Our Moving into Meditation class explored what it means to live with a trusting heart.  We drew inspiration from Jack Kornfield’s book, No Time Like the Present:  Finding Freedom, Love and Joy Right Where You Are. In Chapter 5, Fear of Freedom.  In this chapter, Jack explores the various ways our fears curtail our freedom and full engagement with life.  He suggests that we can use loving awareness as a way of cultivating the courage and inner stability we need to take chances and embrace life fully.

We also explored poet Jane Hirshfield’s views about creativity and mediation as outlined in her Tricycle Magazine interview, Felt in its Fullness.  Jane asserts that art and meditation are both awareness practices that are essential to personal transformation.

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Our Moving into Meditation class explored what it means to live with a trusting heart.  We drew inspiration from Jack Kornfield’s book, No Time Like the Present:  Finding Freedom, Love and Joy Right Where You Are. In Chapter 4, The Eternal Present, Jack encourages us to live in the present moment.  We were moved by excerpts from Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants.  Robin is a Professor of Environmental and Forest Biology, a poetic writer and passionate advocate of a much more generous and expansive vision of relatedness between humans and the natural world. If this notion inspires you, listen to her On Being interview, The Intelligence in All Kinds of Life.

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Our Moving into Meditation class explored what it means to live with a trusting heart.  We drew inspiration from Jack Kornfield’s book, No Time Like the Present:  Finding Freedom, Love and Joy Right Where You Are. In Chapter 3, Trusting the Living Universe, Jack invites us to trust and let the mystery be.  Poet David Whyte‘s poem, Working Together, is a word dance we enter through life’s ordinary miracles. Continue reading →

Our Moving into Meditation class focused on Desire:  the mind state: Want/Don’t Want:  The Unquenchable Thirst described in the fourth chapter of  Toni Bernhard‘s book: How to Wake Up:  A Buddhist Inspired Guide to Navigating Joy and Sorrow.  We drew inspiration from Jack Kornfield’s book, No Time Like the Present:  Finding Freedom, Love and Joy Right Where You Are. Jack invites us to trust that we are part of life’s ever unfolding mystery.   Poet Jane Hirshfield ‘s tender and wry words describe the creaturely ties that bind our wounds.

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Our Moving into Meditation class focused on the elusive nature of identity.  In our mindfulness practice we come to recognize that we are so much more than who we think we are.   We considered The Self as Ever Shifting flow, the second chapter title of  Toni Bernhard‘s book: How to Wake Up:  A Buddhist Inspired Guide to Navigating Joy and Sorrow.  Poet Jane Hirshfield invites us to surrender our assertions of identity. She reminds us that we are embraced by the world in so doing.  Finally, poet Yi-Young Lee‘s elegant poetry invites us to spread our wings and fly.

Li-Young Lee and his parents, Chinese expatriates, fled from Jakarta in 1959 to escape anti-Chinese persecution. (To learn more about Li-Young you can read Paul T. Corrigan’s  Conversation with Li-Young Lee.)

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Our Moving into Meditation class focused on the ever changing nature of life.  In our mindfulness practice we break society’s spell of feeling we are being carried away.  We experience a wholeness upon savoring each moment with full attention. We drew inspiration from meditation teacher and writer, Toni Bernhard‘s book: How to Wake Up:  A Buddhist Inspired Guide to Navigating Joy and Sorrow. Toni contends that by embracing life – as it is – we have the potential to realize well-being.  In her article, Meditation in Motion, meditation and yoga instructor Jill Satterfield encourages us to explore full awareness of our bodily experience to wake up and be with what is.  Finally, Jane Hirshfield‘s exquisite poetry takes us deeper into our creatureliness.

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Our Moving into Meditation class completed our study of  Frank Ostaseski’s wonderful book the Five Invitations.   In today’s class the 5th invitation to cultivate “don’t know mind” became an exploration of mystery and transformation.

In realizing our selves as mystery we open the door to awe and wonder.   We truly live with uncertainty and touch the elemental feeling of fear.  Voices of poets, naturalists and writers joined with Frank in encouraging us to be embrace and engage change and impermanence.

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Our Moving into Meditation class drew inspiration from  the end of  Frank Ostaseski’s wonderful book the Five Invitations.   In today’s class we explored the 5th invitation to cultivate “don’t know mind.”  Cultivating this mind state challenges us to traverse the ever-changing ground of uncertainty.  It awakens us to what we hold most dear, to what is sacred.  We listened to the voices of naturalists and writers Terry Tempest Williams, Rachel Carson and Gary Snyder describe how they encounter the sacred.

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Our Moving into Meditation class is nearing the end of  Frank Ostaseski’s wonderful book the Five Invitations.  The book offers some fundamental principles for living a conscious life and for serving others who are nearing life’s end.  In today’s class we explored the 5th invitation to cultivate “don’t know mind.”  Two essential human experiences – intimacy and vulnerability – characterize this expression of mind.  I believe our willingness to be so fully human is also an expression of love.  Continue reading →