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‘— by Bez Anyone who’s ever done a Zen ‘practice period’, an occasion to intensify engagement with Buddhist principles, knows how tumultuously transformative one can be. At some point during a relatively warm, extremely dry 2015 Northern California winter practice period I awakened from a rare respite of dreaming sleep to a chorus of howling […]
In a previous post, we shared the first part of an illuminating dialogue between Julie Flynn Badal and Dr. Miles Neale — a Buddhist psychotherapist. That article offered a fresh presentation of the Buddhist notion of karma, and discussed how Buddhist psychotherapy offers a way of working with challenging habitual patterns. Here in part two, […]
If you are reading this, you are most likely not in a cave somewhere in the Himalayas, without distraction, and devoting all of your days and evenings to meditation practice. More likely, you are a person with a job, relationships, and various commitments and interests in addition to meditation. You are a modern day meditation […]
Do you have any New Year resolutions in mind? Any big changes you’d like to see happen in 2016? What is your approach to that whole thing, and what has your experience been in past years? Here’s a way of framing this tradition that you may find helpful: In our culture, the idea of making […]
By Marcella Friel I just came home from lunch with a friend, where I ordered Caesar salad with chicken. What arrived at the table was a mountain of romaine lettuce large enough to rival the 14,000-foot peaks in my Colorado backyard. This was not one, but at least six full portions of salad, intended for […]
Stuck. Spinning. Motion locked in a grinding cycle. A world turning on its axis, wobbling, carrying on. In my world on November 14, there had been a snow storm and my car was stranded at my little A-frame house tucked back in the forest. We were leaving it for the winter, for the running water […]
By Julie Flynn Badal ~~~ In the Western world, the concept of karma is frequently misunderstood. Many people take the term karma to mean one’s predetermined fate or destiny. This interpretation has a fixed and fatalistic quality, as if there is little or nothing one can do to change one’s current situation. However, through the […]
By Anna Freundl ~~~ When I take a walk, there is a subtle shift in my consciousness, an opening. Yesterday, while walking to lunch, I looked up and saw a beautiful sight, a vast sight that couldn’t be contained to a description. Earth met Heaven. This tree had a stream of brilliance ascending from its […]
It is a widely-shared sentiment in this day and age that the world is somehow out of balance. In particular, many point to the inequality among genders — that those of the male variety seem to be more often in positions of power, and even treated better than those of other genders who occupy similar […]
By Orgyen Chowang Rinpoche Knowing how to work with your mind and how to make your mind comfortable are the most important things you can do for yourself and others. To make your mind comfortable, you just need to discover two things—that your mind is innately pristine and healthy, and that thoughts and emotions are […]
By Andrea Schweitzer ~~~ The full moon of September is often called the Harvest Moon. This month our full moon will be extra-special. The Sun, Earth and Moon will be in alignment. When this happens, the Moon moves through the Earth’s shadow and a lunar eclipse is visible from Earth. On average, we see […]
Did you know that SMC rents its spaces to outside groups for workshops and retreats? We host a variety of religious and spiritual groups, as well as schools, universities, non-profits, businesses, and more! We provide a unique setting where groups can come together to connect in retreat, surrounded by the beauty of the natural world […]