Stitching Buddhas Annual Stitching Retreat

Earlier this month, I enjoyed another heart-expanding annual retreat with my Stitching Buddas apprentices. Once a year, students in the virtual apprenticeship have the opportunity to gather in person for stitching instruction, meditation, camaraderie, and collaboration. I always learn so much from my students and am repeatedly surprised by how meaningful this work has become in their lives. And how powerful it is in forging connections.

The 2013 Retreat gang gathered ’round Louise’s beautiful thangka. The fruit of four years’ training.

I don’t know whether it’s the wonderful women I attract and their readiness to use all the material of their lives for growth.

Or if it’s something I convey to them in my own approach to the work.

Or if it’s the innate power of the Buddhas, a force infused in the iconography of the images we are stitching.

I guess it’s some combination of the three. Whatever it is, it’s powerful!

I teach stitches, and extraordinary things open up in student’s lives.

Plus, we laugh, a lot.

We came together to stitch and spent the whole time in stitches!
— Louise Burnet Munoz, Pau, France

Your thangkas are most magnificent in real life. I am visualizing Buddha in my meditations much more clearly as a result so I thank you deeply for that.

Stitching Buddhas is a wonderful, living journey of artistry unlike any other!

— Himani Ellis, Fairplay, CO

The Stitching Buddhas program not only teaches a unique Tibetan form of needle work, it also encourages one to reflect on the images and meaning and to not only be mindful of the process but also of being fully present with oneself. The program also brings together unique but like-minded people from around the world. And the retreat cements that association and connection. I left the retreat with a sense of truly belonging to a Stitching Buddhas Sangha.

No matter what level of skill you are at – the retreat propels you forward and up to another level.

— Kerryn Coombe, Melbourne, Australia

I had the privilege of assisting Leslie and her students at the Stitching Buddhas retreat last week. It was like nothing I’ve ever experienced with people taking a class… I was really amazed by the interactions. Everybody was so dedicated, helping each other.

Even knowing that people had paid and traveled from afar to be there, I didn’t expect them to be so motivated. They REALLY WANTED TO BE THERE and it showed.

They were in a beautiful beach house, the weather was great, there was so much to do, some had come for their first visit to California… and all these people wanted to do was to stay inside and get as much time with Leslie and the thangkas as possible!

There was such an intensity of involvement, you would have thought they all knew each other before. But they didn’t — except online, in their Stitching Buddhas forum and calls. 

It didn’t matter that most lived on different continents. They were all connected through the work.

— Debbie Echevarria, Your Business Support, Ventura, CA

 
If you’d like to connect your own spiritual path with creative practice in this way, take a look at the Stitching Buddhas Virtual Apprentice Program. The sangha doors are open!
 
And for more photos from the retreat visit my Facebook Page and view the Stitching Buddhas Retreat photo album! “Like” the page while you’re there!