Our Contemplative Exercise Immersion (CEI) week stands out among the several features of DRBU that sets us apart from our peer universities. For one week each semester, classes pause while students, staff, and faculty gather to practice together in a retreat-style setting. Each semester’s CEI features a different theme or core practice. This fall, we studied and cultivated the four brahmaviharas: loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity.

Our cultivation of the brahmaviharas was led by DRBU alumnus Kittisaro Weinberg (MA ‘24), an esteemed Dharma teacher and former monk in the Thai Forest tradition. Over the course of three and half days, he guided the University community through Dharma talks, meditations, and chanting sessions. Together, we developed a deeper understanding and embodiment of these four wholesome qualities of mind.

About CEI Leader Kittisaro Weinberg

A former Rhodes Scholar, Kittisaro ordained with Ajahn Chah in 1976. During his fifteen years as a Buddhist monk, he helped found Chithurst and Hartridge Monasteries in the UK. Since disrobing in 1991, he has taught meditation internationally in the States, Europe, South Africa, and Israel. Inspired and guided by Master Hsuan Hua and his disciples since 1980, he has extensively studied and practiced Chan, Pure Land, and the recitation of mantras. Dedicated to the unification of the Mahayana and Theravada teachings, Kittisaro is interested in how the two traditions balance and support one another. He is co-founder with his wife, Thanissara, of Dharmagiri Sacred Mountain Retreat in South Africa, and Sacred Mountain Sangha, a public charity in Sebastopol, California. He is co-author with Thanissara of Listening to the Heart: A Contemplative Journey to Engaged Buddhism.