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.
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
October 16, 2018
2019 Retreat Planning
Please give time to this very brief survey and let us know which retreats you would like to attend or create in 2019. Click HERE to get started.
October 9, 2018
Still Small Voice
Coming round the Big Bend, in Western Texas North to Colorado and the Great Divide I followed the wind to California Out where those Seven Sisters ride And I’m looking to find that still small voice That cuts like a whisper through the noise The sound of the truth, the song of my life Will I have the heart to hear that still small voice You’d have thought that by now, throughout my travels
September 25, 2018
Self Improvement
We like to think that because we have learned to know our various mind states we ought to be able to order up our preferred ones, like on Amazon We think self-awareness should reduce envy or that if we are really good meditators, we won’t feel the sting of envy at all, or the need for more chocolate In any given moment we take on faith the feeling This is Me, rather than seeing how many different
September 11, 2018
A creative process can parallel our meditative process
Over the past two years, I have been drawn to pair creativity and meditation on retreat to see how they fit together. An experiment really, but I have a premise in mind: In both meditation and creativity we tend to go back and forth with interest in our experience, the question of doing it right or not, along with pressure to make progress, or have a product to show for our efforts. Both processes are dynamic, ongoing, and nuanced. Seclusion
August 31, 2018
Hindrances in Meditation
Traditionally in Buddhism, hindrances were considered obstacles or things that get in the way of concentration in meditation. Here is one list of hindrances that I found. 1. Sensual desire 2. Ill-will 3. Torpor and sloth 4. Restlessness 5. Doubt Some of these—such as “torpor and sloth”—may sound a bit out of touch with our current meditation practice. “Doubt” here, I believe, refers to a lack of faith in the practice. These were considered conditions
August 24, 2018
Presumptions and Reactions
An oil-woman kept a parrot which used to amuse her with its agreeable talk and friendliness, and she had him to watch her shop when she went out and about. One day, when the parrot was alone in the shop, a cat chasing a mouse caused such commotion that it rattled the parrot’s cage and upset one of the oil-jars. When the oil-woman returned home she thought that the parrot had done this mischief, and in her anger she struck the parrot
July 18, 2018
Fading Away
I believe that every human being has valuable qualities and deserves some kindness and compassion, but I can’t always feel and act this way. The desire to reconcile this ‘so called’ discrepancy distorts my thoughts and feelings, and can keep me trying to correct my actions, rather than understanding how this view* is intricately woven into my daily life. Sometimes, it just sucks that I can’t surgically remove this complex from my experience, fix it up, and then put it back into my
July 13, 2018
Lost in thought, even Google Maps can’t find me…
On the first evening of a nine day retreat, I was surprised to discover that the retreat had a theme: “meditation and creativity”. I was initially very intimidated by the encouragement to write or draw something, to produce an object, to “create”. But seeing and hearing how others were encouraged by the “permission” to represent ourselves in some undefined way, I decided to see if any inspirations would appear and, if so, to follow where