IMCH Calendar of Events

Insight and Mindfulness Meditation (Vipassana)

Weekend Course and Retreat

August 19-20, 2011

Friday 7-9PM Saturday 9:30AM-3:30PM

Six Hours Continuing Education Available

Our retreats are an excellent and efficient means for enriching and deepening any kind of meditation practice! Register here for one of our Houston non-residential retreats.

Attend a retreat and have some free weekend time as well!

Aug 19-20, 2011

These retreats, taught by Mary Rees, are open to both new and experienced students. The Friday night session is essential for those new to Vipassana. The retreats are held at

Dawn Mountain at 1925 B Richmond Avenue in Houston, TX 77098-3401.

The retreat format allows time for practicing the basics in insight and mindfulness and offers the rare opportunity for guided and sustained attention - creating a rich opportunity for deepening concentration and for making a significant and lasting impact on the mind.

Working with spiritual texts and interpersonal practice will be included as a means of deepening experiential investigation of the teachings in general, but also including a unique theme or investigation for each retreat.

We include work with basic guidelines of Insight Dialogue supporting the process of practicing together, opening to the truth of both words and silence, and bringing a greater possibility of mindfulness, tranquility and other wholesome qualities into all our interactions.

For more information, please see the registration form here.

Citta 101, Conscious Dynamics™, and Nutshell Publications® Present:

Guidelines for Relational Vipassana

The first guidelines are inspired by those suggested in Gregory Kramer's practice of Insight Dialogue: Pause, Relax, and Open. In this three session course we explore the depths of each one of these elements and intentionally apply them in both personal and interpersonal practice.

No previous experience with relational practice is necessary; a personal meditation practice will be helpful, but is not required. The registration fee is only $50. This low fee is intended to make the teaching available to everyone. Rather than charging a specific teaching fee, we request a donation of your choice for the teaching.

Tuesdays 11am-noon, August 2, 9, 16

Thursdays 7-8pm, Aug 4, 11, 18

More information available here.

Going Beyond What you Believe to Be True - First Steps

Continuing Education Available

Every one of us is unique, a particular coming together of cells and experiences unlike any other. We are each a product of causes and conditions, yet there is more that joins us than separates us. One of our life tasks is to recognize and honor our uniqueness and richness, but also to see through the conditioning of our particular perspective, too see beyond what we believe to be true, to see clearly the way things are outside the limitations of our conditioned perspective.

Four Session Introduction to Mindfulness and Insight with Marlo Schwartz, July 11, 18, 25, and August 1, 2011, 6:30pm-7:30pm or by arrangement via telephone or computer.

More information available here.

Relational Insight and Mindfulness
Insight Dialogue

Residential Retreat - November 4-11, 2011

November 4-6, Fundamentals

November 6-11, Study and Practice Sessions

B&B in Burton, TX

Continuing Education Available (6 hours)

This retreat is appropriate for both experienced and beginning students. The weekend segment, November 4-6 is a silent retreat following the basic structure of other Insight Meditation or Vipassana Retreats, yet will include the guidelines for relational vipassana. The overlapping longer retreat, November 4-11, includes several days of combined silent practice and dharma study using relational vipassana.

You will establish and further develop your own internalized secure base through the insight meditation practice. The training in Relational mindfulness will support your capacity to awaken out of habit into shared presence. When we move into study and practice, we'll use listening and speaking mindfully as we contemplate central teachings.

The retreat includes fundamentals of a silent personal practice and simple guidelines that support the process of being mindful together, opening to the truth of both words and silence, bringing a greater possibility of mindfulness, tranquility, and other wholesome qualities into all our interactions.

The teacher, Mary Rees, has been teaching Vipassana (Insight and Mindfulness) since 1989 and elements of Insight Dialogue since 2001.

Accommodations are private and semi-private rooms, all linens and meals provided. Request a private room, a couples room (queen bed for two), or dorm room (one of five beds) according to availability at the time you register. See rooms on the Knittel Inn website.

The retreat is offered in the spirit of Dana with the intention to keep costs as low as possible. Your costs are primarily for your room and board (great accommodations and wonderful food). There is a small registration fee, $100, to cover the teacher's costs, and, at the end of the retreat, the teacher will request and appreciate any amount you choose to offer for the teaching.

For more information, please see the registration form here.

Insight Dialogue/ Relational Mindfulness Practice Session

Saturday, August 20, 2011 7:00PM-9:00PM

Available for Continuing Education

with registration at least one week before the session

This Relational Practice session, taught by Mary Rees, offers an opportunity for experienced practitioners to enrich personal and professional relational skills while deepening dharma knowledge and understanding.

Participants must meet the following prerequisites:

Silent retreat experience

Previous introductory experience in the guidelines for relational practice.

This Saturday evening session will be held at Dawn Mountain, 1925 B Richmond Avenue, Houston, TX 77098-3401. The session is offered a few hours after a weekend retreat so that any one who wishes to meet the prerequisites for the session may do so by attending the retreat.

If you have worked with Mary in the past 8 or 9 years you have already been exposed to the guidelines and have also had practice with them around dharma themes. In this practice session we will apply the guidelines more formally in Relational Practice.

For more information, please see the registration form here.