EVENTS
Daylongs & Classes
Opportunities to Sit Together
A Holiday for the heart
Where every step is my home. ~Dogen
With so much change happening all around us, it’s best to stay close to our own deepest knowing. Through the cultivation of mindfulness, we’ll devote this day to connecting with our intrinsic awareness—the part of us that’s awake, that dimension that’s deeper than thought, personality and the endless urge to improve. This awareness is the essence of Buddha nature.
Together we’ll practice stepping off that hamster wheel of doing, without needing to be more, better, or different. It’s like giving your heart a holiday: resting right in the middle of whatever’s unfolding, holding what needs to be held, and letting go of what’s already gone.
Whether you drop in for an hour or stay all day, you’ll be in the company of a caring community.
Come just as you are: messy, curious and real—it’s all welcome. No perfect people allowed. This path of ours is way more fun together.
https://app.aplos.com/aws/events/big_heart_city_meditation_online_daylong_retreat
ONLINE DAYLONG RETREAT
REGISTER HERE: https://www.bigheartcity.org/daylong-retreat
My Friends and other gloriously imperfect humans,
Straight up, life’s been a lot lately. If you’ve been stretched thin, ghosting yourself, or just tired of carrying the weight of it all—let’s sit together. Let’s offer ourselves a chance to go inward, to rest, and to realign with our own goodness. Let’s create a space to come together, catch our breath, and feel alive again. So often the way suffering manifests is we feel alone in it. It’s not true, but damn does it feel like it. Thankfully when we’re in the presence of Sangha we remember a deeper truth.
We’ll practice showing up for whatever’s here: the calm, the chaos, and the boredom. Hundreds of times in a single sit, we come back home to ourselves. No quick fix. No right way to do it. Just being here, now.
We’ll focus our time practicing together with some guided meditations, a couple short talks, walking, eating as well as Q&A. Here’s the deal: Come as you are and stay as long as you can; have your camera off or on. Even if you feel, exhausted, pissed, doing good, or over it, we got space for all of you.
With love and a deep breath,
Vinny and BHC crew
Discovering What Death Can Teach Us About Living Fully
Vinny Ferraro and Frank Ostaseski
Death is the secret teacher hiding in plain sight. Death helps us to discover what matters most, and the good news is that we don’t have to wait until the end of our lives to realize the wisdom that death has to offer. Weaving together pragmatic tools, real life stories, and ancient wisdom, Frank and Vinny will help us discover how an awareness of death can be a valuable companion on the road to living well and forging a rich and meaningful life that is free of regret.
Join these two friends and teachers for an honest exploration of living and dying. Together we will explore this topic through Dharma talks, guided meditations, discussion, and a session for questions. No hiding, no easy answers, no part left out.
Online Daylong - Ways of seeing
You are warmly invited to join us for this day of deepening in the Dharma. With as much sincerity as we can muster up, we will offer ourselves a pardon.
The perpetual sense of becoming is exhausting and it keeps us postponing arrival. We’ll practice locating ourselves outside that paradigm of evaluation and judgment, and -- for one day, just as an experiment -- let in the possibility that we can’t do it wrong… and then explore how it really feels to unconditionally accept this moment just as it is.
We’ll practice finding refuge in what is reliable, what Thích Nhất Hạnh called our true inheritance.
There will be guided sits, dharma talks and Q&A sessions as we train the heart & gladden the mind.
Even if you can’t stay for the whole thing, or have to have your camera off, feel free to come and let’s remember together.
$40 Registration fee + dana to Vinny
If the registration fee is prohibitive for you, please email info@bigheartcity.org and we will get you registered.
The Radiance of the unobscured heart
True sacred relationship with this moment flowers when we are not asking it to be other than it is. ~Adyashanti
You are warmly invited to join us for our next Big Heart City daylong. This online retreat offers a unique opportunity to step away from the business of daily life and immerse ourselves in what the Buddha describes as the sure hearts release.
Together we’ll explore the natural radiance of the unobscured heart, an intrinsic brightness that shines through when we release our attachments and aversions. Through meditation we learn to recognize and trust this inherent luminosity within every one of us. This daylong will provide a space to deepen your practice, connect with like-minded community, and experience the profound peace that arises from an open heart.
The day will include instructions for sitting and walking meditations, dharma talks and guided heart practices, as well as Q&A sessions.
Whether you are new to meditation or are an experienced practitioner, the teachings will be relatable and grounded in lived experience. You are welcome to join us, even if you can’t stay for the whole time, or have to have your camera off. You know our motto “Come as you are, no perfect people allowed.”
We hope you can join us!
$40 Registration fee + dana to Vinny
Register here - https://app.aplos.com/aws/events/the_radiance_of_the_unobscured_heart
If the registration fee is prohibitive for you, please email info@bigheartcity.org and we will get you registered.
Registration closes at 9am on Saturday, July 27.
FIND YOUR TIMEZONE HERE
This is a live online retreat. It will NOT be recorded.
HERE FOR IT- Online day long
By cultivating mindfulness, this daylong will focus on trusting our intrinsic awareness, and the contentment that’s born of presence. We’ll rest in the center of conditions and make it a holiday for the heart. Together, we’ll hold what needs to be held and recognize what’s already gone. As awareness strengthens our own understanding, we allow the wise heart to respond, as we come into right relationship with the truth of what is.
We will practice mindfulness throughout the day integrating sitting, walking, and eating, plus Dharma talks and Q&A sessions. Feel free to have your camera off, or only come for part of the day…you know our motto “Come as you are, no perfect people allowed.”
We hope you can join us!
$35 Registration fee + dana to Vinny
If the registration fee is prohibitive for you, please email info@bigheartcity.org and we will get you registered.
The Zoom link will be sent via email on Friday, May 31
Registration closes at 9am on Saturday, June 1.
FIND YOUR TIMEZONE HERE
This is a live online retreat. It will NOT be recorded.
Register here:
Coming Home
I am throwing arms open to the whole of myself—especially the fearful, fault-finding, falling apart, unfinished parts…knowing every seed and weed, every drop of rain, has made the soil richer.
~Julia Fehrenbacher
The Buddha’s teachings remind us that it's our birthright to embody the whole of this life. I think this resonates so deeply because we know the feeling of exile. Our practice invites us to make ourselves at home in the present moment, and care about whatever it is we find there. With radical acceptance, we see what’s possible when we meet ourselves just as we are. We will focus our attention on trusting what the Buddha called, the sure heart’s release aka the alchemy of presence.
Thankfully we don’t have to do it alone, together we’ll sit, explore and share what’s found in presence.
We will practice mindfulness throughout the day integrating sitting, walking, and eating, plus Dharma talks and Q&A sessions. Feel free to have your camera off, or only come for part of the day…you know our motto “Come as you are, no perfect people allowed.” We hope you can join us!
https://app.aplos.com/aws/events/coming_home_a_love_affair
$35 Registration fee + dana to Vinny
If the registration fee is prohibitive for you, please email info@bigheartcity.org and we will get you registered.
The Zoom link will be sent via email on Friday, March 15.
A holiday for the heart
I discovered a deep satisfaction in not actively seeking satisfaction. ~Ajahn Amaro
You are warmly invited to join us online on Saturday, January 13 for this day of deepening in the Dharma. Together, we’ll hold what needs to be held and recognize what’s already past. We’ll rest in the center of conditions and make it a holiday for the heart. Remembering that no matter what a moment holds, we can meet it in a beautiful way, and discover the satisfaction of unconditionally accepting things just as they are. The sangha reminds everyone of us that we don’t have to do it alone.
Practices will include guided sits, walking, Q&A, and a dharma talk.
Feel free to have your camera off, or only come for part of the day…you know our motto “Come as you are, no perfect people allowed.”
$35 Registration fee + dana to Vinny
If the registration fee is prohibitive for you, please email info@bigheartcity.org and we will get you registered.
Register at: bigheartcity.org/online-retreat
Without desire everything is sufficient. With seeking, myriad things are impoverished. — Ryokan
