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.
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
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