Tico Time’s Sangha Festival
Schedule
Engaged Dharma Workshop
Have you ever encountered the idea that spirituality involves a kind of separation from “normal” life? Monks and nuns living in mountaintop monasteries, spiritual retreats lasting days, months or even years, taking time “out” of our day to practice yoga or meditation. These are all common themes associated with spiritual practice. Yet, what about how our practice shows up in the peaks and valleys of our day-to-day lives? Even more so, how does it support us to meet the heartbreak of our times or gather our efforts in service of what we love?
Engaged Dharma is the way of bringing the presence we cultivate on the mat and cushion into our relationships, communities and society at large. In this workshop, we will directly explore how our practice supports our efforts to co-create a more just, kind and life-affirming world.
For inspiration, please see grassroots peace work and mutual aid in Israel/Palestine.
Joe Peloquin
Born in a small town in the temperate northeast, Joe’s life took a radical turn in his early twenties when he traveled to a tiny village in rural France on a one-way ticket to help a family he had never met build their straw-bale house. What began as a vague plan to see the world while living on work-trade became a path of devotion when he found his heart on a Buddhist pilgrimage. For the next decade Joe followed his teachers throughout India, Europe and the Middle East dedicating his time to Buddhist meditation and service. Following his 30th birthday his journey brought him back to the U.S. where his efforts have shifted from seeking to giving back what was given to him. Joe now lives in a yurt tucked away in a side canyon West of Durango with his two cats working on the land, facilitating meditation groups, offering spiritual mentorship and guiding soul-centric wilderness immersions.
Joe brings over 10 years of dedicated practice in the Insight and American Zen traditions with a particular focus on Engaged Dharma. Collectively he has sat over 2 years in silent retreat and has continuously brought his spiritual practice into active service in refugee camps, leprosy communities, prisons, street outreach, climate activism, grassroots peace work in Israel/Palestine and ecological projects in India, Europe and the U.S. His teachers are Christopher Titmuss, Zohar Lavie and Nathan Glyde.