Dharma Day – July
Saturday, July 29nd, 2017
9:30 a.m. – 3 p.m.
Led by Joy Fox.
Again, a one-day experience with a guided tour in the Theravadan Vipassana meditation practices of sitting, walking, eating and loving-kindness.
This is your last opportunity to dip your toes into a day of silent meditation this summer, friends as Wattle will be closed until mid-September.
Cost: dana/donation. Lunch will be served.
All are welcome, though pre-registration must be no less than three days before the retreat (e.g.the Wednesday before).
Note from Joy
Wattle Hollow will be closed from July 30th, until mid-September.
Absolutely no visitors, please…the process of renovation (external and internal) will be in full bloom!
Scroll down the Schedule page to see what is coming up this fall at Wattle Hollow!
Dharma Day
Sunday, September 17, 2017
9:30 am – 3:00 pm
A one-day guided exploration into Vipassana (the Pali word for “Insight”) meditation, with guidance in the Theravadan Buddhist tradition of sitting, walking, and eating, as focused practices. It will be a day of silent contemplation, with complete guidance in the techniques, from Joy.
New-comers and old-timers are welcome.
Cost by donation/dana. Lunch will be provided.
Retreat Registration Form (pdf)
Weaving Wisdom Retreat
Thursday, Sept. 28 – Sunday, October 1
A four-day journey towards mysticism and healing.
Joy Caffey and Cherie Doyen will be sharing their wisdom, offering Akashic record readings, tonal sound healing circles, and creative play. We will begin the trip at Wattle Hollow Retreat Center (Thursday & Friday), and then migrate to Crystal digging, and then end up in Hot Springs for our last night together.
Register and/or get more information on Joy’s website: http://joyfulhealingcenter.com/event/wisdom-weaver-retreat/
Moving from Here
October 7 & 8 (Saturday 11 am – Sunday, 3 pm)
A powerful weekend, merging meditation into authentic movement/body awareness, with Sara Ledbetter and Joy Fox leading the exploration. The group will maintain meditative silence, except in group discussions and interviews, in order to deepen our focus..thus “seeing” more clearly.
Sara and I are quite excited about the possibilities of exploring mind/body/trauma and the resultant freedom that can emerge when obstacles are recognized and “melted” by recognition/self-compassion.
Read about Sara in the Teacher’s profiles, ask Spirit and then come join us, if it feels like time. (How can you resist?!)
Cost: $150. (Let us know if finances are an obstacle; we’ll work it out.)
Retreat Registration Form (pdf)
Songwriters Creativity – Fall Retreat
October 20 – 22, 2017
Our usual MAGICAL weekend of friendship, music, spontaneity and creativity. This fills up fast, friends…Don’t wait too long to decide to join us.
This group of artists has become very tight-knit, but is equally welcoming to new-comers….you could be the very newest family member to join us.
Contact Judy Smith to register or for more information.
The guides for this remarkable event are the marvelously receptive, creative, and available Jack Williams, and Still on the Hill’s Donna Stjerna and Kelly Mulholland.
More about the instructors at this link.
“This was an amazing gathering and so full of positive energy and inspiration…And thanks to all the attendees who provided a safe and supportive place for us all to try new things with the knowledge that you were all right there with us.” ~ Steve K
Vajrayana Retreat weekend with Thubten Dorje
October 27 – 29, 2017
Geshe-la, our dearly beloved local Tibetan lama and Religious Studies professor at the University of AR, will join us again for a weekend of sacred teachings.
His precise topic of studies will be announced closer to the date of our weekend.
Cost of lodging/food: $125 plus a donation for the teachings. No one is turned away for lack of funds…
Retreat Registration Form (pdf)
Geshe Thupten Dorjee was born Sonam Palden in Tibet just before the Chinese Communist invasion of 1959. He and his family escaped occupied Tibet and
headed southward when he was three years old. The journey through the mountains to Bhutan was a long, arduous one for the family. On many cold Himalayan nights, they sought refuge in shelters created for animals. Much of Geshe’s early life was spent in a refugee camp in Bhutan with other Tibetan exiles. Unfortunately, most members of his family died while there due to the poor living conditions and lack of medical care.
After 8 years of these difficult living conditions, Geshe and his surviving family journeyed south and settled in Southern India. At the age of 13, Geshe entered Drepung Loseling Monastery in Karnataka, South India.
Over the next 22 years, Geshe made a thorough study of the vast scriptures, principally the five foremost Buddhist philosophical subjects, i.e., Pramana (Valid Cognition), Prajnaparamita (Perfection of Wisdom), Madhyamaka (Middle Way Philosophy), Vinaya (Buddhist Ethics), and Abhidharma (Buddhist Metaphysics). Geshe was ordained a Buddhist monk by His Holiness the Dalai Lama in 1986. In 1994, Geshe received the degree of Geshe Lharampa (meaning “Spiritual Guide”), the highest scholastic honor offered by a Buddhist monastic university. It is roughly equivalent to the Doctor of Philosophy, although its course of study and examination schedules are far more rigorous than the Western degree.
During his years at Drepung Loseling, Geshe taught scriptures and Tibetan grammar to the lower classes while pursuing his advanced course of study. For four years, he was supervisor of agricultural projects at the Monastery.
Helping Hands & Heart
November 4 & 5th
Times: 11:30 Saturday – 3 p.m. Sunday
An in-service weekend for those volunteers who are working in the prisons, sharing meditation and/or yoga outreach, or if you’ve always planned to.
Meditation is a powerful and accessible tool for healing, cultivating compassion and wisdom, and liberating oneself from internal prisons. The Meditation Guide weekend retreat is a training for experienced meditators practicing bodhisattva action.
At this workshop, we’ll learn:
- Deep listening
- How to give meditation guide instruction
- How to lead group discussion
- Walking meditation
Participants are asked to read Pema Chodron’s, How to Meditate: A Practical Guide to Making Friends with your Mind prior to the retreat. There will be shorter reading and journaling activities during the retreat.
This Meditation Guide Training will begin in the context of prison outreach through a Buddhist organization called Compassion Works for All, but has the potential for outgrowth and support in other social action and helping arenas. We strongly encourage participants to imagine using this guide instruction in volunteer settings, including in prisons, with at-risk youth, and with other disenfranchised communities.
Facilitators:
Morgan Holladay, LMSW, is the executive director of Compassion Works for All (founded by Anna Cox), whose mission is to offer healing and hope by living and teaching compassion, especially to the disenfranchised and people in prison. Morgan practices in the Vajrayana Nyingma tradition at the Ecumenical Buddhist Society in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Cheryl Woodard is a board member of Compassion Works for All and former board member of the Ecumenical Buddhist Society in Little Rock. She studied under Chogyam Trungpa and later Pema Chodron at the Shambhala Center in Berkeley, California. Cheryl practices in the Vajrayana Nyingma tradition at the Ecumenical Buddhist Society in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Sliding scale cost:
Deepen your meditation practice $180;
Commit to leading 2 free meditation practices in the community $108;
Commit to leading 2 meditation practices in prison as a Compassion Works for All volunteer $80. No one will be turned away for lack of funds.
‘Being Where You Are’ Retreat
November 10-12, 2017 (Fri 6pm – Sun Noon)
Last spring , our 10th annual retreat was so stirring, powerful and FULL (with a long waiting list)…that I have encouraged dear Mark Cain to find yet another slot in his busy farm schedule, to join us again. Aren’t we lucky?!
What happens when you combine a weekend of Ashtanga Yoga with silent contemplative Vipassana meditation?
Something wonderful and insightful enough to make us want to continue this experiment for a decade now. Join Mark Cain and Joy Fox for this mind/body exploration into a world of possibilities. (More about Joy and Mark on this page.)
You don’t need expertise in either field…..thus the title. There will be Yin Yoga and pranayama also thrown into the mix.
Cost $150 (but no one will be turned away for lack of funds) includes lodging, meals, and instruction.
Retreat Registration Form (pdf)
In-town Dharma Day
Saturday, November 25th
9:30 am – 3:00 pm
This Dharma Day will occur at 344 Combs Ave, Fayetteville, Joy’s in-town home near the downtown square. (For all of you who accidentally ended up at this address, trying to find Wattle Hollow – now you know where to go for the last event of 2017, before Joy disappears for the winter…
Wattle Hollow will then be closed until mid-March 2018.
Recommended…
Extra-curricular cultural events this fall:
Broad Daylight benefit concert -for the AR Justice Collective/People Power… Friday, November 17th, 7 p.m. at the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church
Harmonia Winter Concert – Sunday, December 10, details will be forthcoming…
These are the two vocal groups which have brightened my life for over 23 years now. We hope you can join us.