This meditation includes the poem Victor, from the beautiful book, The First Free Women: Original Poems Inspired by the Early Buddhist Nuns, by Matty Weingast: Victor: When everyone else was meditating, I’d be outside circling in the hall. Finally I went to confess. I’m hopeless, I said. The elder nun smiled. Just keep … Continue reading Sitting Meditation- Circling [7.10.24]
“Don’t meditate to fix yourself, to heal yourself, to improve yourself, to redeem yourself; rather, do it as an act of love, of deep warm friendship to yourself. In this way there is no longer any need for the subtle aggression of self-improvement, for the endless guilt of not doing enough. It offers the possibility … Continue reading Sitting Meditation- An Act of Love
This is a meditation in using noting practice, skillfully to acknowledge validate and return home again as needed.
Continue reading Sitting Meditation- Coming Home With The Breath
This practice explores how noting helps us get more clear as to what’s really here. What one takes in by contemplation, one pours out in love. –Meister Eckhart The Way It Is, Lynn Ungar One morning you might wake up to realize that the knot in your stomach had loosened itself and slipped away, … Continue reading Sitting Meditation- Contemplation Taking Us to Love
How we meet the moment of waking back up, makes all the difference in our practice. This city meditation is an opportunity to deeply explore that moment of re-awakening.
This meditation draws from Tara Brach, teaching on four remembrances for practice: Pausing, saying yes to life, turning towards love, resting in awareness. What It Is It is nonsense says reason It is what it is says love It is calamity says calculation It is nothing but pain says fear It is hopeless says insight … Continue reading Sitting Meditation- Four Remembrances [5.22.24]
in this practice, we explore opening to the wholeness of what’s here, the gratitude and release as well as the contracted and reactionary.
Continue reading Sitting Meditation- Just Being Here [5.15.24]
We were grateful this week to have David Viafora and Jessie Raye from Greatwoods Zen Retreat Center guest lead again this week. Unfortunately we were not able to record their first visit, but this week’s sharing works fine as a stand alone. They shared from Thich Nhat Hanh’s teaching called the Seven Mantras of Love. … Continue reading Seven Mantras of Love Part 2 [5.8.24]
This meditation again draws from the Somatics work of Amanda Blake and Embright Organization, and is offers a strong way to use the body as a rooting anchor of support.
Continue reading Sitting Meditation- Sitting with the Tree of Your Spine [5.1.24]
Opening up to the shared physical nature of our being is an avenue for contemplative experience of safety, connection, and respect.