Fierce Care, Steady Heart: An Insight Dialogue Weekend Retreat

With Bhikkhu Sukhacitto and Sue Brown

November 22 - 23, 2025

Date and Time Details: Saturday, November 22: 9 am - 5:30 pm.
Sunday, November 23: 9am - 4:30pm.

Location: Washington, DC

Address: IONA Senior Services, Albemarle Street Northwest, Washington, DC, USA

Contact: Center for Mindful Living

Dana: This event is offered in a spirit of generosity (dana). Your fee goes towards the running of the event, but does not include payment to the teachers, who rely on donations from participants for their livelihood. Should you choose, you'll have a chance to offer a donation at the end of the event.

Lunch: Please bring a packed lunch (there is a refrigerator on-site). Alternately, there are many nearby places in the neighborhood that you're welcome to visit for lunch, including Panera Bread and Whole Foods.

Attendance: Full attendance on both Saturday and Sunday is required, as the course material builds on itself throughout the weekend.

What to bring: Consider bringing a reusable water bottle, as well as a sweater or shawl (in case you want to make yourself more comfortable). Also, please bring a packed lunch or money for restaurant food. Padded chairs are provided.

Organizer: Center for Mindful Living

  • $50.00 – for running of the event, but does not include payment to the teachers, who rely on donations for their livelihood. Should you choose, you'll have a chance to offer a donation at the end of the event.

How can we care deeply — for those we love and the causes we cherish — without being pulled into frustration, depletion, or indifference? How do we keep our hearts open without clinging to how things “should” be?

Join Insight Dialogue teachers Sue Brown and Bhante Sukhacitto for two-day, nonresidential retreat to cultivate caring presence without attachment. We’ll explore how to balance fierce commitment with a steady, grounded heart — sustaining the energy to show up fully, while releasing the suffering that comes from needing things to be a certain way.

Through silent meditation and guided Insight Dialogue practice, supported by six helpful guidelines, we’ll investigate how to:

  • Meet moments of difficulty without closing the heart
  • Experience the grounded clarity that remains when expectations soften or fall away
  • Use relational meditation as a way to strengthen compassion while in relationship

No prior experience with Insight Dialogue is necessary. Some familiarity with silent meditation is helpful, but what matters most is a spirit of curiosity. This will be a space of shared exploration—an opportunity to steady the heart, nourish compassion, and practice awareness together in community.

About the Leaders

Bhikkhu Sukhacitto

Bhikkhu Sukhacitto was born in Germany in 1963 and first came into contact with Buddhism in 1986 in Thailand by attending a meditation retreat, offered through Wat Suan Mokkh. He ordained there as a monk in 1990. He returned to the West in 1993. Since then he has lived at various monasteries, including Dhammapala Monastery […]

Learn more about Bhikkhu Sukhacitto

Sue Brown

Sue has been practicing Insight Dialogue since 2006 and offering the practice online and in person since 2011. Over the years, she has included in her offerings many core Buddhist teachings, as she finds the relational nature of ID practice brings the teachings to life and enables fresh understanding. Sue has been co-leading a weekly […]

Learn more about Sue Brown

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