Transcending Identity
A Retreat for Advanced Practitioners
About this IMS Online Retreat
Tuesday, May 2, 2023 - Monday, May 8, 2023
This program is now closed to new Registrations.
This course is suitable for students with 10 or more years of experience in the Zen, Chan, or Insight Traditions who also have extensive residential retreat experience.
The central focus of Buddhism is the uncovering and abiding in the essence of life. Buried beneath the conditioned rubble of our words and perceptions lies this very approachable fruit of our search. We have to release the conceptual layers that have hidden it from view in order to enter the greater wonderment available to us all. This course will focus on uprooting our false identity within our encased narrative and aligned ego structures. Because of the mental and spiritual stability needed for this exploration, this course is suitable for students with 10 or more years of experience in the Zen, Chan, or Insight Traditions who also have extensive residential retreat experience.
We realize this course may only speak to a few practitioners, but we feel this may be one of the rich but infrequent opportunities offered in our tradition where students can access the view, wisdom, and practices necessary for their complete contentment of heart. Participants are asked to remain the entire 7 days and engage the online schedule fully.
This course begins on Tuesday, May 2, at 11:00 am ET and concludes Monday, May 8, at 5:15 pm ET. A full home retreat schedule and instructions will be offered. The live session schedule with the teachers is as follows:
Tuesday, May 2, 2023 - Sunday, May 7, 2023
- 11:00 am - 12:00 pm ET (check local time)
- 1:30 pm - 2:30 pm ET (check local time)
- 3:00 pm - 3:45 pm ET (check local time)
- 4:15 pm - 5:00 pm ET (check local time)
- 7:15 pm - 8:00 pm ET (check local time)
Monday, May 8, 2023
- 11:00 am - 12:00 pm ET (check local time)
- 1:30 pm - 2:30 pm ET (check local time)
- 3:00 pm - 3:45 pm ET (check local time)
- 4:15 pm - 5:15 pm ET (check local time)
This course will be recorded and made available for on-demand viewing after the live sessions. On-demand videos will be available to registered participants for 90 days.
Meet Your Teachers
Narayan Helen Liebenson
Narayan Helen Liebenson finds it a joy and a privilege to share the Buddha’s teachings with all who are interested. She serves as an IMS guiding teacher, and has been a guiding teacher of the Cambridge Insight Meditation Center since its inception in 1985.
Her training over the past forty years includes study in the United States and in Asia with meditation masters in the Theravada, Zen, and Tibetan traditions. She was a student of the late Chan master Sheng Yen for over ten years. Asked by Master Sheng Yen to teach, Narayan decided to integrate her understanding of Zen into her already existing Vipassana lineage.
Narayan is the author and illustrator of a small book titled Life as Meditation, and for many years wrote a meditator’s advice column in Buddhadharma magazine. Her latest book, The Magnanimous Heart, was published by Wisdom Publications in January, 2019.
Rodney Smith
Rodney Smith disrobed as a monk in 1983 and for the next 35 years taught Insight Meditation throughout the U.S. and for many of those years worked in hospice care. In 2017 he retired from most work related obligations, allowing him to explore a life unconstrained by time. He is the author of four books including Touching the Infinite: A New Perspective on The Buddha’s Four Foundation of Mindfulness. His teaching style is direct and undeviating, emphasizing the immediacy of awakening and the embodiment of awakened values.