Post-Retreat Integration: 5 Essential Keys to Support Your Practice

An Online Event with Paul Vincent Cable and Ron Browning September 15th 11:00am - 1:30pm EST

When you've been on retreat in calm, secluded, conditions…

  • What happens when you re-enter daily life?

  • How do you deal with the hustle and noise all around you?

  • How do you keep the momentum from your retreat going in the world?

  • How do you deal with seeing all the suffering in the news?

  • How do you communicate with loved ones who were not on retreat and want to engage in different things than you?

During this Zoom event, we will explore questions, challenges, and struggles in making your daily life your practice and integrating retreat experiences. We will be led by Paul Vincent Cable and Ron Browning, both deep dharma practitioners, who have weaved together deep retreat practice and being engaged in the world. We will have the opportunity to receive support for bringing dharma more fully into all aspects of our life.

Wherever you are, whether you are just beginning your practice, looking for a monastery to ordain, or wanting to turn your life more toward the dharma, we invite you to bring your inquiry in. This will be a space to discuss and explore what is most alive in your practice.

Following this event, we are hosting a 5 part series to continue this exploration in more depth along with continued support.

You are welcome to attend the event as a stand-alone event, or join this event as the introduction meeting to the 5 part series that will be meeting weekly. You may come to the first event and then choose to register for the series afterwards as well.

A Subsequent Online Series Diving into the 5 Key Essentials

Following the initial event, we welcome you to join us for a weekly online series where we will continue our discussions and support you in your practice in your daily life. Resources for this series will include videos and podcasts on specific topics and 1:1 coaching with Paul Vincent Cable and Ron Browning.

These 5 practices are keys to walking the Path in daily life. The Buddha gave them as essential parts of the gradual purifying of the heart and mind towards ever greater happiness and freedom. He said that one who practices these ‘lives in the vicinity of Nibbana’. 

How great is that! 

In these 5 sessions, along with the Introductory Opening session, we will lay out how to transition from a retreat space to daily life and support you in bringing the peace and beauty of the Dharma into your whole life. 

Weekly Breakdown

1. Sila: Sunday September 22nd 11:00am - 1:00pm EST

This week we’ll explore how to negotiate the challenges of keeping strong Sila (precepts 1-5) while in daily life. We’ll also discuss whether to take on higher Sila (precepts 6-8) and how to do that. 

2. Guarding the Sense Doors: Sunday September 29th 11:00am - 1:00pm EST

Being able to catch the mind when it gets caught in strong desires and aversion is critical to living peacefully throughout each day. But it’s not always easy! We’ll talk about how to do it. 

3. Moderation in eating: Sunday October 6th 11:00am - 1:00pm EST

We’ll discuss why the Buddha strongly emphasised this, and the advice he gave to King Pasenadi about how to eat for the health of both mind and body. 

4. Wakefulness: Sunday October 13th 11:00am - 1:00pm EST

We’ll explore how to ‘watch your mind’ as you go through each day. This is a very powerful part of mindfulness and super useful in daily life. You’ll learn how it helps you feel far more ‘alive’ and ‘awake’ as you go through each day.  

5. Metta: Sunday October 20th  11:00am - 1:00pm EST

Communicating with Lovingkindness every time you speak or write, as well as developing kind thoughts and acting kindly towards those around you, will transform your life. We’ll talk about what that looks like in practice. 

To help with actioning these in your daily life, we’ll talk about how to start and maintain your own Dharma Diary, which will empower all your practice, on and off retreat. 

 These will be highly interactive sessions with lots of space for you to ask questions and share insights. We invite you to bring in what is most relevant to you and your practice. Other topics we will likely touch on are, relationships, family, livelihood, and communication.

We’re so looking forward to seeing you there!

Paul Vincent Cable

Ron Browning

Paul has been in the Dharma for over 20 years, practicing in monasteries and forests in Europe, the US and Asia, and with many leading teachers. He has wide knowledge of the suttas as well as of different meditative traditions. He has conducted a 10-year experiment with his own lay life to optimize it for Dharma practice.

An educator and coach by background, Paul has a passion for bringing wise and compassionate living to everyone’s upbringing and has worked extensively with young people.

As well as with young adults, he has also worked for decades with children and is the creator of a loving-kindness programme for kindergarten, which runs in slums and refugee camps.

Paul also mentored his son, Ayrton, a multi-award-winning social change youth leader, who introduced a new Bill to the UK Parliament aged 9 to end factory farming. He is author of the blog on wise and fulfilled living, Crossing the Stream.

Paul lives in the English countryside with his wife, now-21-year-old son, and their meditative cat Wilbur.

Coming from Dallas Texas to UC Berkeley in the midst of a cultural and psychedelic revolution, Ron practiced for several years in San Francisco under the guidance of Sukuki Shunryu Roshi (Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind). 

Ordained as in priest by Suzuki Roshi, Ron then spent a year and a half in Japan during which time he lived and practiced at Zen monasteries.

Following his Zen monastic training, Ron went back to school earning a PhD in Clinical Psychology and leading large transformational trainings for 6 years. 

While in school he discovered Vipassana and the Buddha’s early teachings in the Pali Canon. 

After graduation, Ron undertook what he thought would be a short-term 4 month ordination as a Theravada Bhikkhu that ended up lasting 5 1/2 years. 

Since then Ron has married, continued practice, doing over 25 Three Month retreats, while also working as a corporate and executive consultant and coach. He currently lives north of San Francisco with his wife, Joanne.

If you haven’t heard back from us, or are unsure about the status of your registration please reach out to us at team@dharma-gates.org