Offering respite from the demands of life’s busyness, Roaring Fork Insight warmly invites the community to attend its upcoming Fall Meditation Retreat at Flying Dog Ranch in Carbondale. Taking place Oct. 24-26, this non-residential retreat is for beginner and experienced practitioners alike to practice silence and develop the continuity of mindfulness during peaceful rituals and activities.
“The intention of this retreat is to create a container that you’re held in for a period of time,” said Lisa Goddard, executive director of Roaring Fork Insight. “It is unlike anything else available. It’s not about changing your life or a self-improvement project. This is about embracing yourself with all of it.”
Founded by Goddard in 2016, Roaring Fork Insight follows the Dharma path to weave Buddhist ideals of mindfulness, ethics, compassion, loving kindness and liberation into everyday life. Through the practice of insight meditation, or “vipassana,” the nonprofit creates a safe place for practitioners of all backgrounds to see deeper, gain clarity and recognize awareness of thoughts, feelings and physical sensations without judgement.
“Meditation practice is almost like exposure therapy,” said Goddard. “We are exposing ourselves to everything that comes into our realm of awareness. We’re seeing it, recognizing it and giving it all this space to live … When we bring it into awareness, these things let go of us. You’re no longer suppressing it and it’s no longer this tightness.”
At the Fall Meditation Retreat, practitioners will take a vow of silence following Friday’s communal dinner. Over the course of three days, attendees will practice silence through sitting and walking meditation, Dharma talks, yoga and practice discussion with the teacher. Nourishing meals prepared by Carbondale’s The Supply Collective and New Castle’s The Voracious Vegan will accentuate mindful eating, while a traditional Japanese tea ceremony offered by two Zen students of Zenki Christian Dillo from the Boulder Zen Center will create ritual honoring Zen culture and meditation.
“The Buddha taught the middle path,” said Goddard. “This space offers the middle path. Yes, there will be moments where you might experience discomfort, but we are balancing it with things that are nourishing.”
The “noble silence” will continue even when practitioners go home between sessions, encouraging that only critical communication takes place. Technology use, including cell phones, is discouraged. While seemingly uncomfortable, Goddard invites the silence like an old friend.
“Silence has its own energy,” Goddard explained. “You sit still and become quiet and your whole life shows up. The mind goes into planning, memory and starts its traveling journey. At some point during meditation … you come into quiet, which becomes like a refuge.”
During this refuge, attendees can shift toward simplicity: one’s breath, easy movement and gentle sipping. Eventually, a composure takes hold and the realization that we have the capacity to respond to situations from a place of balance begins to arise.
“We want to be free from the compulsion of reactivity,” said Goddard. “We have our habit patterns and they’re really old. We can meet our habit patterns with what we know, or with practice we can pause and become more aware of what the appropriate response for this moment might be.”
Goddard began her practice in 1997 as a response to alcoholism. In her first experience, she learned from Zen Buddhist priest Norman Fischer that the pursuit of happiness through cravings and attachments only leads to more unhappiness. The lesson immediately resonated and she went on to dedicate her life to practicing and studying first Soto Zen at Green Gulch Farm in California before being introduced to vipassana meditation in 2001. Since then, she has trained with Jack Kornfield and other teachers from Spirit Rock Meditation Center, Zen Hospice Project, Mindful Schools and the Sati Center for Buddhist Studies.
While she brings a wealth of wisdom and credentials, she emphasized meditation is “an onward leading practice” and that we will all have points of an “unruly mind” or thoughts that stray. The idea is to continue bringing yourself back to center. “It’s about actually allowing the wholeness of who you are to be. We are in process until our last breath,” she elaborated.
At Roaring Fork Insight’s retreat, Goddard is excited to create a container in which all participants belong and will be filled with compassion — for oneself, others and beyond.
“In retreat practice you start to contemplate what’s important,” concluded Goddard. “This is a fascinating, mysterious world we live in, and we are part of that mystery. Retreat is a way to remember our part. We’re meeting the world with an open hand instead of a closed fist.”
Can’t make the retreat? Join Roaring Fork Insight at their weekly Wednesday in-person meetings or on Tuesdays and Thursdays via Zoom. Visit www.roaringforkinsight.org to learn more.