We are very happy to announce the series:
Caring for the Present Moment
A Mindfulness Series for Educators
sponsored by Avalokita Center and Wake Up Schools
offered by Richard Brady and Chân Mai Nghiêm (Caroline), Dharma teachers in the Plum Village tradition, and Nathalie Martin, musician, art teacher, and free spirit, to share mindfulness teachings and practices focused on caring for the present moment.
As educators, when we take care of the present moment, we do our best to ensure a better future for our students, our colleagues, and ourselves.
In the week following each meeting we will review a practice we’ve learned by sharing it with the partner—a colleague, friend, or family member.
Friday 22 May
CARING FOR HAPPINESS IN THE PRESENT MOMENT We already have sufficient conditions to be happy. How can we deepen our awareness of them? How can we cultivate our inner garden to promote the growth of new happiness?
Friday 29 May
CARING FOR SUFFERING IN THE PRESENT MOMENT Suffering is the sibling of happiness. What do we have to learn from it? How can we practice with it in a healthy way?
Friday 5 June
CARING FOR OTHERS IN THE PRESENT MOMENT Happiness and suffering are not individual matters. How can we deepen our understanding of and connection with others—their happiness and their suffering?
Friday 12 June
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS IN THE PRESENT MOMENT What questions do we have in this moment? What answers do we already know? Where would we like help?
Teaching will be in English with simultaneous translation into Italian and French. Each meeting will start at 2:00 pm EDT (8:00 pm CEST), will last about an hour and a half, and will be available on Zoom or livestreamed on YouTube.
To participate, the use of a computer or tablet is essential so that you can interact with the teachers and ask questions.
If you are unable to attend any or all of the sessions, recordings will be available in English on Avalokita Center’s YouTube channel a few days after each session.
You can register by filling in the below form. Further information will be provided after registration. We ask you to register in advance in order to provide us an idea of the number of participants.
In this form, after entering your name and email address (please check that it has been typed correctly), you are asked to enter your place of residence, your occupation as an educator. Immediately after registering you will receive an email confirming your registration. If you do not receive it after a few hours, please check your junk mail or fill out the form again if you are not sure if the email address was correct.
You will also need to find someone (a relative, a friend, a collegue) who agrees to take part in one 30-40-minute practice session with you each week that you will facilitate. This provides a simple way for all of us to deepen our understanding and to practice teaching what we are learning.
Richard Brady is a retreat leader, writer, educational consultant, and coordinator of the Wake Up Schools Level II Program in North America. He is a founder of the Mindfulness in Education Network, an international organization with 1,700 participants. In 2001, he received lamp transmission from Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh to be a Dharma teacher in his tradition with a special focus on cultivating mindfulness in young people. Richard has lead retreats and offered workshops for educators in the US, in Italy at Centro Avalokita, and Germany. He is an editor of Tuning In: Mindfulness in Teaching and Learning (2009). Other writings of his are available at www.mindingyourlife.net. In 2007 Richard retired after thirty-seven years of high school mathematics teaching.
Chan Mai Nghiem (Caroline Bouquet) was ordained as a monastic in the Plum Village tradition in 2002 and received the Dharma Lamp transmission from Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh in 2010. She has lived as a monastic in PV centers for over 18 years (California, France, Hong Kong). She has accompanied Thich Nhat Hanh on many Asian and US tours and retreats in Europe. She has participated in, and led, many mindfulness retreats including programs for educators, teens, children, young adults. She has organized and co-lead retreats for Earth Holders (focus on deep ecology) and for people of color and helped develop retreats for the LGBTIQ community. She now is a lay Dharma Teacher and enjoys practicing in her vegetable garden. She hopes for a future where kids learn early on that they are children of Earth and Sun and are taught how to interact with themselves, each other and the Earth based on this truth.
Nathalie Martin teaches music, body-centered practices (Yoga, Qi Gong and Relaxation), and meditation to children and adults in Paris. She is the mother of two children aged 17 and 21. Nathalie has participated in many retreats of Mindfulness in the traditions of Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh and Tibetan Buddhism in France and Germany. She has trained in Levels I and II of Wake Up Schools from the Plum Village community, where Nathalie has been going regularly since 1997. She co-leads Educ’Inspir workshops for educator and, since the summer of 2019, has taken part in the “Happy Teachers Change the World” retrats led by Richard Brady in Italy. Fascinated by transmission since childhood, Nathalie enjoys exploring the range of possible ways to nurture the being and the future of the children, teenagers and adults she accompagnies. She has faith in human beings, in beauty and creativity, and in the loving relationship with the body and with nature to move towards more peace, joy, and freedom.
These teachings are offered in a spirit of generosity, everyone is invited to attend regardless of their economic condition. We invite everyone who can do so, to offer a donation to support the teaching. This will help ensure that these teachings will continue to be available. You can make a donation to Avalokita Center, which promotes this webinar series and will take care to distribute the amount collected according with the Teachers’ indications:
You can make a donation to Avalokita Center via PayPal at this link. Please write in the payment description “Educators Webinar series May/June 2020”, thank you.
If you are in Europe, you can also offer your donation with a bank transfer to the account of Avalokita Center or, even from outside of Europe, by Xoom. These are the bank details:
Owner: Fondazione Avalokita
Account at: Banca Popolare Etica
IBAN: IT74D0501803200000011256229
BIC: CCRTIT2T84A
Thank you for indicating “Educators Webinar series May/June 2020”
For more information: happyteachers@avalokita.it