A Long weekend retreat with Ven. Amy Miller

Our external world today often appears littered with division, violence, and alienation. Rather than grow dismayed by external experiences that show cruelty and heartlessness, let us explore how our vulnerability can become a source of resilience and positive change.

This long weekend retreat offers a meaningful pause, a chance to reconnect with inner strength, wisdom and compassion. The beautiful Green Tara practice explores a path of inner transformation by being present with our pain, fear, and aversion. This retreat incorporates Lam Rim (Stages of the Path) meditation along with the sadhana and mantra recitation of Green Tara. By opening our hearts in kindness to ourselves and others, the potential exists for our external reality to shift more beneficially as well.

According to Buddhist tradition, Tara was once a devoted princess who generated bodhicitta—the aspiration to attain enlightenment for the benefit of all beings. When advised that she should pray to be reborn as a man to achieve enlightenment, she refused, pointing out that enlightenment is not dependent on gender. She vowed instead to take rebirth again and again as a woman until all beings were free from suffering, becoming an enduring symbol of wisdom, compassion, and fearless enlightened activity in female form.

In doing this Tara practice, inner and outer obstacles can be eliminated to help us develop our minds, cultivate our courage and confidence, and accumulate the positive conditions needed to deepen our spiritual practice. Some background in Buddhism is helpful.

Join us for this nourishing weekend of practice, reflection, and renewal—and become part of a shared path of compassion that brings benefit both within and beyond ourselves.