In this weekend workshop, we will turn toward one of the Buddha’s most profound and liberating teachings: the Five Aggregates (skandhas). These five (form, feeling, perception, mental formations, and consciousness) describe the living flow of experience that we so often cling to as “me” and “mine.”
With care and curiosity, we will explore how these aggregates arise moment by moment, how they condition suffering, and how they also can point the way to freedom. Through periods of guided meditation, instruction, questions, and shared inquiry, we will learn to recognize how the aggregates operate in daily life and how observing them can loosen habits of grasping, aversion, and confusion.
This workshop is suitable for both new practitioners and those with more experience who want to deepen their insight practice. By the end of the weekend, participants will have practical tools for working with the aggregates on and off the cushion, supporting greater clarity, compassion, and freedom in everyday life.
Bio
Anushka Fernandopulle is a Spirit Rock Core Teacher who has trained for over 35 years in the Theravada Buddhist tradition. Anushka studied Buddhism at Harvard College and then spent four years in full-time Dharma and meditation training in monasteries and retreat centers in the US, India and Sri Lanka. Anushka was invited to teach Dharma in 1998 and later graduated from a four year retreat teacher training program with Jack Kornfield, Joseph Goldstein, Sharon Salzberg, Carol Wilson and other leading Western Buddhist meditation teachers from IMS and Spirit Rock.
Anushka teaches retreats and workshops around the world, including in South America, Scandinavia and the United Kingdom. Her teaching is informed by nature, creative arts, political engagement and modern urban life. Anushka has taught Spirit Rock’s monthlong retreat, Metta retreat and in multiyear study programs like Dedicated Practitioner’s Program and Advanced Practitioner’s Program.
Anushka lives in San Francisco and also works as a leadership coach and management consultant, influenced by a BA from Harvard, an MBA from Yale and certification in professional Coaching. She has served on many nonprofit boards as well as serving as a mayoral appointee on a San Francisco City Commission. She has been engaged with movements for social justice and civil rights throughout her life. Her writing has been featured in publications like Tricycle, Lion’s Roar, Turning Wheel, Inquiring Mind, and the Huffington Post.
Questions
For questions about the retreat, please contact registrar@seattleinsight.org.
Registration & Donation
Teacher dana can be made via Venmo @AnushkaF or check to Anushka Fernandopulle
Donations to Seattle Insight Meditation can be made here. Thank you for your generosity.
