Equanimity in Difficult Times :
A Daylong Retreat with Gina LaRoche & nico hase
Saturday, October 11th
10 am to 4 pm pacific time
There’s a lot to worry about these days. From the big things, like continuing racial injustice and the ever-mounting consequences of climate change, to the personal things, like raising kids and paying the rent on time . . . how can we maintain a sense of balance and evenness in the midst of it all?
The answer is uppekha parami, the cultivation of an embodied equanimity. And the way to build this evenness of the heart is step-by-step, moment by moment, one mindful breath at a time.
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In this one-day online retreat, Gina & nico will delve into upekkha parami ("equanimity"), that quality of the heart that keeps an even keel.
The day will begin with an hour of conversation and an opening talk around the theme. We’ll then sit and walk for four hours in lightly guided practice, before reconvening for a closing talk and further dialogue.
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This daylong is the last in our 2025 series of ten online daylong retreats on the paramis hosted by Refuge of Belonging, a collective founded by nico hase & Devin Berry that is dedicated to sustaining the relationships and the deepening the dharma that people experience in insight meditation retreats.
The ten paramis (“furtherances” or “completions”) are foundational to the Buddhist path of awakening. Spanning states of the heart from kindness and equanimity to resolve and renunciation, they offer us a time tested way forward, a manner of cultivating what most truly benefits ourselves and others, both right now, in this moment, and as a stepping stone to final liberation.
Registration & Payment
Please use the button below to register. We offer these daylong retreats on a dana model. The suggested donation is $50 to $150 per session. We gratefully accept contributions of greater or lesser amounts, based on your resources.
After registration, you will receive a confirmation email from Rachael Tanner-Smith, our retreat manager, that includes the daylong schedule and the zoom link. A day before the event, you will receive a reminder email with the zoom link again.
Looking forward to seeing you there.
Gina LaRoche (she*/her*) is an Insight Meditation practitioner and teacher. Gina has participated in several IMS retreats, sitting the annual People of Color retreat as well as other retreats with teachers such as Gina Sharpe, Larry Yang, Sharon Salzberg and DaRa Williams. She was a teacher at the New Haven (Connecticut) Insight Sangha now called Elm Community Insight and now serves as their board chair. In 2014, Gina was nominated by Sharon Salzberg for the Community Dharma Leaders Program at Spirit Rock where she graduated in 2017. She has completed the eight-week MBSR training. She is currently on the Board of Insight Mediation Society in Barre, MA, is one of the leaders for Cambridge Insight Meditation Center (CIMC) POC affinity group. And co-led a Dharma Talk Series for Tricycle Magazine called, “Living in Our Money-Driven Society: Navigating a Path to Awakening.”
nico hase lived in a monastery for six years before earning a PhD in counseling psychology and becoming an Insight Meditation teacher full time. He currently mentors mindfulness teachers, teaches online and in-person retreats, and speaks with students in one-on-one sessions. He and his beloved life partner devon are the authors of How Not to Be a Hot Mess: A Buddhist Survival Guide for Modern Life.
