Embodied Life, Compassionate World: Cultivating the Jewels of Meditation

Embodied Life, Compassionate World:
Cultivating the Jewels of Meditation Practice
An in-person half-day retreat with San Francisco Insight teachers Nina Gold, Syra Smith and Felix Tsai.
Saturday, June 8 2024, Noon – 5 pm
With all the disruptions in our times, it is more important than ever to bring contemplative and restorative practice into our daily lives.Compassion, loving-kindness, and non-harming complement our meditation practice and help us to embody mindfulness, greater happiness and deeper contentment. Join us with San Francisco Insight teachers, Felix Tsai, Nina Gold, and Syra Smith, for a nourishing afternoon of meditation and practice as we explore ways we can embody the dharma in our daily lives and build a more compassionate world.
This half-day retreat will include periods of silent meditation with some guidance, movement practice, contemplative exercises and discussion. There will be a break. Please bring a water bottle and snacks to nourish yourself. All levels are welcome. No prior meditation experience necessary.
Location: The Center SF, 548 Fillmore Street, San Francisco, CA 94117
Sliding Scale Donation: Our sliding scale options for this program include financial support for our teachers. Please consider giving at the highest rate that you can afford: your generosity supports the teachers as well as San Francisco Insight, the Center SF community and your fellow practitioners.
Sustaining: $108
Basic: $50
Scholarship: $25
All are welcome! No one will be turned away for lack of funds as space allows.Please contact SF Insight if you’d like to register and need assistance. https://www.sfinsight.org/contact#

Syra Smith is an artist, facilitator, mindfulness educator and earth wisdom keeper interested in deep ecology and manifesting a culture where we can turn toward fearless abundance, generosity and personal sanctity. Her grandmothers are Choctaw-Chickasaw and include those among the first freed black African women to own land in her country. Syra's studies and practices are deeply rooted in the heart and along the path toward awakening more fully to the truth of freedom in our lives.A lifelong meditator and SF Bay Area native, Syra began her personal meditation practice as a teen in 1988 and has been practicing in the Theravada Buddhist tradition since 2009. She graduated East Bay Meditation Center’s Commit to Dharma program in 2011 and became a Spirit Rock Community Dharma Leader in 2017. Syra teaches Insight Meditation and mindfulness throughout the SF Bay Area and beyond and proudly serves as Core Teacher with the San Francisco LGBT Sangha. Syra is honored to serve as Interim Board President as well as on the Guiding Teachers Council with San Francisco Insight. For more about Syra www.ProjectRoot.org
Nina Gold (she/her) has been practicing Insight meditation since 2007. She is a graduate of the Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Training program, with Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach, and was a member of Spirit Rock's CDL6 cohort. She has taught Mindfulness, co-facilitated SF Insight’s 9 month Investigating White Identity and has been a yoga teacher since 1998.
She is most energized and inspired by her current work with the GRIP Training Institute’s restorative justice program, where she works with and learns from the incarcerated people at San Quentin. She loves truth and opening to the whole of life as practice. Dharma practice has profoundly transformed her and she shares these teachings with gratitude and joy.
Felix Tsai has been practicing Insight Meditation since 2001 and is a graduate of Spirit Rock’s Dedicated Practitioner program. He is currently a software engineer but has also worked in law training and development and in youth development. He has been active in community organizations in SF for many years particularly in the queer API community, and has been leading meditation classes in the SF County jails. Felix co-leads the weekly Midday sangha at SFI.

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