Holding What Hurts: Facing Personal and Political Fear
Dear Still Water Friends,| Still Water Mindfulness Practice Center
Members of the Still Water community come together to sit in meditation, to learn mindfulness practices, and to support one other in our journeys. We offer weekly group practices both online and in person, classes, workshops, days of practice, retreats, and other special events.| www.stillwatermpc.org
Dear Still Water Friends, Until my forties I believed that spirituality and wisdom were primarily about what one believed and thought. It was about creeds and doctrines, commandments and traditions. Meditation in general, and Thích Nhất Hạnh (Thầy) in particular, … Continued| Still Water Mindfulness Practice Center
Dear Still Water Friends,| Still Water Mindfulness Practice Center
Dear Still Water Friends, I need to remind myself weekly, if not daily, that I make a difference in a world that needs more compassion and love. There is no act too small. I am careful when I do … Continued| Still Water Mindfulness Practice Center
Dear Still Water Friends, Over the last week, when the country again exploded into fresh fits of public accusation and blame, I found myself asking, not for the first time: How can I avoid being swept into this whirlwind of … Continued| Still Water Mindfulness Practice Center
[Dear Still Water Friends,| Still Water Mindfulness Practice Center
Dear Still Water Friends, My heart is broken each day by appalling news from places like Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, Syria, and the Congo. Likewise, the US national news is replete with disturbing stories about the tearing down of the rule … Continued| Still Water Mindfulness Practice Center
Dear Still Water Friends, In a 2012 TEDxSoCal Talk, the poet, writer, and Dharma teacher Dr. Larry Ward offered a hopeful invitation: “Feed your I-making with a fresh vision that expresses your deepest intention and how you can use your … Continued| Still Water Mindfulness Practice Center
Dear Still Water Friends,| Still Water Mindfulness Practice Center
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Dear Still Water Friends, When I talked with Mitchell recently about facilitating the Still Water Thursday night Sangha, he said that the focus would be on the First Mindfulness Training, Reverence for Life. Then he paused and added, “There is … Continued| Still Water Mindfulness Practice Center
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Dear Still Water Friends, The idea of exile—in political terms, the state of being forcibly estranged, generally by a government, from one’s homeland, people, and culture—has been on my mind of late. Like many people, I’m attracted to famous exiles—the … Continued| Still Water Mindfulness Practice Center
Dear Still Water Friends,| Still Water Mindfulness Practice Center
Image Caption: Portrait of the author’s grandmother by Elaine de Kooning. Photo by Connie Anderson.| Still Water Mindfulness Practice Center
Image Caption: Scrabble blocks spell out “Truth Will Set You Free”. Photo by Brett Jordan via Pexels.| Still Water Mindfulness Practice Center
Image Caption:Thích Nhất Hạnh leading walking meditation, October 9, 2005. Photo by Paul Davis.| Still Water Mindfulness Practice Center
Dear Still Water Friends,| Still Water Mindfulness Practice Center
My ongoing practice with patience continues to change its form based on what I need, modeling the very suppleness I aspire to cultivate. At the moment, Thích Nhất Hạnh’s (Thầy’s) commentary on the Sutra on the Full Awareness of Breathing is my companion. In the sutra, the Buddha teaches sixteen breathing exercises that form the foundation of mindfulness. The tenth is offered to help us gladden the mind: “Breathing in, I make my mind happy. Breathing out, I make my mind happy.”| Still Water Mindfulness Practice Center
Image courtesy of FreeImages.| Still Water Mindfulness Practice Center
Photo by anishikya via Pexels.| Still Water Mindfulness Practice Center
Image Caption: A monastic walking down the driveway at Blue Cliff Monastery on an early spring morning. Photo by Rachel Philips-Anderson| Still Water Mindfulness Practice Center
Image Caption: A framed sign stating “Start each day with a grateful heart” next to a grey pitcher vase. Photo by Dmitry Zvolskiy via Pexels.| Still Water Mindfulness Practice Center
Image Caption: Sign for unconditional love or Agape. (By Zerovina via Wikimedia Commons)| Still Water Mindfulness Practice Center
Image Caption: Eighteenth century Noh mask, Kanawa-onna (a vengeful person). Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.| Still Water Mindfulness Practice Center
Image Credit: Pixabay photo by ali_kizildag| Still Water Mindfulness Practice Center
Each week, we send out an e-mail announcement about our Thursday program, usually including comments and quotes about mindfulness in daily life. (Links to the three most recent Dharma Topic announcements are listed in the right-hand column.) We also send out occasional announcements about our classes, workshops, and retreats, as well as information about other local, national, and international events related to mindfulness practice. The only required field is your email address, but your n...| Still Water Mindfulness Practice Center
Kathleen’s Story| Still Water Mindfulness Practice Center
Image Caption: Grass Field – Dobrovelychkivs’kyi district, Kirovohrads’ka oblast, Ukraine. Photo by Oleksandr P.| Still Water Mindfulness Practice Center
Image Caption: Minsk forest, Belarus. Photo by Mikhail Nilov.| Still Water Mindfulness Practice Center
For many of us, becoming comfortable with meditation can be quite elusive. Our education and upbringing have concentrated on developing our thinking—our capacity to gather information, manipulate it, evaluate it, and draw conclusions. As humans we are very good at it, and, unquestionably, it is a valuable skill to have. While we are growing up, however, there are usually very few institutions or people who encourage us to develop mindfulness or simple awareness—our capacity to recognize w...| Still Water Mindfulness Practice Center
Photo Caption: AI generated by James Castro via Pixabay.| Still Water Mindfulness Practice Center
Image: Still Water’s version of the Five Contemplations Before Eating.| Still Water Mindfulness Practice Center
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Yellowstone National Park, July 6, 2024, photo by Kristin Hamilton| Still Water Mindfulness Practice Center
Dear Still Water Friends,| Still Water Mindfulness Practice Center
