We have been working with creative ways to reflect before and after our meditation practice. One way we discovered is through free-form writing. In the piece below, we chose the topic of permission to do any practice in Reflective Meditation and wrote for 15 minutes, then shared our writing with each other. We then wrote again for another 15 minutes and did the same thing. This is the result, with a little editing, of course. –Linda

“Perhaps a new era is dawning where large organizations and charismatic leaders are less needed for individuals to learn the dharma and maintain their practice.” – Anna Markey, Coast and City Sangha How to continue with dharma and meditation amidst ethical crises was at the heart of the GenX Buddhist Teachers and the Sakyidhita conferences last month. I came away with a few questions to contemplate and discuss with our sangha: Is meditation in itself enough for

Within our topic of Ethical Transformation, the Panel on Integrity and Enlightenment including Grace Song, Brother Phap Hai, Roshi Chozen Bays, Lama Willa Miller and Singhashri Gazmuri. Photo by: Shundo David Haye

  Sample Closed Group – Sharing Reflections Tuesdays from 1pm to 2pm PST

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

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

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/

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,

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