to the dharma and sangha in a deeper and dedicated way. If this calls to you, sign up for The Wise Heart in Every Day Life – this includes
    • the Tuesday meetings
    • a short reading and guided recording monthly on each quality
    • four group gatherings to explore the readings and life practice (7-8:30 pm November 30, January 18, March 1, May 17),
    • dharma buddy for monthly check in, and
    • an opportunity for a monthly practice talk with Jeanne during the program.
  • Registration for The Wise Heart in Every Day Life program is now closed – please join us for the drop in sessions.

You can listen to a video clip of Jeanne describing this program here:
https://youtu.be/9m8ZtIIn3Y4

Here are the dates and times of the Tuesday sessions

  • October 26 – Metta: Kindness in the Midst
    7:00 pm – 8:30 pm Saskatchewan time (click for other time zones)
    9 pm Eastern, 6 pm Pacific
  • November 23 – Karuna: Compassion in Action
    7:00 pm – 8:30 pm Saskatchewan time (click for other time zones)
    8 pm Eastern, 5 pm Pacific ** note time change
  • (no circle in December)
  • January 25 – Mudita: Appreciative Joy
    7:00 pm – 8:30 pm Saskatchewan time (click for other time zones)
    8 pm Eastern, 5 pm Pacific
  • February 22 – Upekkha: Balanced Perspective
    7:00 pm – 8:30 pm Saskatchewan time (click for other time zones)
    8 pm Eastern, 5 pm Pacific
  • March 22 – Abiding with a Heart as Wide as the World
    7:00 pm – 8:30 pm Saskatchewan time (click for other time zones)
    9 pm Eastern, 6 pm Pacific ** note time change
  • May 3 – Sustaining an Open Heart
    7:00 pm – 8:30 pm Saskatchewan time (click for other time zones)
    9 pm Eastern, 6 pm Pacific

This time of practice in community is suitable for both beginners and experienced practitioners.

This is offered on a dana basis.

A Zoom link will be emailed to you when your registration is complete, plus we’ll send a reminder closer to the events for which you have registered.

Please register for any of the sessions here:
https://saskatooninsight.com/forms/view.php?id=43672

Anglin Lake Insight Meditation Retreats – August 2021

We are disappointed to cancel our retreat this year at our beloved Anglin Lake, due to the uncertainty of these COVID times. However, we have booked Anglin for Aug 4-10, 2022, and look forward to gathering in person then!

Silent Insight Meditation retreats at beautiful Anglin Lake, with Jeanne Corrigal

Kindness: the Heart’s Home
This immersion in kindness with the community of land, lake, sky, and trees cultivates our sense of care for ourselves and all beings, and supports liberation into the spacious, loving, connected heart and mind. This retreat is inspired by the teachings of both Elder Jim Settee and the Buddha.

Touching the Earth Insight Retreat
On the eve of his enlightenment the Buddha touched the earth and asked for help to awaken. On this retreat we will touch the beloved earth with our hearts, minds, bodies, and spirits, as we follow the Buddha’s guidance in cultivating liberation of the heart-mind. This retreat invites us to renew our connection with the nourishing well of our true nature, for the sake of all beings.

These retreats include dharma talks, practice talks with Jeanne, reflective meditation practices, and gentle paddling each day. For more information, please email the Saskatoon Insight Meditation Community, at contact@saskatooninsight.com, or retreat manager Andrea at amgrzesina@gmail.com.

  • You can register for one, or both, retreats. There is a limit of 15 people per retreat.
  • Cost for each trip: $190, plus a food contribution equaling about $45. When you register, you will be invited to choose which food items you would like to contribute from our potluck list.
    • Some scholarship support is available, if the registration fee is a barrier.
  • If you are able to bring a canoe, the cost is reduced ($105 per canoe).
    Maximum of six canoes are needed for each retreat, depending on number of people registered.
  • Registration fees cover the operational expenses of the retreat (equipment, fees, transportation, etc). They do not cover the teachings, which are freely given because they are considered priceless. Dana is a Pali word meaning generosity. In keeping with Buddhist tradition, teachers do not charge for their services but are sustained by the generosity of their students. Dana allows the teacher and retreat manager to continue their Dharma work. There will be an opportunity to offer dana to Jeanne for her teaching.
  • We set up our home at the Spruce River Campground and paddle from there. Bring your camping gear (tent, sleeping bag, etc.). This unserviced campground has outhouses. We will set up a common kitchen area for meals.
  • We recommend at least one weekend residential retreat or a familiarity with Insight Meditation practice prior to this retreat. If you do not have this experience, registration may still be possible after a conversation with Jeanne. If this your first retreat, Jeanne will call you once you submit your registration to have a chat.
  • Swimming and basic canoe skills are needed.

Registration

Registration is not yet open. Please check in mid-April!

These retreats are led by Jeanne Corrigal, Guiding Teacher with the Saskatoon Insight Meditation Community. A graduate of Spirit Rock’s Community Dharma Leader Program, Jeanne is currently a participant in the 2017-2021 IMS teacher training program. Jeanne has practiced Insight Meditation for 21 years, is a certified Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) teacher and Life Skills Coach. Jeanne is Metis and one of her first teachers in loving presence was Cree Elder Jim Settee. She is a long-time canoeist.

Near to Nature’s Heart

This is for a past event. For current events, please visit our Upcoming Events page.

Mini nature retreats with Jeanne Corrigal

These mini retreats offer a simple and supported way to rest into the nourishment of nature – in the city or country. We will begin in a community circle (online), spend time (offline) with reflection practices in nature, and then meet again (online) to close in community. You can choose indoor reflections, spent with a favourite tree outside of your window, or, choose a special spot to spend time in outdoors.

July 24 and Aug 28, 9:00 am – 12:30 pm Saskatchewan time
9:00 – 9:30 – opening circle (on Zoom)
9:30 – 11:30 – spend time in conversation outside, or in front of a window. Take a snack, blanket, chair, and plan to stay awhile.
11:30 – 12:30 – closing circle (on Zoom)

Please register here:
https://saskatooninsight.com/forms/view.php?id=41245

July 24: In Conversation with Nature

Attention through our senses is the way we come into conversation with the great teacher of which we are a part. We will spend time in gentle, intentional connecting relationship.

In meditation, we renew the conversation between our animal presence and the animate earth. Every bird, every rock face, every tree is capable of meaningful speech. Of course these other beings do not speak with a human tongue: they do not, that is, speak in words. They may speak in a song, like numerous birds, or in rhythm, like the crickets or the waves on the lake. They may speak a language of movements, of gestures, or slowly shifting shadows.

David Abram

August 28: The Stillness of Trees

The Buddha had a special relationship with trees, and in his first instruction invites us to sit in the presence of trees. We will simply rest in community with with our rooted friends, and with each other.

I go among trees and sit still.
All my stirring becomes quiet
Around me like circles on water.

Wendell Berry

Asian teacher series

Please join SIMC and three special teachers, each with unique roots in Asian heritage and practice.

Jozen Tamori Gibson
Neesha Patel
  • May 26, 2021 – Jozen Tamori Gibson
  • June 2, 2021 – Neesha Patel

Sessions will be on Zoom during our regular Wednesday meeting time.
7 pm Saskatchewan (9 pm EDT, 7 pm MDT, 6 pm PDT)
Register to get the link to join here:
http://bit.ly/simcwed

If you wish to support the teachers’ generosity in offering these teachings, please visit our dana page for details. Included a note in the message field with the teacher’s name, and we will forward your offering to them.

Jozen Tamori Gibson (they, them) began formal meditation practice in 2004 through Sotō Zen while living in Japan joined by a Theravada practice in 2010. Jozen is a graduate of the 2017-2021 Insight Meditation Society (IMS) Dharma Teacher Training program and serves on the New York Insight Meditation Center’s teacher council. With certifications and embodiment studies in Yoga, Qigong, Indigenous Focusing Oriented Therapy (IFOT) and Complex Trauma, Jozen lives to provide and nourish contemplative mind-heart-body alignment practices and spaces rooted in wellness, anti-oppression and interdependent liberation for all beings. Jozen honors the wisdom and compassion of all teachers, highlighting their mother, Akimi, and dharma root teacher, Pamela Weiss.

Neesha Patel has been drawn to the teachings of the Buddha ever since she first read comic books about the Buddha as a child. She has been fortunate to have been infused by and practiced the dhamma in both Asia and the US. Her practice has been influenced by the guidance of many wonderful teachers, including Sayadaw U Tejaniya and Ajahn Sucitto. Though her dhamma practice primarily derives from Vipassana traditions, she has benefited deeply from wisdom expressed in the Zen/Chan and Tibetan Buddhist traditions. She loves both intensive longer retreat practice, as well as daily life practice, and is inspired by the radical inclusivity of the dhamma.
Neesha currently resides in Northern California. She is a graduate of Spirit Rock’s Dedicated Practitioner Program, and is a graduate of the 2017-2021 IMS Teacher Training Program.

Retreat with Richard Shankman – May 14-18, 2021

This is for a past event. For current events, please visit our Upcoming Events page.

Calming the Mind/Opening to Insight – The Path of Mindfulness, Jhana and Insight

May 14-18, 2021
Retreat starts 7 pm on Friday, May 14
Retreat ends 4 pm on Tuesday, May 18
Online (Zoom)

Concentration and jhana are often taught as separate practices from insight meditation.

This retreat, however, will integrate concentration, mindfulness and insight into a single meditative path. Practicing in this way, the mind becomes more collected and centered, leading to deepening states of concentration, peace, clarity and calm abiding, and culminating in states of unification of mind known as jhana. At the same time, awareness will be guided to open into mindfulness of the body and states of the heart and the mind, revealing the four foundations of mindfulness.

This integration of concentration, calm, mindfulness and jhana builds a strong foundation for the arising of insight.

This retreat will entail alternating periods of sitting and walking (or other mindful movement) meditation, daily meditation instructions and dharma talk, and opportunities for individual and group practice discussions.

Registration now closed.

Saskatoon Retreat Schedule May 2021Download

Also, for a quick and easy intro to how we’ll practice on the retreat, Richard has provided a series of short, 5 – 7 minute, videos on YouTube. You can get to them at:
www.mettadharma.org/concentration-and-insight-meditation-as-one-path-of-practice/

Richard Shankman has been a meditator since 1970 and teaches classes and meditation retreats at dharma centers and groups nationally and internationally. Richard is the guiding teacher of the Metta Dharma Foundation, and co-founder of the Sati Center for Buddhist Studies and of Mindful Schools. He has sat many silent, intensive meditation retreats for periods up to eleven months long. Richard is the author of The Experience of Samadhi: An In-Depth Investigation of Buddhist Meditation and The Art and Skill of Buddhist Meditation.

Dhamma Friends – April 21, 2021

This is for a past event. Check our Upcoming Events page for other offerings.

Dear sangha friends,

I’m really excited to introduce you to another of my IMS Teacher Training colleagues.

Devon Hase will be joining us for our session on Wednesday, April 21, 2021, at 7 PM (Saskatchewan). Here is a little preview of the discussion:

The Live Wire of Authenticity
We could say that dharma practice offers a kind of live wire of authenticity, a radical knowing of just exactly this moment as it presences in body, heart, and mind. Join us for an evening of experiential excavation of our mutually shared (and yet entirely individual) aliveness.

Please join us for this very special night, part of a series of collaborations with teachers from around the world, which we are calling “Dhamma Friends.”

Please add a note “Dhamma Friends” with any dana you offer on this evening. It will be shared with appreciation among all the teachers.

Jeanne

About our guest

Devon Hase began intensive meditation training in 2000. She has studied at monasteries in Nepal and India, and practices in the Insight and Vajrayana traditions. Currently, Devon teaches at the Insight Meditation Society, Spirit Rock, and throughout North America and Europe. Along with her life partner nico, she co-authored their first book, How Not to Be a Hot Mess: A Survival Guide for Modern Life, which offers six pieces of semi-Buddhist advice to keep you anchored and steady amidst the chaos of modern life. She now lives together with nico in urban retreat in her hometown of Ashland, Oregon. For more info visit www.devonandnicohase.com.

Recording on Facebook