We hope you can join us for our late summer 7 Day Retreat with Sandra Gonzalez and Liz Heron from August 29 through September 5. Several spaces are still available for this retreat, including single rooms and part-time attendance is an option.

Sandra and Liz will give talks and be available for private meetings and the daily afternoon group dialogue in this retreat. 

Sandra Gonzalez began working with Toni Packer in 1988. In 2003 Toni asked her to be one of the people to help carry on the meditative work of the Center. Sandra spends part of the year in Springwater. In Sandra’s words:

Looking deeply right now into the question, what truly touches us? The truth of it all is  that I don’t know. Presence/tenderness/love cannot be known but can be felt and touched very palpably. Whatever I have named or described, is not it. One can describe what took place the best one can, but the description is not the actual thing. Words cannot reach it, nor define it. Definitions and descriptions are merely attempts by the mind to describe the indescribable just for the sake of sharing. So be it.

Visit Sandra’s teacher page for articles and recorded talks.

Liz Heron came to Springwater in the mid-1990s and was deeply touched by the teaching of Toni Packer. A trustee of the Center, she lives in the woods of New Hampshire in a shared home with other people who sit at Springwater. In Liz’s words:

The beauty in the silence of retreat is the chance to be in a slower, quieter space.  Silence may allow our minds and bodies to settle into the whole, to allow the world to arise rather than reaching out or resisting it. And then, as soon as we resume talking and interacting, speed arises and we negotiate with our world as if we can control it. It’s a challenging practice to learn to coordinate the heart space of silence with our daily lives. 

Visit Liz’s teacher page for a recorded talk.

As summer winds down, take a quiet break and Zoom in to the Online Program this Saturday August 22 at 1:30 p.m. EDT.  People onsite for Quiet Weeks on this day will be welcome to listen as a group.

Following a 25 minute sitting, there will be a recorded talk by Toni, who was instrumental in founding the organization that became Springwater Center and was the Center’s resident teacher from 1982 until her death in 2013. The recording was made at the September 1993 retreat at the Center.  

In her talk, Toni is responding to a frequently asked question: What is this “I” ? Is it this absorption in thought and feeling of self-concern? She explores this sense of self, images of myself and others and how this prevents the immediacy and intimacy of relating.  Causing division, creating enemies on and on. This living in images is like living in self imprisonment. Amazing it feels so real, isn’t it? Questioning is the key to begin to open this web of self-concern………

Following the talk and a short break there will be an opportunity to dialogue with other participants. 

The schedule is as follows:  

August 22 Schedule (Times given are Eastern Daylight Time)
1:30 – 1:55 pm – Timed Sitting
2:00 – 2:50 pm – Recorded Talk by Toni Packer
3:00 – 4:00 pm – Online Group Dialogue

Zoom Access for this event:
DIRECT LINK or
Zoom.us Meeting ID: 289 037 6188, Passcode: 7179 
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kdsftvqRwr

Speaking and dialoguing at Springwater Center is different from a lecture or a discussion group where we share what we already know. The spirit of meditative inquiry infuses talks and dialogues with a sense of exploration and discovery, of being open to the freshness of not knowing. Join the program online and experience this for yourself.

Online Programs are donation-based events. To contribute in support, a donation of $12 per attendance is suggested. Please use the button below to donate, and choose the “Online Sittings/Programs” option. Your generosity helps keep online programs available for all to attend.
Thank you.

info@springwatercenter.org   www.springwatercenter.org