About this Retreat
Aaron Piepszny teaches Chi Gung, Buddhism, and somatic embodiment studies online as well as at Menla Mountain retreat where he is the head of horticulture. He received his Permaculture Design Certificate in 2016 at the Paititi institute in Peru.
Aaron has studied, supported, and enacted a wide variety of integrative food production methods with locals and First Nations in Spain, California, NY state, Peru, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, Germany, and Poland.
He received his BA in Cultural Anthropology from SUNY Buffalo. He started his farming career in 2001. Aaron has been a professional dancer for over 15 years.
A naturalist, farmer, and Gaian steward, Aaron has been wildcrafting food and medicine plants and foraging mushrooms for 25 years. He brings great excitement, reverence, and joy to sharing wisdom, learning, and concepts regarding nature, health, and mindfulness.
Michael G. Burbank has been a student of Robert Thurman and HH the XIV Dalai Lama for over 25 years, since his undergraduate years studying Eastern religions and cultures at Columbia University in the 90s. In February of 2002, he was invited to help the Thurmans and Tibet House start the newly acquired Menla retreat. Over the years, he worked variously as Menla's dishwasher, housekeeper, maintenance assistant, Front of House Manager, and Assistant Director, and since 2013 he has served as Menla's Director.
Michael received the Kalachakra Tantra initiation from His Holiness the Dalai Lama twice--in 2003 and 2017--in Bodh Gaya, India. An avid life-long student and practitioner of Buddhism, Michael teaches classes at Menla and occasionally co-leads retreats. He is working in conjunction with a team of entrepreneurs and mindfulness teachers to launch Mindwell Labs, a for-profit mindfulness tech company intended to further the efforts of Tibet House US/Menla nationwide through a cutting edge health app that monitors anxiety. In his spare time, he works on spiritually-based screenplays and graphic novels, including most recently as letterer and co-author of Man of Peace: the Illustrated Life Story of the Dalai Lama with William Meyers and Robert Thurman.
Details of this retreat
Immediate, actionable stress relief and emotional regulation are the major themes of this immersion. Rather than marathon meditation sessions, we will favor short bursts of depth explorations of breathing, relaxation, and awareness. We’ll then shorten this deep diving to access in-body ease with no preparation or planning, just choice, at any moment.
We’ll explore the Buddha’s teachings around somatic presence/ Vipassana (Insight) with wide open curiosity from the original source text, the Satipatthana Sutta (‘Discourse on Establishing Mindfulness’). We will find connection, ease, and robust somatic-based self-care strategies within the supportive natural environment of Menla.
Expressing our own unique pathways of presence, we’ll restore peace to our bodies and find presence with our breath. Menla’s Executive Director Michael Burbank will share a guided mindfulness practice as found in the original sutra Friday evening.
We will refine our sensitivity and release tension through Qigong, awareness of breath, meditative walks, somatic self-massage, and sitting with the vital, living landscape of the Catskills.
Presencing with nature and grounded in the Buddha’s Foundations of Mindfulness, we will commune with the powerful energies of the mountains, forest, and streams to explore ‘inter-being’. This immersive experience will foster rejuvenation, inspiration, and ease throughout our whole selves.
Schedule
Friday, August 9
3 - 6 pm Arrival & Check-in
6 - 7 pm Dinner
7:30 - 9 pm Introduction & Guided Mediation
Saturday, August 10
7 - 8 am Beginning: Contemplating the Body & Qi Gong
8 - 9 am Breakfast: Eating in the Present Moment
9 - 10 am Beginning: Contemplating the Breath
10 - 11 pm Beginning: Continuing with ‘Relaxation’ Aspect
11 am - 12 pm Outdoor Walking Meditation & Sitting at the Roots of Trees
12:30 - 1:30 Lunch
2 - 2:15 pm Journaling
2:15 - 3 pm Qi Gong
3 - 4 pm Water Contemplation
4 - 5 pm Ecology walk
5 - 6 pm Discussing What We’ve Found
6 - 7 pm Dinner
7:30 - 10 pm Bonfire
Sunday, August 11
7 - 11 am Check-out of Rooms
7 - 8 am Qi Gong
8 - 9 am Breakfast: Eating in Mindfulness
9:30 - 10 am Walking Meditation
10 am - 12 pm Sitting with the Elements: Journaling & Reflections
12:30 - 1:30 Lunch: Eating in Mindfulness
1:30 - 4 pm Departure
*Please note that the schedule is subject to change.