The Way of Awareness - An immersion Experience in Mindfulness and Heartfulness
Retreat June 2022 with Jon Kabat-Zinn and Will Kabat-Zinn
With great curiosity and joy I drove at the beginning of June towards Arlberg on the retreat with Jon Kabat-Zinn and his son Will, announced since 2020. The 5-day retreat took place in Rankweil, a place in the German-speaking border triangle in the far west of Austria.

The Corona pandemic had brought travel to a complete standstill for some time. After more than two years of getting used to the new type of virus, long-haul flights across the Atlantic were possible again. The retreat took place under strong pandemic security precautions. Each participant had to be triple vaccinated and PCR tested upon arrival. The wearing of masks was recommended during the event and further antigen testing in between helped to detect any infectious events in a timely manner.
Nearly two hundred people interested in Mindfulness took the often long journey to spend a few days in silence with the pioneer of the modern mindfulness movement, to listen to his words and to be inspired by father and son.

Jon Kabat-Zinn ( June 5, 1944 in New York), professor emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester received his PhD in molecular biology from MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). His research focused on mind/body interactions in the healing and clinical applications of mindfulness training for people with chronic pain and stress-related disorders. The development and success of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, an 8-week mindfulness course combining exercises from Hatha Yoga, Vipassana, and Zen, helped bring mindfulness into the mainstream. Today, mindfulness training and MBSR courses are used around the world in hospitals, schools, universities, corporations, prisons, and in politics.
Mindfulness is often called the heart of Buddhist meditation, although it is much more than that. In its most basic manifestation, mindfulness is one of the basic functions of consciousness, without which there is no object perception at all. The Theravada monk and Buddhist scholar, Nyanaponika Thera, describes mindfulness as follows:
"The key to the knowledge of the spirit, opening even that which is hidden, and thus the point of application; The never-failing tool for the shaping of the spirit, and thus the pivot; The landmark of the liberation of the spirit won, and thus the height and final point."
Nyanaponika, Mind Training through Mindfulness, Verlag Beyerlein & Steinschulte, 2007

The sequence of the intensive retreat allowed us to perceive our own experience in all its facets, in harmony with awareness or continuous "awareness". At 6:00 am we were already sitting in silence on cushions, stools or on chairs. In the evening at 10:00 pm the day came to an end. Moving seamlessly from sitting meditation to walking or moving meditation, we maintained "awareness" moment by moment. Four of the five retreat days were spent in stillness, in resonance with ourselves, sitting, walking, standing, lying down, eating, and especially step by step in the walking meditation, during which the soles of our feet touched the floor, almost as if in dance. In specific times of mindful dialogue and sharing of individual experience, talking was allowed. The absence of communication with each other, a ban on cell phones and thus the constant distractions we are usually exposed to, led to the building of a very intense, subtle field in the meditation space that was palpable.
In the instructions and repeatedly commenting on participants' questions or experiences, Jon and Will addressed numerous applications of mindfulness, especially given the human condition, which includes pain, stress, illness, one's own assumptions and implicit biases, to include the larger contexts of human-driven climate disregulation and social inequalities.

The interaction of father and son was a wonderful experience. The Buddhist-influenced wisdom of Jon and the natural, contemporary insights of Will made the retreat a touching, unique, inspiring experience for me personally. May there be many more retreats of this kind. I look forward to seeing them again and in the meantime I cultivate "Heartfullness" in connection with the ever present "awareness" that connects us all, here in the retreat and with all living beings of creation.
Images: Copyright author (image 1 and 3), Arbor Publishing 2022 (image 2 and 4).
Mindful through life with myeloma
During this weekend we want to deal with ourselves and our disease under expert guidance and especially strengthen our mindfulness in relation to the perception of our symptoms and side effects concerning the disease. The seminar is experiential and interactive. All materials as well as the exercise instructions will be provided as audio files afterwards.
- How can I strengthen my body awareness?
- How do I learn to pay attention to my symptoms and manifestations?
- How can I make my day positive despite pain and limitations?
- Fear eats up soul - learning to deal with the dark sides of your own psyche
- Basics of self-care - what can I do concretely?
Preliminary program
| Friday | from 16.00 Arrival of participants, check-in, move into room 18.00 Dinner together Evening session: getting to know each other, introduction |
| Saturday | full day workshop with breaks in between |
| Sunday | Morning workshop Lunch together Closing session |
A medical lecture by one of our consultants is also scheduled for Saturday, with an opportunity to ask questions.
Seminar management
Dr. Mag. Pharm. Martina Esberger-Chowdhury After studying pharmacy in Vienna, and a long career in the pharmaceutical industry in Europe and India, Martina has established herself as a management consultant and trainer for Mindfulness since 2013. Her practice focuses on meditation, mindfulness training and Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction for individuals and organizations. Martina is a lecturer for Mindfulness in Health Care at the Kirchlich-Pädagogische Hochschule, Vienna.
Location
The TBI-Grillhof is the further education institution of the province of Tyrol and forms a unit with the media center. Events of the Province of Tyrol, the Administration Academy, the Municipal Academy and Austria-wide and international events are organized and held at the Bildungshaus. The TBI-Grillhof is located 6 km from the provincial capital Innsbruck and is surrounded by forests, meadows and a magnificent mountain panorama. The main building was newly erected and meets all the requirements of a modern educational house. The course participants and speakers experience here tradition in combination with modern design.
We are looking forward to meeting you!
Please note the following conditions for participation and registration Conditions of participation
- Patients and relatives are welcome who are interested in taking a closer look at their disease and the accompanying circumstances in the confidential/protected framework of a seminar under expert guidance.
- Unfortunately, we have to state this clearly for liability reasons: Participation in the seminar is voluntary and at your own risk and responsibility.
- Due to generous sponsoring, we are able to make participation (including overnight stay with full board for all participants) possible free of charge for patients and relatives. However, binding registration is required so that interested parties are not deprived of free places due to cancellations at short notice.
- Travel to and from the seminar is to be organized by the participants themselves.
- Please let us know immediately if you cannot attend the seminar.
- We ask for your understanding that we will have to charge you for the cancellation costs incurred in the event of a cancellation at short notice if we are unable to allocate the seminar place to someone from the waiting list.
- The following cancellation policy applies to this seminar:
- up to 10 days before the event: 50% of the accommodation costs
- Cancellations on the day of the event: 100% of the overnight costs (full pens.)
- The COVID rules applicable at the time and place of the seminar apply. The relevant information will be provided shortly before the event.
- Please note the limited number of participants for all seminars!
- The order of the registrations is always according to the chronological order. All registrations that exceed the maximum number of participants will be placed on a waiting list.
- We are happy if you are interested in more than one seminar, but would like to ask you to indicate which seminar is of particular interest to you. We would then prioritize your registration for the seminar you have prioritized.
Registration
Please register by 15.05.2022 by phone, SMS or e-mail at the following phone no./e-mail:
Dipl.-Ing. Thomas Derntl, Stv. the Obfrau, project management
th.derntl@multiplesmyelom.at
Tel.: 0664 805 414 14
Please provide us with the following data for registration:
- Name
- Contact address for information / queries: address, tel., e - mail
- Year of birth
- Status (patient/relative)
- Year of diagnosis
- Room request (single or double room)
- Booking priority: if you would also like to register for other seminars in the seminar series Mit dem Myelom durch das Leben (With myeloma through life), please let us know your priority for this seminar.




