The retreat is appropriate for meditation practitioners with all levels of experience. In fact, even the pros are welcome, as long as they arrive with beginner’s mind.
Mercy Retreat Center is nestled in a quiet neighborhood outside St. Louis with surrounding woods, a labyrinth, walking paths, a flowing creek, and much greenery. The grounds and buildings are welcoming, tranquil and warm, offering multiple places to get lost in solitude.
Kathleen and Martin thank their friends and colleagues for their helpful suggestions.
Co-teachers:
For thirty years Kathleen Knipp has delighted in the play of consciousness. Profoundly influenced by the non-dual teachings of Jean Klein as offered through Joan Ruvinsky and Éric Baret, she shares her love of Pathless Yoga body and breath sensing and the texts of Kashmir Shaivism from her home on Vancouver Island and her mountain retreat in Arizona. Kathleen was formerly a resident at the Kripalu Yoga Center and she ran an international yoga travel company. These days, she enjoys roaming in forests, cold plunging in the Salish Sea, drawing, dancing, and exploring the practices from the Vijñâna Bhairava Tantra. Though she’s not fond of formal practice, she’s dabbled in Zen, due to Martin’s incessant prodding, and reluctantly acknowledges that she rather likes it.
Martin St-André has studied Zen since 1999, first with Albert Low and then in the sangha founded by Marsha Linehan. He was stuck on his first Zen koan for 14 years, but he is now miraculously authorized to teach in the tradition. Martin has been a perinatal psychiatrist and psychotherapist at Sainte-Justine University Hospital Center in Montréal for three decades. He also trained a little in yoga nidra, including with Kathleen, who was magnanimous in her encouragement. He studies jazz guitar and likes improvisational dancing. Martin has been married forever to Hélène, a violinist, and his favorite no-nonsense non-guru.
Sample Schedule (subject to change)
6:45 Brisk morning walk (outdoors)
7:15 Sitting + Breath Sensing
8:00 Breakfast
9:30 Sitting + Walking
10:10 BodySensing
11:30 Guided walk (outdoors)
12:00 Lunch
2:30 Sitting + Walking
3:00 Teisho (talk)
3:35 Guided afternoon practice, debrief and dialogues
5:30 Sitting + Walking
6:00 Dinner
7:30 Sitting + Walking
8:00 Chant, Poetry or Movement
9:00 Bedtime
* Sitting periods will be no more than 25 minutes
* Private meetings will be available
Cost: $1075 USD. Single room.
Inquire about scholarships.
Questions may be directed to Lilian 614-595-5792