The Spencer Meditation Group is having a Day Long Interfaith Meditation Retreat. The retreat will be April 19, from 9 AM until 5 PM at the Spencer Presbyterian Church in Spencer, W.Va. Instruction will be offered in the vipassana (Buddhist) and contemplative prayer (Christian) traditions. The day will mostly consist of alternating sessions of sitting and walking meditation, (and optional chanting!) with plenty of time for discussion and questions and answers.
We are asking people to please bring a bag lunch, and your own meditation cushions if you have them. We will provide chairs, but we do not have extra cushions. The retreat will be held in silence. More information will be provided later for those who plan to attend. For more information, call Ken Lewis at 304-927-1505.
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For a few moments just feel the body’s warmth and strength, its ability to hold itself upright. The vitality and aliveness that you experience in your body require various chemical and mineral substances, a continuous supply of oxygen, the energy of the sun, and the cohesion and conductivity of water. The Buddha instructs us to reflect on the body as composed of the elements of earth, air, fire, and water, so that we will see how this life is interwoven with universal processes. |
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– Wes Nisker, “Evolution’s Body”
There will not be a meeting of the Meditation Circle on New Year’s Eve. The next scheduled meeting will be January 7, 2014,
In addition to Bhante Henepola Gunaratana‘s excellent meditation manual Mindfulness in Plain English, which is available in print from Wisdom Publications or as a PDF file online (http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma4/mpe.html), Thanissaro Bhikkhu has a very thorough book available free of charge on the Metta Forest Monastery website in either PDF, epub, or mobi file.
With Each & Every Breath: A Guide to Meditation. (e-books revised Oct. 19, 2013) A new breath meditation manual by Thanissaro Bhikkhu drawing on two sources: the Buddha’s own set of instructions on how to use the breath in training the mind, and Ajaan Lee Dhammadharo’s method of breath meditation — which builds on the Buddha’s instructions, explaining in detail many of the points that the Buddha left in condensed form. A page has been added to this site with download links to all of the .mp3 dhammatalks referenced in this manual: With Each & Every Breath audio files.
The link to With Each and Every Breath is http://www.dhammatalks.org/ebook_index.html#eachandeverybreath
There will NOT be a meeting of The Meditation Circle this Tuesday, December 10, 2013. The next meeting will be at the regular time on Tuesday, December 17th.
Experiences are preceded by mind, led by mind, and produced by mind. If one speaks or acts with an impure mind, suffering follows even as the cart’s wheel follows the hoof of the ox.
Experiences are preceded by mind, led by mind, and produced by mind. If one speaks or acts with a pure mind, happiness follows like a shadow that never departs.
Gautama Buddha, The Dhammapada
Rethinking Karma (Kamma) Tricycle Wisdom Collection. Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through November 12, 2013.
One specific method for practicing mindfulness of body sensations is to focus your attention on sounds. Sounds, like everything else, arise and pass away. Just by listening, you can experience the insight of impermanence, an understanding the Buddha taught as crucial for the development of wisdom.
– Sylvia Boorstein, “Sound Meditation”
Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection of
Tricycle Daily Dharma October 28, 2013
Read Article
This post is to make sure Meditation Circle members and subscribers have been updated on the cancellation of next Tuesday’s meditation. The original post had incorrect dates. The corrected date for the cancellation is Tuesday, October 15th. The regular schedule will resume October 22nd.
There will not be a meditation session this coming Tuesday, October 15th. The regularly scheduled sitting will resume the following week, October 22nd. (This is a correction to the original post which had the wrong dates. We aresorry for any inconvenience,0
…Mindfulness trains us to do everything we do with full awareness.
…Why is full awareness important? As anyone who tries mindfulness practice quickly discovers, the more aware we are of our actions and of the feelings, thoughts, and perceptions that give rise to them, the more insight we have into why we are doing what we are doing. Awareness allows us to see whether our actions spring from beneficial or harmful impulses. Beneficial motivations include generosity, friendliness, compassion, and wisdom; harmful actions are caused primarily by greed, hatred, and delusion. When we are mindful of the deep roots from which our thoughts, words, and deeds grow, we have the opportunity to cultivate those that are beneficial and weed out those that are harmful.
The Buddha is very clear that the primary aim of all his teachings is the “end of suffering”. Mindfulness helps us to recognize that beneficial actions bring peace of mind and happiness to our everyday lives. …
Bhante Henepola Gunaratana – The 4 Foundations of Mindfulness.
As meditators, we must all have a goal,for if we do not, and blindly follow somebody’s instructions on meditation, we will simply be groping in the dark.There must certainly be a goal for whatever we do consciously and willingly. It is not the vipassana meditator’s goal to become enlightened before other people or to have more power or make more profit than others. Meditators are not in competition with each other for mindfulness.
Our goal is to reach the perfection of all the noble and wholesome qualities latent in our subconscious mind.This goal has five elements to it : purification of mind, overcoming sorrow and lamentation, overcoming pain and grief, treading the right path leading to attainment of eternal peace, and attaining happiness by following that path. Keeping this fivefold goal in mind, we can advance with hope and confidence.”
Bhante Henepola Gunaratana- Mindfulness in Plain English
“In Genjokoan, Dogen writes, ‘Those who have great realization of delusion are buddhas.’ The place where you get to be Buddha, so to speak, is in delusion, and there’s plenty of that to go around. You get up where you fall down. You don’t get up somewhere else. It’s where you fall down that you establish your practice.”
– Ryokan Steve Weintraub, “Umbrella Man” from Tricycle.com
(Read entire article through Sept. 9)
“The key to maintaining your inspiration in the day-to-day work of meditation practice is to approach it as play—a happy opportunity to master practical skills, to raise questions, experiment, and explore.”
~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu,
from “The Joy of Effort” (read related article at Tricycle.com through July 30)
When the mind is properly adjusted
And quietly applied
The Way is attainable;
But when you are too fervently bent
On it, your body grows tired;
When your body is tired, your spirit
Becomes weary.
When you spirit is weary, your discipline
Will relax, and with relaxation of
Discipline, there follows many distractions
~ Sutra of Forty Two Chapters
quote courtesy of 
DailyZen.com
