Jonathan Foust

Upcoming Events

14 November 2009, 7:42 pm Sticky post

Evening Classes:

Capitol Hill: St. Mark’s Episcopal Church – on 3rd St. right behind the Library of Congress (Capitol Hill)

Arlington, VA: The Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington (Arlington, VA)

Catch my weekly talks and meditations on my iTunes podcast.

Special Series:

Transforming Your Relationship to Pain Stay tuned for the next six-week offering.

Mindful Movement and Meditation: Six-week series starting in 2012. Stay tuned for registration information.

Year and Multi-Year Trainings:

The Year of Living Mindfully (April, 2012)

Two-Year Meditation Teacher Training (Fall, 2013)

Retreats and Events: (through summer)

January 28: Man Alive! Men’s Meditation Retreat

March 3: A Meditative Journey: Movement, Meditation and Deep Relaxation

March 12: The Energy Intensive: Yoga, Meditation and Breathwork (Kripalu Center; 1-800-741-7353)

May 13: Year of Living Mindfully Opening Weekend

April 22: IMCW Week-long Spring Retreat

May 11: Kripalu Yoga Teacher Training: 500-hour Module on Teaching Meditation and Pranayama (Kripalu Center; 1-800-741-7353)

May 25: Buddha and the Body: Meditation and Breathwork (Kripalu Center; 1-800-741-7353)

June 9: Being – In Nature: Outdoor Meditation Retreat (River Bend Park, Great Falls, VA)

June 23: Year of Living Mindfully Retreat (all years)

June 28: The Energy Intensive: Yoga, Meditation and Breathwork (Kripalu Center; 1-800-741-7353)

July 1: The Still, Small Voice Within: Meditation, Focusing and Intuition Training (Kripalu Center; 1-800-741-7353)

July 28: Dynamic Meditation

August 11: Conscious Relationships (with Tara Brach)

Filed under Events.

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Wise Speech

26 January 2012, 11:11 am

“What You Can’t Communicate Controls You.”

When I first heard that edict year ago, I instantly recognized how true that was for me.

In difficult communications I could never find the right words and found myself thrown around by my anxiety around conflict, namely my need to be liked and my desire to do as little harm as possible.

Often my communications would err on the side of not being truthful and sucking up some hurt or would boil over in frustration or anger, resulting in a much more complicated mess. I erred on the side of not even trying and felt amazingly confined and bottled up.

Then I learned some models for communication that helped me speak with less blame and more ownership of my experience and I could feel my heart flowing again.

The Buddha taught extensively on Skillful Speech.

A quick summary:

1. Be kind

2. Tell the truth

3. Be aware of how the other person is listening and

4. Be timely

These guidelines are challenging. The only way we can be kind and tell the truth is when we shift our consciousness to a place that lessens or removes blame.

I’ve found Non-Violent Communication (NVC) to be a most amazing modality for communication, particularly when it comes to difficult conversations. NVC forces us to reflect on:

1. What can we agree actually happened?

2 What do I feel?

3. What’s the unmet need? What was I hoping for?

4. What life-affirming request might I make?

These inquiries slow down the process and force us to investigate what’s true. Oftentimes these questions reveal our ‘story’ which is usually colored by embellishments or tinged with some form of aversion, clinging or delusion.

Eventually we discover the corollary to that initial statement: What you can communicate sets you free.

Some links you might enjoy:

Image of the Week: Geese in Flight

24 January 2012, 10:20 pm

It’s always a debate as to how much to edit an image.

Some say the right thing to do is leave the image as natural as possibly while others claim it’s OK to tweak a bit … to lighten shadows, saturate the color just a wee bit to bring out the best in the image.

I was in the Keep It Utterly Natural Camp, but since I’ve been doing photo editing on my iPad I’m having a blast in the Manipulation Camp. This morning I took off for the river with the fog dense, thick and smoky, hoping to get some good shots as it would burn off. Most of the shots I took were grey with little color available as there was so little light.

So I took to my editing tools and came up with this. Cool.

Filed under Nature, Photography.

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At the Smith Center

19 January 2012, 4:56 pm

No, I'm not checking email - that's the stopwatch function.

Last night I led a workshop on “The Still Small Voice Within: Exploring the Relationship between Meditation and Intuition” at the Smith Center for Healing and the Arts on U Street NW.

First of all the Smith Center is a wonderful place and does good work. Thank you all for your donations that support their work.

It was fantastic to do this experience in an art gallery.

There is an interesting mindfulness exercise whereby you look around you and notice one thing you didn’t notice before.

And then another. And another.

This can lead to a wonderful sense of presence.

With all the amazing art on the wall, it was incredibly rich as we all sat for a few moments after meditation to take in the imagery surrounding us.

Here’s more on the Smith Center for Healing and the Arts.

Filed under Dharma, Photography.

1 Comment

Image of the Week: Is This You?

17 January 2012, 10:10 pm

One of my current goals is to catch the Coots with the sun behind them as they go into their frenzied ‘escape.’ Coots, otherwise known as March Hens, don’t have webbed feet. Really cute, they give off the appearance of being incredibly dumb. If one spooks in the least, they all freak out and frantically start running across the water while wildly flapping their wings.

This little one I can seriously relate to. You know that feeling?

Filed under Nature, Photography.

1 Comment

The Joy of Quiet

17 January 2012, 10:01 pm

A Still LIve with Ice

Recently there’ve been some really cool things in the city I’d love to go to and the distance feels like a hassle … but mostly I love living at the edge of the river and the opportunity to sit in the stillness.

Here’s a great article from the New York Times on The Joy of Quiet.

Filed under Dharma, Nature, Photography.

1 Comment