Insight Meditation Center of Pioneer Valley Opens New Year with Classes and Retreat for Beginning Meditators

The Insight Meditation Center of Pioneer Valley is pleased to announce its classes, sittings and retreats for the first half of 2007. Opening the year are a six-week class and a half-day retreat for beginning meditators. The Insight Meditation Center is located at Eastworks, 116 Pleasant Street, Suite 242, in Easthampton, MA. It is a non-residential Buddhist retreat center serving Western Massachusetts. Learn more at http://www.insightpv.org/

Easthampton, MA (PRWeb) December 28, 2006 -- The Insight Meditation Center of Pioneer Valley is pleased to announce its classes, sittings and retreats for the first half of 2007. Opening the year are a six-week class and a half-day retreat for beginning meditators.

On Monday evenings from January 8 through February 12, Adi Bemak will lead a six-week introductory class, "Beginning a Meditation Practice". This weekly class offers a chance to learn about Insight Meditation with guided instruction and plenty of time for questions and discussion. This course is intended to help anyone living in the midst of a busy daily life. Attendees will join others who want time for reflection, increasing the potential to bring greater understanding and ease to all of life's activities. The classes will take place from 7-9pm. The suggested donation for the meditation center's expenses is $42-$60 for the six-week series. There is also an opportunity to donate to the teacher.

On Saturday, January 27, Chas DiCapua will lead a half-day retreat to help beginning students explore their practice more deeply through in-depth instructions and a period for questions and discussion. Ways to bring the mindfulness practice to daily life activities will also be covered. The retreat will take place from 9am-12:30pm. The suggested donation for the meditation center's expenses is $10-$15 per attendee. There is also an opportunity to donate to the teacher.

Additional classes and retreats will be held throughout the first half of the year on such subjects as "Love and Equanimity", "Understanding Shame and Developing Trust", "The Satipatthana Sutra: The Foundations of Mindfulness", "Investigating the Self-Critical Mind", "Nirvana: The Cessation of Me and Mine", and "Love Revealed". Special retreats will be held for teens, women, and the Gay-Lesbian-Bisexual-Transgender (GLBT) community.

Honored guest lecturers will include Mark Coleman, Tara Brach and Sharon Salzberg. Ms. Salzberg, a widely published author and co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Mass., will speak on "Fierce Compassion" at Smith College's Helen Hills Hills Chapel on April 12, 7pm.

No one will be turned away from any class, retreat or event for inability to pay. Our Eastworks facility is wheelchair accessible. For the comfort of chemically sensitive individuals, no incense is used at the center.

Serving Western Massachusetts, the Insight Meditation Center of Pioneer Valley is a non-residential meditation center in the Theravadin Buddhist Tradition. Our mission is to share the Buddha's teaching of liberation from suffering with all those who are interested and with those who want to sustain and deepen their practice. To learn more, please visit http://www.insightpv.org/

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