Coming Home to Kind Awareness
Livestream Retreat
Monday, February 8, 2027 - Monday, February 15, 2027
During this livestream retreat, we will explore the heart of the Buddha’s teaching: suffering and its causes, and freedom and its causes. With the cultivation of our natural and relaxed awareness, we can become intimate with what it is like to be human.
We will train our ability to bear witness to our personal and social pains, and immerse ourselves in timeless teachings that incline our hearts and minds toward appreciating the joy of living.
By taking refuge in kind awareness, we can slow down to listen to the truths of the present moment and find peace in our own awakened hearts.
The livestream retreat format includes alternate periods of silent sitting and walking meditation practice, and dharma talks.
This online experience will be a livestream of the Coming Home to Kind Awareness retreat with Bart van Melik, DaRa Williams and Nolitha Tsengiwe. Meditation instructions and dharma talks will be live-streamed from the IMS Meditation Hall. Please note that there is no direct interaction with the onsite teachers during this online retreat.
This course is open to everyone.
This retreat begins on Monday, February 8 at 7:15 pm ET and concludes Monday, February 15 at 10:45 am ET. A full home retreat schedule and instructions will be offered.
Click here to view an example home retreat schedule.
This registration page is for the online version of this retreat. If you would like to register for the in-person version of this retreat, click here to view the Retreat Center schedule.
Sustainer
Benefactor
Scholarship
Bart van Melik has been teaching meditation since 2009, with a special focus on diverse communities. He brings the practice to juvenile detention centers, homeless shelters and NYC public schools, and is passionate about supporting people finding new ways to relate to life’s stresses. Bart is Guiding Teacher at Community Meditation Center in New York.
DaRa Williams is a trainer, meditation teacher and psychotherapist. DaRa has been a meditator for the past 25 years and is a practitioner of both Vipassana and Ascension meditation. She is a graduate of the Spirit Rock/Insight Meditation Society Teacher Training Program and is an IMS Emeritus Guiding Teacher. She is the program manager and a core teacher in the current IMS Teacher Training Program. DaRa has been a clinician and administrator in the field of mental health for over 25 years and currently maintains a private practice in Manhattan. She is a certified trainer and practitioner of Indigenous Focusing Oriented Therapy and Complex Trauma. DaRa integrates these skills, understandings, wisdom traditions and world views in her intention for contributing to the ending of suffering for all beings.
Nolitha Tsengiwe is a Dharma teacher and board member at Dharmagiri Sacred Mountain Retreat Center, in SA that was founded by Kittisaro and Thanisara Weinberg. She has practiced since 1997 under Kittisaro and Thanissara, who are of Ajahn Chah ‘s lineage. In her first retreat with these beloved teachers she discovered silence as a refuge and has never looked back. Nolitha completed the Community Dharma leadership program (CDL4) under Spirit Rock in 2014 and is at present a teacher trainee with IMS. Nolitha is a Psychologist in private practice and is trained in Karuna ( Group psychotherapy based on Buddhist principles) and Somatic Experiencing (SE). She is an executive coach and facilitator in leadership development. She offers in SA under Dharmagiri Race Work for reconciliation using Insight Dialogue principles. She has recently been appointed by Spirit Rock as a mentor for the TTCP program.
As one part of our ongoing effort to expand access to the teachings of the Buddha, all IMS Online programs feature equity-based registration fees, including the opportunity to self-select a low-cost scholarship rate. No-fee enrollment is available for those who request a fee-waiver at [email protected], no questions asked. Our system supports the cultivation of a dynamic and inclusive community and is made possible by our generous donors and those who choose to support other students by contributing at the “Benefactor” level.
Registration for this program closes on February 8, 2027 at 5:00 pm ET.
This program will be recorded and made available for on-demand viewing after the live sessions. On-demand videos will be available to registered participants only for 90 days.
IMS Online offers full refunds through the last day of a live program. Refunds for this program can be processed until February 15, 2027. Refunds can only be applied to the card that was used for the purchase. Please reach out to [email protected] with any refund requests.
If you have additional questions please contact us at [email protected].