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Day of Practice

Saturday, September 2nd

The 5 Hindrances:
Exploring the Fine Line
Between Greed & Aversion

with Leslie Booker

7-10am PT / 10am-1pm ET / 3-6pm BST / 4-7pm CEST

Utilize wisdom from the 5 hindrances to safeguard against hyper-vigilance and perfectionism

Oftentimes when a hindrance arises in our practice, we can view it as a cue to stop – to turn away from or to force our minds to have a different experience.

We might notice that one of our core challenges, the underlying quality of our practice, can also be a door to deepening our practice.

These typically manifest as one of the five obstructions or hindrances of the mind – greed or desire; aversion or ill-will; sloth; restlessness; and doubt. When there is clarity of heart, these hindrances can actually become a portal to wisdom.

In this 3-hour Day of Practice, Leslie Booker will guide us in looking at these obstructions of minds as a way to have a more intimate relationship with ourselves, and understand better how we are wired.

Together we will discover the lessons these hindrances have to teach us, as well as how we may care for others with this wisdom at the top of our hearts.

We’ll be exploring these teachings together through listening to the Dharma, contemplating the teachings of these portals to wisdom, guided movement and meditation practices, journaling and relational practices.

Join this session to learn how to:

  • Listen to the wisdom of the body
  • Recognize when we are leaning towards one of the obstructions that can block our hearts and minds
  • Center mindfulness of body in our formal meditation practice
  • Develop a more intimate relationship with understanding how these hindrances might arise and be cared for in our practice

What is Day of Practice?

Sangha Live’s 3-hour, LIVE Day of Practice allows for you to drop in deeper, develop your meditation skills, and reset your intentions through sustained sitting.

Days of Practice includes longer periods of meditation, interspersed with wise teachings, an interactive Q&A with our teacher, and more.

Replay access will be available to all registrants within 48 hours of the live session.

How is Day of Practice different from Sangha Live’s Daily/Sunday classes?

Our shorter Daily Meditation (60 mins) and Sunday Sangha (90 mins) programs emphasize dharma teachings, while our longer Days of Practice (3 hours) emphasize development of meditation practice.

Daily practice is crucial for watering seeds of mindfulness, but extended periods of deep attention such as these, away from the hustle and bustle of daily life, can be uniquely fruitful.

Cost

Day of Practice is offered on a sliding scale basis, with a suggested rate of $35. We wholeheartedly welcome all to practice with us; no one turned away for lack of funds.

Questions?

Please email us at info@sangha.live.

About Leslie Booker

Leslie Booker

Leslie Booker brings her heart and wisdom to the intersection of Dharma, Embodied Wisdom, and Liberation. Using this framework,  she supports folks in creating a culture of belonging through her teaching and writing on changing the paradigm of self and community care. She shares her offering widely as a university lecturer, public speaker, and Buddhist philosophy and meditation teacher. 

After training as a yoga teacher in 2007, Booker was drawn to Spirit Rock Meditation Center’s Mindful Yoga and Meditation training (2012). She continued to train there formally as a Dharma teacher in their Community Dharma Leaders (2017) and Retreat Teacher training programs (2020). Outside of her formal training, she shared the practices of yoga and mindfulness with New York City’s most vulnerable populations for over a decade. Here is where she learned how to take her practice off the cushion and into everyday life. 

Booker is a co-author of Best Practices for Yoga in a Criminal Justice Setting (2017), a contributor to Georgetown Law’s Center on Poverty and Inequality’s report: Gender & Trauma—Somatic Interventions for Girls in Juvenile Justice, and contributed to Sharon Salzberg’s book Real Happiness at Work (2013) and Dr. Rima Vesely-Flad’s book Black Buddhist and the Black Radical Tradition (2022).

She is a co-founder of the Yoga Service Council at Omega Institute and the Meditation Working Group of Occupy Wall Street. In 2020 she was invited to be a Sojourner Truth Leadership Fellow through Auburn Seminary, graduated from Spirit Rock’s 4 year Retreat Teacher Training, and was voted by her peers as one of the 12 Powerful Women in the Mindfulness Movement. Click here to learn more about Leslie Booker.

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