• A WEEKEND RETREAT is a wonderful opportunity to learn  meditation, to energize and deepen our practice and share in the support of others. We will be alternating sitting, standing, and walking meditation using
  Vipassana (Insight) Meditation as a means to opening to the innate wisdom, joy, and peace which lies in each of us. There will be instructions, practice, dharma talks, chanting from various spiritual traditions and silence.
  
  THE PRACTICE OF MINDFULNESS, simple yet powerful, is the heart of meditation and the supreme antidote to distraction. Being mindful allows us to be more alert, calm and spacious. It truly is the gateway to liberation
  because we experience our bodies, emotions and thoughts with greater clarity and balance. We will integrate Lovingkindness (Metta) Meditation as part our practice. Lovingkindness meditation softens our attention
  allowing a more receptive awareness that takes us deeper into compassion and forgiveness.
  
  The Retreat Leader:
  Gloria Taraniya Ambrosia has been offering instruction in Theravada Buddhist teachings and practices since 1990. She is a student of the western forest sangha, the disciples of Ajahn Sumedho, and is ordained as a Buddhist Minister in association with Abhayagiri Buddhist Monastery in California. She has served as resident teacher of the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts. She teaches at the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies and at Dhamma centers in the United States.
  
  The retreat will be offered on a dana basis. The word dana comes from the ancient Pali language and means "generosity of heart." It is said that when the Buddha met someone who had never been exposed to his
  teachings, he began by teaching the blessings of generosity. The Buddha said, " If you knew what I know about the blessings of generosity, you would never sit down to a meal without sharing it with another."
  Generosity is the natural expression of an open heart, a heart that is free from the need to protect. The highest form of generosity is the act of giving that is free of obligation and expectation. It is a spontaneous impulse of the heart, motivated by a wise understanding of where freedom lies.
      In traditional Buddhist countries, monks and nuns have all of their
  needs met by the generosity of lay people. Monastics go on alms round daily to collect their food. Along with the feeding of the monastic community, another purpose of alms round is to give lay people an opportunity to
  practice generosity. Even in the poorest villages the people joyfully share what little they have because they so value the presence of the monks and understand the blessings of dana practice. In this country, we have tens of thousands of churches, synagogues, mosques and temples. All of them are built and maintained with donated money, the same dana principle. When the first group of westerners who had studied and practiced in the east returned to the west (some three decades ago), they chose to preserve the teaching of dana as a practice. Taraniya, and the  Philadelphia Meditation Center follow this tradition. The teachers and the founders of PMC have faith that their needs will be met by the generosity of grateful students and retreatants who come to the center.
       The $210 registration fee that you paid for this retreat covers the cost of putting on the retreat which includes teacher transportation, room an board, and advertising. No portion of this goes to the teacher.
  Participants will have the opportunity to give a donation to Taraniya and at the end of the retreat .Your

Schedule:
Friday
5 PM to 6:30 PM Registration and room assignments
6 PM Light Dinner
7:30 PM Retreat Orientation and Dharma Talk
9 PM Tea
10 PM Noble Silence begins
Saturday Silent retreat with sitting and
walking meditation, meditation
instruction, Dharma talk, and
questions and answers
Sunday Retreat continues
3 PM Closing Ceremony
4 PM Retreat Ends

Train: Penn Center Station: Take Paoli local to Bryn Mawr Station. 5 minutes by taxi

From Philadelphia: City Line Ave. (South). Turn right on Haverford Rd.. Go about 3 miles to College Ave. Go less than 1 mile. Turn right on Coopertown Rd. to entrance on left.

In Delaware County: Darby Rd. (heading West) to Coopertown Rd. (one block after Ardmore Ave.)  to dead end. Turn right on College Ave. You will pass our EXIT  sign. Continue to next street (Coopertown Rd. again), Turn left and then left to entrance on left.

From I-95 (North or South) to I-476 North to exit 13: St. Davids-Villanova. Follow signs for Villanova. Follow Lancaster Ave. (Route 30 East). You will pass Villanova University on the left. Turn right at County Line Rd. (McDonalds on left). Pass the Bryn Mawr Hospital. One light after Bryn Mawr Ave., turn right on Landover Rd. which eventually becomes Coopertown Rd. Pass Coopertown School on right and look for St. Rafaela entrance sign on right.

From PA Turnpike: (Going West) Get off at exit 25A (476 South). Follow 476 South t0 Exit 13: St Davids-Villanova. Follow directions above from Villanova exit. (Going East) Get off at Valley Forge. Follow 76 East to 476 South. See directions above for 476 South.