with Fred Eppsteiner
Through our practices of mindfulness and mindful living, we become more grounded and self-aware. Practicing skillfully with our afflictive emotions, we find there is less emotional reactivity and ‘drama’ in our lives. Now we have a good foundation to engage with Buddhist teachings and practices to retrain our minds in the direction of greater intelligence, clarity and open-heartedness in daily life.
In this retreat at the end of August, Fred will help retreatants at all levels of practice, establish, or begin to establish, a strong (or stronger) framework for their daily life practice. By more concretely understanding and walking the Buddha’s Path we can more easily move away from our conditioned and historically unsatisfactory ways of living. Utilizing key Buddhist trainings that have guided Buddhist practitioners for hundreds of years to greater freedom and inner peace, retreatants will enjoy bathing in the collective wisdom of our spiritual ancestors.
Some examples of trainings to be focused on:
- First, train in the preliminaries
- When your world is filled with suffering, turn adversity into the path of awakening
- Don’t be swayed by external experiences
- Be grateful to everyone and always maintain a grateful mind
Who is this retreat for?
This retreat will benefit those who have established a ground of mindfulness and emotional stability through FCM’s Mindful Living Path (or equivalent study) and who wish to more formally enter and practice the Dharma Path and those more experienced practitioners who wish to revisit these precious teachings.
Retreat Logistics
This retreat is in-person only (either staying overnight or as a commuter) participation at FCM’s Tampa Center. The retreat will begin with orientation at 5:00 pm on Thursday, August 22 and ends after lunch on Sunday, August 25. Participation is open to both FCM members and non-members.
The fee for in-person participation is $270 for overnighters and $210 for commuters, with a $50 deposit required to apply.
Please note:
- The deadline for application for this retreat will be July 21. Please understand that this application DOES NOT guarantee you a spot in the retreat; all acceptances are subject to Fred’s approval.
- We will notify all applicants by July 23 as to whether or not they have been accepted into the retreat.
- For those accepted, the balance of the fee will be then be due by August 2, otherwise the spot will be given to another applicant.
- Please click here to read FCM's Retreat Cancellation Policy.
Retreat Scholarships are available; please click here to see FCM’s Retreat Scholarship Policy and for an Application, which needs to be submitted prior to the registration deadline for this retreat.
New to retreating with FCM? Please visit our FAQs page.
The teachings are offered in the Buddhist tradition of Dana, wherein the teachers freely give of themselves to the students out of gratitude for what they’ve received from their teachers and a desire to be of service. The student’s response is also based on Dana, i.e. generosity that naturally flows from a sense of appreciation of the value of Dharma and gratitude to the living lineage. All retreat dana will go towards supporting the retreat teachers.
The retreat registrar will be sending additional information to accepted registrants once registration is closed.
Retreat Leader
Fred Eppsteiner has been a student of the psychology of Buddhist meditation for over 40 years and was a psychotherapist for more than 30 years. He has trained extensively in the Buddhist meditative traditions the U.S. and Asia. He received permission to teach from Thich Nhat Hanh in 1994 and is the editor of two books: The Path of Compassion and Interbeing.
Questions?
For more information, please contact Angie at parrish26@gmail.com.
