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Teaching Schedule for This Summer

Evening Classes:

Capitol Hill: This class meets informally through the summer at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church – located three blocks behind the White House.  Come anytime.  Formal classes will begin in the fall. (Capitol Hill).

Arlington, VA: Class at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington will begin on September 6th and will move to Monday nights.  (Arlington, VA)

On the Road:

June 27 – July 2:  The Still, Small Voice Within:  Meditation, Focusing and Intuition Training at Kripalu Center in Lenox, MA

July 2 – 5: The Energy Intensive:  Meditation, Yoga and Breathwork at Kripalu Center in Lenox, MA

Daylong Retreats:

Saturday, July 31st:  A Meditative Journey:  Mindful Movement, Relaxation and Sitting Meditation Daylong retreat in Bethesda, MD

Saturday, August 28th: Man Alive!  A Daylong Retreat for Men in Bethesda, MD

Saturday, September 25th: Buddha and the Body:  The Dynamic Meditation Experience (more info coming)

Saturday, December 4th: The “What Am I?” Inquiry Retreat (more info coming)

Special Three-Part Series:

Oct 14, 21, 28, evenings: Awakening Through Relationship:  The Art of Interpersonal Meditation  (more info coming)

Weeklong Retreats:

Oct. 1 – 8: IMCW Weeklong Fall Retreat Seven Oaks Retreat Center, Madison, VA

Dec. 27 – Jan 1 IMCW New Year’s Retreat

April 29 – May 1, 2011 IMCW Spring Retreat

Walking as Practice

My morning meditation isn’t what it used to be.

I think spiritual practices evolve as our needs evolve.  Sometimes we need to cultivate concentration to steady and calm the mind.  Other times we need to forget technique – to lighten up and feel the space around things.

Most of my practice these days is Walking Meditation.

Specifically, Dog Walking Meditation.  Even more specifically, Old Dog Walking Meditation.

My almost 14-year old pup used to race in ever-widening circles around me as I hiked, biked, snowshoed or skied.

Now we walk in measured steps with long pauses.

With an old dog you can’t go fast and you can’t speed ‘em up.

He has not lost his dignity.  Where he might have pursued the scent of a deer in the past he seems content to pause, lift his nose and with all four feet planted, track what’s left of the smell.

He seems to savor each walk as if it was his first.  Or last.

Old Dog Walking provides an excellent mirror for me.  Sometimes I’m leaning into the day ahead and our slow pace builds up irritability and anxiety.  I catch myself again and again reaching for my iPhone like a twitchy gunslinger would go for his .45.

On the other hand, if I linger too long composing a photograph or stand with my eyes closed in the sun, he’ll march right past me and keep going.  Because he’s now deaf, I can’t call him back.

So I do my best to match his pace.  Sometimes I count my steps to center my mind.  Sometimes I practice looking for something new – some detail I had not noticed before.  Sometimes I imagine what it will be like to do this walk without him.
Each morning I try to savor the moments as he does, pretending this is my first walk ever.

Or my last.

Water break

A Few Images

I’m settling back here in the woods of Northern Virginia and head out each morning with the dogs around 5:30, generally before the sun is up.  Here are a few shots from recent ramblings.

Another dramatic morning:

My decidedly analog father making a digital leap, reading the morning news on my iPad:

The Still, Small Voice Within

The old homestead.

It’s been eight straight days of programs here at Kripalu Center.

When I moved up here from our funky ashram in Pennsylvania in 1983 I thought the building was either a prison or a hospital.  Turns out it was something in between.  After 23 years of total immersion, I now return five or six times a year to lead retreats and trainings.  (Before we took it over, this facility was a Jesuit training center which they never filled, failing to anticipate the 1960’s.)

The first program, “The Still Small Voice Within:  Meditation, Focusing and Intuition Training,” is five days of settling, sensing and inner listening.  A big component of the program includes speaking and attempted to describe that which is just coming in awareness. Paying attention in the spirit of meditation means we become aware of things we were not aware of before.  Describing our inner experience can help us clarify what’s coming to the surface.  Sensing, inner listening, speaking, deep listening, all in an environment of social silence, good people and a healing environment led to a wonderful sense of shared intimacy.

Something about the light here in the Berkshires ...

I then launched into “The Energy Intensive:  Meditation, Yoga and Breathwork” with my fellow leader, Shobhan Richard Faulds.  This was three days, starting at 6:00AM and ending at 9:00PM.   While we explore social silence and ’settling practices’ in this program we also move a lot of energy through movement, relaxation, meditation and breath.  The practice here is raising both “prana” and “chitta,” or energy and awareness.  We do a powerful breathwork practice which releases deep-seated tensions and opens all kinds of new possibilities.

I’m always inspired by how quickly a group of strangers can come into a palpable sense of community.

On to Maine to visit my folks.

Notes on Compassion

Another cool piece from Doug and Barbara:

Post NPR

I used to have a ‘ten minute rule’, which changed my life in a most positive way.  Whenever I had to be anywhere, I planned on being ten minutes early.   I found it quite calming.

Since moving to the DC area. though, I’ve had to up that to a ‘twenty-minute rule’ to accommodate the gnarly traffic here.

I made sure to get in early for the recording at WAMU with Diane Rehm and guests.  Once I got parked and buzzed in and landed in the waiting room I was offered water or coffee.  Out of nervousness I agreed to the coffee.

I didn’t count on it being so strong and while I wasn’t quite hyperventilating before the red light came on, I felt ‘rather jazzed’.

When the first question was directed to me I got to watch the effect of adrenalin moving through my body at the same time as I started making noises and moving my lips.  That was a rush.

Thankfully I settled down.

If you’d like to listen to the hour-long show or just catch the first few minutes of my rather flustered response,you can click here.

They had a flood of calls and emails, which felt quite gratifying.