Hello everyone, and thank you for your interest in Dharma Buddie's Spring 2022 retreat! We are happy to welcome René Rivera as our guest teacher this time, you can learn more about him and the retreat in the paragraphs below. The retreat will take place over the course of two days, on Saturday 4/23 from 9am - 1pm and Sunday 4/24 from 10am - 12pm. We may meet in person after our meeting on Saturday or Sunday for lunch in the Capitol Hill area, more on that to come!

Note that the ticket for the event is free and we encourage you to make a dana contribution as you see fit. In the past, attendees have donated roughly $75-$150 for other teacher-led events. 100% of donations will go to our guest teacher, though there are several places in the donation form for you to contribute directly to Give Butter. There is no need to do this, and costs for transitions are never passed onto Dharma Buddies. Also, note you have the ability to hide the amount donated otherwise the platform will show it publicly.

The link and schedule for the event will be sent out the week of the retreat, look out for an email then! Also, if Dharma Buddies can help accommodate you in any way please reach out to us at [email protected]. You an find more information about the organization as a whole and other ways to join us at www.dharmabuddies.org

Description of Retreat

The Buddha has said that spiritual friendship is the whole of the holy life. In this online weekend retreat East Bay Meditation Center core teacher René Rivera will lead us in an exploration of how we can put this principle into practice as a Sangha. Using the lens of the four divine abodes of Lovingkindness, Compassion, Sympathetic Joy and Equanimity we will practice together in relationship. Each of these divine qualities or abodes comes alive in relationship and in community.

Through talks, guided meditation, practice in dyads and full group discussion we will cultivate community together. On Saturday we will resource ourselves through practicing loving kindness, compassion and sympathetic joy within community and spiritual friendship. On Sunday we will cultivate equanimity and the capacity to hold difficult emotions in our relationships and in community.

René Rivera's Bio

René Rivera (he/him) is a meditation teacher, restorative justice facilitator, and leader, working and learning in all the spaces in-between race, gender, and other perceived binaries, as a queer, mixed-race, trans man. René teaches heart-centered, trauma-informed meditation, at the East Bay Meditation Center and other meditation centers. He has co-led the first residential meditation retreats for transgender, nonbinary and gender expansive people. René is a restorative justice facilitator for the Ahimsa Collective, working to heal sexual and gender based violence.