If the polycrisis is traceable in no small part to relationship breakdown, how might relational practices cultivate our wakeful response?
In this EcoDharma Exploration, Nicola Redfern gives an introduction to Insight Dialogue, a meditation practice designed to help us be awake in our engaged lives and to integrate Dharma teachings in a direct way. Supported by the six Insight Dialogue guidelines, participants will bring wakeful awareness right into the heart of speaking and listening. Together we will investigate how this relational awareness can help us ground our engaged practice.
This EcoDharma Exploration took place on May 28. You can find the recording of this event below.
Nicola Redfern is an Insight Dialogue teacher with an extensive background in both Zen and Vipassana meditation. She has been trained to teach Insight Dialogue by founding teacher Gregory Kramer. With a strong belief that awakening is not simply a solo endeavor, Nicola is particularly interested in getting meditation off the cushion and fully integrated into life, work, and relationships. She has also taught Nonviolent Communication and co-teaches courses on unlearning racism. Nicola lives in Santa Fe, NM.
Support this Offering
One Earth Sangha and our featured speakers offer these explorations on a donation basis, with no required registration fee. We invite you to participate in the tradition of offering dana, or generosity. Your support makes these gatherings possible, and any amount offered is greatly appreciated. Nicola has generously waived her share of dana for this program, asking that all contributions be directed to One Earth Sangha.
Recording
This exploration focuses on the practice of Insight Dialogue. To get the most out of the session, consider watching with a friend or sangha member, pausing the video during the breakout sessions to explore the inquiries together (see below).
Inquiries
- Discussion 1 (5 minutes): Where are you, and what do you love about that place? What’s particularly heartwarming or delightful about this patch of earth?
- Insight Dialogue 1 (10 minutes): What are you grateful for?
- Discussion 2 (4 minutes): What was that like for you? How did it feel to evoke gratitude, to speak, and to listen?
- Insight Dialogue 2 (10 minutes): What is the impact of gratitude on yourself, your community, and the land? What happens inside us and around us when we express gratitude?
Additional Resources
- Land, ancestor, technology, and non-human relative acknowledgment from Vanessa de Oliveira Andreotti on As Temperatures Rise podcast (starts at 03:20)
- One-page Insight Dialogue Guidelines
- Song by Natalie Merchant: Kind and Generous
- See more of Nic’s offerings on her website
