This blog will be a combination of dharma writings and creative works that come from practice, mine and yours. I will post images, writing, audio, and other endeavors that evolve from reflective meditation. This gentle, thoughtful, open orientation allows us to receive all kinds of unknown creative seeds in meditation, and then discover choices on how to be with, tame, sustain, encourage and enhance those seeds, both in the meditation sitting, and upon reflection and sharing with others. Following an innovative and friendly path combines our current intentions and understanding, and brings kind and caring attention into this very world we live in now.
Please contact me if you would like to contribute something to this blog. Tell us your process of how it came to be, and what it means to you. A committee of reflective meditation teachers will offer friendly consideration for your contribution and will help determine when it will be posted.
April 23, 2019
Being in the “Now”
Our practice has deep roots in early Buddhism but lives in the modern era. One of the ways I am integrating our past and present is by changing the image on Sati’s homepage. Images on websites come and go rapidly, but this change is made with careful consideration and with the knowledge that it will change again. Like the image of the Quan Yin or Padmapani statue, the new image personifies Reflective Meditation: a human being in meditative posture. When
March 29, 2019
Patience
I can relate with students when we ask them to talk about their experience of a meditation sitting and they don’t know what to say. I don’t know what to write about this month. So, instead I chose an image that expresses my state of mind. We can compare this image to a process we might find ourselves in, in meditation; not empty of content, but hard to describe. In it, the variety of experiences do not hold together
February 28, 2019
Sati’s New Retreat Page!
Sati Sangha recently created a new resource for keeping up with reflective meditation retreats that are happening globally. We would love for you to take a look at the new site and share any feedback with us. Also, if you’d like to add your event to the list, please contact Linda Modaro. New Reflective Meditation Retreat: http://www.reflectivemeditationretreat.com/
February 27, 2019
Time Out
Retreat. Go inward before you go forward. It is good advice that we can’t always take. We may need some supportive conditions to help this develop. A time to practice backing away from something that we are close to. A big Time Out, let’s say. Kind of like when you behaved badly as a kid and were made to go sit alone in a corner, and you found this not a punishment, but a gift. No one bothered you,
February 7, 2019
Foundation for Mindfulness
Last month I wrote a piece about integrating past practices into your current meditation practice. In my transition from moving meditation to sitting meditation a few things were missing, so I began a search. The search, more apparent to me now, was semi-conscious and included things that I knew I wanted, as well as things that I didn’t even know I was missing. For example, I knew I wanted a practice that welcomed my intense emotions rather than
December 23, 2018
Integrating Past Practices into Reflective Meditation
It was a transitional time for my meditation practice in the late 90’s, but I didn’t know it then. I could no longer continue my daily moving-meditation practice due to health issues, so I was primed for Recollective Awareness meditation when I met Jason Siff in 1998. Up until then, each morning I would do tai ji practices; some of the patterns I especially liked or I would improvise and blend movements, taking breaks to let
December 7, 2018
Meditation and Poetry – Wilton, NSW Australia
“I recently attended Linda’s creative meditation retreat – the juices flowed into Tanka poetry – in Wilton, NSW Australia, a beautiful peaceful location where I concentrated on messages from my inner world. People smirk when they hear that I was at a silence retreat as they know I have spent my life talking. I actually love the silence aspect. The most astonishing insight occurred at the end of the retreat. Although we had not had
November 27, 2018
2019 Retreat Survey Results
Thank you to those who took our survey last month. We have been able to confirm a few retreats for 2019, and are considering the other locations that you have requested for 2019/2020. If you are thinking about one of these below, please email the manager to hold a space for you to attend. San Diego, California area – at Questhaven Retreat will be led by Linda, Bill Wellhouse and Anna Delacroix West Hartford, Connecticut – at Copper Beach Institute will be led by
November 20, 2018
Reflective Meditation: A Refuge for Gentle Retreats
Team-teaching is an honored and respected way to share the Dharma which allows sanghas to acknowledge their local teachers and welcome visiting teachers. During the five retreats we were a part of in August through October this year, it was hard to remember exactly who said what in the conversations and teachings. It was apparent, however, that creative and viable ways of teaching emerged. Gentleness, ease and friendship led the retreats. I like to consider this as part of our sanghas’ evolving
October 23, 2018
Finding your voice
Finding your voice: to prepare for speaking, to manage to say something after being too nervous or afraid to speak, to express yourself and your ideas in the way you want. It is not unusual for other voices to enter our meditation sittings, have their say, and leave us wondering what that was all about? Finding your own voice and knowing when to use it can be like sorting through a mob of kangaroos ‘in there’ (remember I