Category Archives: VictoriaIMS Retreats

We offer one-day and two-day non-residential retreats. Retreats are held at Goward House, 2495 Arbutus Road, Victoria, BC. unless otherwise noted.

2019 Victoria IMS Retreats

VictoriaIMS 2019 Retreat Schedule

Volunteer organizers, teachers, and participants have come together for the past 19 years, to support the study and practice of the Theravada Buddhist teachings in Victoria. The VictoriaIMS Council and volunteers thank you for your ongoing interest and dedication to meditation and mindfulness practices.

We are pleased to announce the 2019 retreat schedule
For teacher bios click here

Feb 23/24 Margo McLoughlin from Victoria, BC
Registration Open: REGISTER

Apr 27/28 Tuere Sala from Seattle, WA
Registration Opens: Apr 1 2019

May 25/26 Adrianne Ross from Vancouver, BC
Registration Opens: Apr 29 2019

Aug 17/18 Ajaan Geoff from San Diego County, CA
Registration Opens: July 22 2019
Location: Cadboro Commons, UVic campus

Sept 14 Brock Brown from Victoria, BC
Registration Opens: Aug 19 2019

Oct 12/13 Vance Pryor from San Francisco
Registration Opens: Sept 16 2019

Nov 9/10 Howard Cohn from San Francisco, CA
Registration Opens: Oct 14 2019

Retreats and Talks are held at Goward House, 2495 Arbutus Road, Victoria, BC.
The June 23/24 retreat will be held at UVic Cadboro Commons Building.

Time of retreats: Saturdays 9 am – 4:30 pm; Sundays 9 am – 4 pm.

The teachings are offered freely. There are no registration fees.

On the day of the retreat, you may offer financial contributions to the teacher or in the case of monastics to the monastery, and to Victoria IMS for operational costs. Suggested donation to VictoriaIMS is $40 for a two-day retreat and $20 for a one-day retreat.

2019/02/23 Margo McLoughlin weekend retreat

Margo McLoughlin Retreat

The Medicine of Awareness: The Healing Path of Practice

A weekend retreat with Margo McLoughlin 

February 23 – 24, 2019

Held at Goward House, 2495 Arbutus Road, Victoria, BC,
Saturday 9:00 to 4:30 pm;  Sunday 9:00 – 4:00 pm.

Registration open: REGISTER

Through our practice of meditation, we discover the healing properties of mindful awareness. This kind of awareness is much more than paying attention: it is a profound training of the heart and mind that re-establishes inner equilibrium and nurtures an attitude of caring and compassion.
The Buddha is often referred to as the Great Physician, whose foundational teachings of the Four Noble Truths diagnose the human ailment, identify the cause, offer a cure, and prescribe the treatment.

Over the course of two days, Margo will use the framework of Five Spiritual Faculties – faith, energy, mindfulness, concentration, and wisdom – to investigate the ways we can strengthen and apply the medicine of awareness in our lives.

BIO:

Margo McLoughlin offers classes and leads retreats in Victoria and other Vancouver Island communities. She is a longtime student of Theravada Buddhism, a graduate of the Harvard Divinity School, as well as the Community Dharma Leader training program at Spirit Rock Meditation Center. Margo recently completed a ten-month course of study and retreat under the guidance of Steve Armstrong and Kamala Masters.

2019/04/27 Weekend retreat with Tuere Sala

Seeing Freedom In The Coming And Going of Life

April 27 and 28, 2019
Held at Goward House, 2495 Arbutus Road, Victoria, BC,
Saturday 9:00 to 4:30 pm;  Sunday 900 – 4:00 pm.

Registration opens April 01.

It has been said that the next Buddha will be the sangha.  Sangha, which means community, can be thought of as the coming together and falling apart of every aspect of life.  This coming together and falling apart is one of Buddha’s central teaching on the “Three Characteristics of Existence”.   These three universal characteristics — impermanence, dissatisfaction and not-self — can be thought of as the infrastructure of life.  Through meditation practice we can acquaint ourselves with their truth and strengthen our awareness of their presence in the whole of our experience.  This nonresidential weekend retreat is about learning to relax into the natural flow of the Three Characteristics to more directly experience the freedom of Dharma.

The weekend is appropriate for both new and experienced meditators and will include meditation (with instructions), walking/reflective periods, and Dhamma talks.

Tuere Sala is a retired prosecuting attorney who has practiced Vipassana meditation for over 25 years.  She has been an active member and volunteer at Seattle Insight since 2001.  In 2009, she was appointed to be a Local Dharma Leader and has often supported SIMS in unconventional ways such as answering the many letters SIMS receives from practitioners in prison; offering beginning classes at Angeline Women’s shelter and Jubilee House, a women’s transitional house; and facilitating workshops using nonviolent communication (NVC) to support a mindfulness practice.

Tuere believes that urban meditation is the foundation for today’s practitioner’s path to liberation.  She is inspired by bringing the Dharma to nontraditional places and is a strong advocate for practitioners living with high stress, past trauma and difficulties sitting still.  Her teachings reflect an approach to Dharma that is both easy to follow and understand – making it accessible to everyone.

Tuere has completed extensive trainings including: the 2 Year Spirit Rock/IMS Community Dharma Leader Program; a 1 Year Focusing for Complex Trauma Course which incorporates mindfulness principles with somatic listening and a 1 Year Mindfulness-Based Mind Fitness Training Course (MMFT) which incorporates mindfulness principles within the high stress work environments of first responders.  She has sat 300+ days of meditation retreat (including residential, non-residential and day-longs) and has a long history of assisting others in establishing and maintaining a daily practice.