garden sunlight
  • Single w/ensuite Oceanfront – CAD $3,738.00
  • Single w/ensuite – CAD $3,500.00
  • Single w/shared bathroom – CAD $2,968.00
  • Couple w/ensuite Oceanfront – CAD $9,450.00
  • Couple w/ensuite – CAD $5,257.00
  • Couple w/shared bathroom – CAD $4,774.00
  • Twin w/ensuite oceanfront – CAD $2,877.00
  • Twin w/ensuite – CAD $4,172.00
  • Twin w/shared bathroom – CAD $2,387.00
  • Three-share w/shared bathroom – CAD $2,142.00
  • Women Dorm – CAD $1,820.00
  • Male Dorm – CAD $1,820.00
  • Mixed Dorm – CAD $1,820.00
  • Tent Site Single – CAD $1,715.00
  • Tent Site Couple – CAD $3,864.00
  • Commuter – CAD $1,792.00
  • (All prices include CAD $1,442.00 base amount)

Date & Time Details:
Starts with dinner on April 26
Ends with lunch on May 10

Location: Cortes Island

Registration Fee: $350 CAD

Campus Rates: Campus rates include accommodations, meals, Hollyhock activities, use of hot tubs and campus facilities (does not include tuition). Click here for details.

Email us about program

Metta Vipassana: Awareness as a Path to Liberation

With Steven Smith, Jesse Maceo Vega-Frey, Darine Monroy and Michele McDonald

April 26 - May 10, 2023

Experience Metta (unconditional love and kindness) Vipassana (insight) meditation on beautiful Cortes Island.

In this 14-day silent retreat, discover the four immeasurables (unconditional love, wise compassion, empathetic joy, and equanimity) through meditations that fuse these fundamental spiritual emotions with the intuitive wisdom of Vipassana. Develop compassionate awareness and a more loving heart with a unique melding of mindful movement alongside the Metta and Vipassana practices.

Please note: Tuition does not include a fee for the presenter. This is a dãna-based retreat (see below for details).

What is Dãna?

Dãna is an ancient Pali word meaning “giving” or “gift.” Dãna is at the heart of the 2,500 year old Buddhist tradition. Going back to the days of the Buddha, he and the monastic community offered the teachings freely to lay people, as a form of dãna. In turn the lay community, through their generosity, or dãna, ensured that their teachers’ basic needs for food, clothing, shelter and medicine were provided.

When the Buddha would give a public discourse, he usually began with teaching on the importance and the benefits of dãna. The act of giving itself is of immeasurable benefit to the giver; it opens up the heart, diminishes for a moment one’s self-absorption and places value on the well-being of others. The key is that the act of giving itself is the natural expression of a connected and loving heart.

The fee you pay to attend this retreat covers the basic retreat costs; none of your registration fee is payment to the teacher leading the retreats. Teachers offer the teachings with a spirit of generosity and trust that their lives and work will be supported by those who are receiving the life-giving teachings. This is a real expression of the truth of interdependence.

How Do I Contribute?

You may contribute cash, cheques or by credit card or paypal at Vipassana Hawaii. Canadian cheques payable to Michele McDonald. US cheques payable to Vipassana Hawaii.

Teachers

The teaching team includes Steven Smith, Jesse Maceo Vega Frey, Darine Monroy. Michele McDonald will join virtually via zoom.

Application

This program is by application. If you wish to apply to attend, please do so here.

Schedule

A detailed schedule will be available 1-2 weeks in advance of the program.

Terms & Conditions

You may find our terms & conditions here.

Presenters

Steven Smith
Steven V. Smith co-founded Vipassana Hawai’i in 1984 and in 1995 founded the MettaDana Project for educational and medical projects in Burma. Also in 1995 Steven helped establish the Kyaswa Valley Retreat Center in Burma, headed by Sayadaw U Lakkhana. This partnership created Vipassana Hawai’i’s Fusion Dhamma approach combining traditional and…
Learn more about Steven Smith
Jesse Maceo Vega-Frey
Jesse Maceo Vega-Frey’s teaching aims to inspire the skills, determination, and faith necessary to realize the deepest human freedom. He is a student of Michele McDonald and his approach is rooted in the tradition of Mahasi Sayadaw of Burma. As a teacher of Vipassana (insight) meditation within the broader context…
Learn more about Jesse Maceo Vega-Frey
Darine Monroy
Darine Monroy has been a student of Michele McDonald and Steven Smith since 2011. She has taught for Mindful Schools and has completed the Hakomi Comprehensive Training. Darine was born and raised in Mexico, and meditation retreats have been among the most meaningful experiences of her life.  
Learn more about Darine Monroy
Michele McDonald
Michele McDonald has taught Insight meditation for fourty years and teaches extensively throughout America, in Canada, Burma, and various locations around the world. As a guiding teacher for Vipassana Hawai’i she has been a quiet pioneer. She is the first woman to have taught a formal retreat in Burma, side-by-side…
Learn more about Michele McDonald