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Cornelia Santschi

Cornelia (Punnya) Santschi is a neuropsychologist and meditation teacher. She is deeply committed to environmental conservation and social justice. At the RWJ Barnabas Health Institute of Neurology in NJ, she has specialized in brain-behavior relationships for over 20 years. Cornelia is a devoted student of Buddhism with a dedicated insight meditation practice since 2000.  She completed yoga teacher training at Integral Yoga in NYC in 2001, and graduated from the Community Dharma Leader Program in 2017.

As founder/president of non-profit Anatta World Health & Education Outreach, Cornelia has organized culturally sensitive health, education, and women’s empowerment programs in multiple countries, with local partners since 2006, and co-leads yearly meaningful travel tours in Nepal. Cornelia is co-founder/board member of Newark Center for Meditative Culture in NJ, where she serves as meditation teacher and insight community liaison; working to increase access to socially engaged programs within a diverse urban community. She is co-founder/vice-president of the Alegria Dharma Center, a meditation retreat center in Costa Rica, where she is developing a comprehensive EcoDharma retreat program.

 

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Upcoming Programs by Cornelia Santschi

Exploring Ecodharma: a Deep Experience in Nature

Also With Johann Robbins, David Loy and Rochelle Calvert

July 19 - 28, 2024
This ten day retreat is a deep dive into being, in nature, abiding silently, joining inner nature with outer nature, and dissolving separation. Each day includes plentiful time for sitting, hiking/walking meditation, as well as meditation instruction, dharma talks, and small group ecodharma exploration. There will be a two night solo opportunity during the retreat, which is an incredible highlight. The overall intention is for deep silence, practice, and the joy and healing that comes with a profound connection with nature. This will be supported by instruction in a variety of nature meditation practices. There will be nightly campfire dharma talks, exploring how being-in-nature can be an important part of our spiritual path by helping to ground us in personal experience of non-separation from the natural world. The emphasis is not on meditative technique so much as developing direct awareness that can lead to a new integration of the internal (spiritual) and external (activity). Supported by the connection and joy that comes from being in nature, we will also begin to work with the emotions, anxieties and traumas we are all experiencing around the ecological and climate crises. As these are immense, planet wide problems, created by and affecting everyone, dealing with emotions like fear, anger, sadness, grief and guilt on our own is impossible. Within a safe and supportive sangha, in small teacher led groups, we will be able to delve into Ecodharma together, with openness, sincerity, shared pain, and courage. This leads to deep healing, which makes possible more powerful and creative responses to our collective situation.

NEW!! Transformation in Nature: a Supported Solo Retreat

Also With Johann Robbins

July 30 - August 3, 2024
If you have been wanting to do a longer solo retreat in nature, but were daunted by the logistics, or uncertain about how to spend your time or what to bring, this retreat makes all of that simple. Solo nature practice is an incredibly powerful way to realize who we truly are, to touch into being, and the reality of non-separation that brings. When we hang out in a beautiful spot for days, being aware, peaceful, and still, this calms and reassures the wildlife that usually try and avoid humans, and they come and visit, sometimes for hours. This opens our hearts to love and appreciation, to the beauty and power of nature, and we begin to feel completely and utterly at home; effortlessly peaceful, present, and awake. This is deeply healing and transformative, a missing piece in lives of doing and busyness in a hi-tech dehumanized society.