The Path: Skillful Vision
Special PODCAST:
This talk explores the roadmap to freedom and happiness.
You'll learn how awareness of the Four Noble Truths can dramatically impact your life as well as explore an overview of "The Path" that leads not only to more skillful living, but to the cessation of suffering.
iTunes podcast here, online listening here, stitcher here, and Jonathan’s YouTube channel here.
Greetings from Jonathan Foust: Your Year Ahead, What's Most Important?, A Guided Video Meditation and More
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Welcome!
Every great spiritual tradition speaks of the power of pausing.
I'm just back from a silent unstructured retreat at the Forest Refuge in Barre, MA. It was hard to break away from all my projects and commitments. To be honest, I didn't really want to go though it had been on my calendar since the day after the same retreat I did one year ago.
I'm glad I went.
I'm reminded again of how fast this life goes by, how precious it is to slow down and celebrate the rising of the sun, the gift of a warm cup of tea and the silence that can make it feel like a celebration.
The dining room at the Forest Refuge. Space and Silence.
Upcoming Events
February 3:
YLM Evening Session Learn More
February 6:
YLM7 Weekend Retreat Learn More
February 8:
Evening Class at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington Learn More
February 15:
Evening Class at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington Learn More
February 19:
300-Hour Kripalu Yoga Teacher Training: Guiding Meditation for Transformational Yoga Learn More
February 22:
Evening Class at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington, Guest Speaker Learn More
February 29:
Evening Class at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington Learn More
March 05:
YLM8 Opening Weekend Retreat Learn More
Your Year Ahead. What's Most Important?
One thing I always take away from a retreat? Remembering what I really want. Along with health and love and feeling like I'm contributing to others, I want to know what transcends the ups and downs of life. I want to know what it means to be awake. That inquiry comes down to a few things: * Intention * Sustained practice * Like-minded community That's what the Year of Living Mindfully is all about. If you live in the DC area and are drawn to both deepening and sustaining your practice in the context of a small and dedicated community, do check out these links. A short article by Catie Whelan, founder of "The Lightening Notes," on her YLM experience. Applications are due February 15th. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.
Images from Last Month
January started off cold and grey. If you look closely you can see a huge murmuration of grackles beyond the Bald Eagle in the tree.
With grey water reflecting grey skies, Canada Geese seem to be floating in space.
My room at the Inn. "Everything You Need and Nothing More."
Sunrise through an icicle at the Forest Refuge.
Frozen water droplet on the end of an icicle.
Short Guided Video Meditation: The Mystery
I shot these images when I was on retreat at the Forest Refuge. With the milder weather in central Massachussets, icicles on the cliffs melted during the day and froze again at night. I was able to visit them in both morning light when they were hardened and the afternoon light, when they were softening.
Four Things I Learned on My Retreat
Meditation teacher Loch Kelly offers this question: "What is there if there is no problem to be solved?" Take a moment and try that on. That inquiry is the foundation for my practice these days and dramatically informed my silent retreat at the Forest Refuge. Quite often when I start a meditation practice there is a sense that I'm trying to get somewhere or make some change. This question helps me remember who I am and what I seek is already here. To listen to my talk, "Four Things I Learned on My Retreat," see the video below. If you're interested in the topic of inquiry you might enjoy these recent talks: One Question Can Change Your Life More Questions That Can Change Your Life
Latest from the Blog
Four Things I Learned on My Retreat
Finally the Sun
Coming Home: The Portal of Self-Compassion (Retreat Talk)
Meditation: Embodied Space, Gratitude, Appreciation and Love (Retreat Meditation)
Awake
More Questions That Can Change Your Life
Rising
One Question Can Change Your Life
Tiny Boxes
Pause and Still Move
Happy New Year! Greetings from Jonathan Foust: Announcing the 2016 Year of Living Mindfully, Year-End Review, What You REALLY Want and More
Seeking Persons with a Regular Meditation Practice to Participate in a Research Study
If you have interest and meet their criteria, I highly recommend this experience. If you qualify, you will be supported by deeply caring and wise team of professionals. Researchers at the Johns Hopkins University are seeking individuals with a regular long-term meditation practice to participate in a research study looking at the combined effects of meditation and psilocybin, a psychoactive substance found in sacramental mushrooms of some cultures. The study will investigate psychological and brain processes underlying such effects. Volunteers must be between the ages of 25 and 80, have no personal or familial history of severe psychiatric illnesses, or recent history of alcoholism or drug abuse. To discuss the possibility of volunteering or to learn more: phone: 410-550-2253 or email: meditation@jhmi.edu website: http://www.hopkinsmeditation.com Confidentiality will be maintained for all applicants and participants. Roland Griffiths, Ph.D., Principal Investigator Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine IRB approved application NA_00054696
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iTunes podcast here, online listening here, stitcher here, and Jonathan’s YouTube channel here.
Short Guided Video Meditation: The Mystery
Special PODCAST:
I shot these images when I was on retreat at the Forest Refuge last month.
With the milder weather in central Massachussets, icicles on the cliffs melted during the day and froze again at night. I was able to visit them in both morning light when they were hardened and the afternoon light, when they were softening.
iTunes podcast here, online listening here, stitcher here, and Jonathan’s YouTube channel here.
Four Things I Learned on My Retreat
Special PODCAST:
This talk explores the big take-aways from my recent retreat at the Forest Refuge in Barre, MA.
You’ll learn how ‘shift happens,’ the anatomy of an insight, how meditation trains your brain to process in new ways and how inquiry can help you shift from a small sense of self into open and spacious awareness.
iTunes podcast here, online listening here, stitcher here, and Jonathan’s YouTube channel here.
Coming Home: The Portal of Self-Compassion (Retreat Talk)
Special PODCAST:
This talk explores how you can increase your capacity for self-compassion.
You’ll learn what gets in the way of coming home to yourself, a comparison of strategies, techniques for accessing self-compassion as well as what it means to embrace the awakening of heart and mind. (Apologies to Lou Reed.)
iTunes podcast here, online listening here, stitcher here, and Jonathan’s YouTube channel here.
Meditation: Embodied Space, Gratitude, Appreciation and Love (Retreat Meditation)
Special PODCAST:
This meditation is from the IMCW New Year’s Retreat.
After a short introduction, you’ll explore a modified body scan meditation feeling or imagining space in the body imbued with a quality of gratitude, appreciation and love.
iTunes podcast here, online listening here, stitcher here, and Jonathan’s YouTube channel here.
Awake
More Questions That Can Change Your Life
Special PODCAST:
This talk continues the exploration of inquiry.
You’ll learn some pragmatic approaches that use inquiry to deconstruct beliefs, to make decisions, to solve problems and to point beyond the rational mind to an experience of presence.
iTunes podcast here, online listening here, stitcher here, and Jonathan’s YouTube channel here.
Rising
One Question Can Change Your Life
Special PODCAST:
This talk explores the power of inquiry.
You’ll learn about the ‘technology’ of inquiry, how inquiry can shape your intentions, dramatically change your perspective and shift your awareness toward a direct experience of your true nature
iTunes podcast here, online listening here, stitcher here, and Jonathan’s YouTube channel here.
Tiny Boxes
A reading from the New Year’s Retreat, from Christy Sharshel
Tiny Boxes This mind is cluttered today Words and images Harsh and relentless Searing for some explanation For the state of … everything. In a world of tiny boxes We are labeled and sorted By the color of our skin The shape of our bodies The sound of our language The size of our bank account The person we love The God we believe in. Difference becomes deadly When we cannot reach Beyond arbitrary walls That separate When we fail In our understanding That every heart Beats the same Christy Sharshel Link to Christy’s latest book of poems: http://amzn.com/151947847X iTunes podcast here, online listening here, stitcher here, and Jonathan’s YouTube channel here.
Happy New Year! Greetings from Jonathan Foust: Announcing the 2016 Year of Living Mindfully, Year-End Review, What You REALLY Want and More
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please signup here.
Welcome!
Friendship There is a story from the "Buddha's life" when Ananda, his attendant and student of 25 years, came up to him with what he thought was a big insight. "Is it not true," Ananda asked excitedly, "that spiritual friendship is half of the holy life?" The Buddha responded, "No, don't say that. Spiritual friendship is the whole of the holy life." Associating with those who want what you want can dramatically enhance your life and your aspirations. May you discover what you most want, cultivate wholesome companionship and may this coming year be filled with unexpected pleasures.
The Year of Living Mindfully
Have you ever wondered what your life would be like if you could sustain attention on non-judging awareness and compassion for a year? That's the intent behind the Year of Living Mindfully (YLM). I've had the benefit of years of sustained practice in the company of like-minded people and YLM is all about making this possible for those living in the DC area. You'll be supported in your daily practice through regular retreats, a monthly class, monthly small-group gatherings, a monthly 1:1 process with fellow practitioner and some individual time with me. More than that, though, you'll be in relationship with other who want what you want. That makes all the difference. Applications are due in February. Click here to read an article by Caitie Whelan, founder of The Lightning Notes and a graduate of the program. Click here to learn more about the program and to determine whether it's a match for you in your life right now.
Upcoming Events
January 4:
Evening Class at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington Learn More
January 11:
Evening Class at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington Learn More
January 13:
YLM7 Evening Session Learn More
January 16:
YLM7 Daylong Retreat Learn More
January 18:
Evening Class at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington Learn More
January 25:
Evening Class at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington, Guest Speaker Joseph Bobrow Learn More
Images from Last Month
December shifts to browns and greys with the occasional magical sunrise or sunset.
Some days on the river start like this.
But mostly it's like this, with mist and overcast skies.
This big Sycamore is the favorite hangout of two mature Bald Eagles.
And here you can see their tail feathers being warmed by the first light.
A storm front rapidly closes in.
Geese head up river.
A Moment of Zen wth a Female Belted Kingfisher.
Moving Meditation on The River
Could you do with a five-minute guided meditation with some nice visuals and soundtrack? Please join me for a sub-freezing and foggy December morning paddle on the Potomac River.
What Do You Want and What Are You Willing to Give Up to Get it?
An extensive study of Harvard graduates revealed the one most important difference in success in life was to write down your goals.
It's that time of year when we inevitable ask ourselves:
1. What went well?
2. What didn't go so well?
3. What is calling me now?
Inspired by the writer James Clear, I've written my 2015 Annual Report, where I go into these questions. I find the exercise both humbling and clarifying.
If you're inspired, you can read it here.
Best wishes!
One aspiration for this coming year is to embrace even more the practice of Generosity.
Here's a recent talk: Generosity as a Path to Liberation.
Latest from the Blog
Jonathan Foust 2015 Annual Review
Living Out Your Wild and Precious Life
Waiting for Sunrise
Announcing: Monday Night Yoga at UUCA
Generosity as a Path to Liberation
First Light
Practicing at Your Edge and Your Path to Balance
Lost
The Heart Practices: Cultivating Equanimity
December Greetings from Jonathan Foust: The Heart Practices, 5 Breaths 5 Scenes and More!
RAIN and Self-Compassion
You may be familiar with this acronym in mindfulness practice: RAIN. R: Can you Recognize or Realize what is presenting? A: Can you Allow or Accept what is here? (Sometimes you can't and that's OK.) I: Can you Investigate with Kindness and be Intimate with this? N: Can you Nourish this moment with self-compassion? If you are an aficionado of this practice, you might enjoy this link, where my wife, Tara Brach, clarifies the "N" part of the equation. In the older version, the "N" represents non-identification, but in her view, and I agree, "nourishing with self-compassion" is a practice that inevitably leads to the same result, but with greater efficacy.
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please signup here.
iTunes podcast here, online listening here, stitcher here, and Jonathan’s YouTube channel here.
A Clear Intention Can Change Your Life
Special PODCAST:
This talk explores the power of intention and aspiration.
You’ll learn how an intention can dramatically alter your life, how with a clear intention you are selecting a distinct new set of challenges and how offering the fruit of your intention can open your heart.
iTunes podcast here, online listening here, stitcher here, and Jonathan’s YouTube channel here.
The New Year’s Retreat
If you can ever swing it, consider joining us for one of our residential retreat this year. A few images from our week:
Up with sunrise for the first meditation period.
Tara heading over to the hall to give her talk on the final evening.
New Year’s eve ceremony. Photo by Janet Merrick.
Candle ceremony before we broke silence and broke out the cookies. Photo by Janet Merrick
Teachers: Hugh Byrne, Ruth King, Tara Brach and Moi.
iTunes podcast here, online listening here, stitcher here, and Jonathan’s YouTube channel here.
Who's following who?
Moving Meditation on The River
A five minute guided meditation on a foggy December morning on the Potomac River.
Soundtrack, "A Touch of Grace," by Jonathan Foust, Todd Norian and Pravina Wahler, is available on iTunes at https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/touch-grace-bamboo-flute-meditations/id1002618740.
iTunes podcast here, online listening here, stitcher here, and Jonathan’s YouTube channel here.
A New Year
Living Out Your Wild and Precious Life
Caitie Whelan Writes on the Year of Living Mindfully
Living Out Your Wild and Precious Life
Or What I Learned from a Year of Living Mindfully
I want to tell you a love story.
It doesn't start off as a love story, though.
It starts off five years ago on a snow-swept Monday night in January. The kind of night that sucked the blood from my whole hands. Even though they were stuffed into my thickest gloves which were stuffed into the deepest part of my pockets.
I was walking home from meditation. With bloodless hands. And, if I were honest, a bloodless life.
On paper, mind you, things were terrific:
I had a coveted Capitol Hill job. My phone calls got returned. I could finally afford to take a cab if I were out late. I was arriving to the life I'd been aiming at.
The only hitch was I was miserable.
I was up to my eyeballs in work I wasn’t crazy about. I took really crummy care of my body. Even crummier care of my soul. And I didn't feel like I was contributing to the world in a meaningful way.
But I didn't have a clue how to reach for a life I wanted. So, I kept my hands in my pockets and stayed put in the life I had.
One night, my mother cut to the heart of it: You're plain old stuck, she said to me over the phone.
There's life in you you're not living, she continued. Go find it. Start by talking to Jonathan Foust. He runs this Year of Living Mindfully (YLM). It might open something up for you.
My meditation practice amounted to a few minutes before hot tea in the morning and an unrelenting-but-unacted-upon intention to spend more time on the cushion.
Maybe Mum's right, I thought while I took a warm shower. Maybe some long-haul mindfulness work could help get a little blood and heart and guts back into my life.
So, that snow-swept Monday night in January, I went to one of Jonathan's meditations at a cold church near the Capitol.
If you don't know Jonathan, he's a tall man with a soft voice. He uses simple words to explain complex things. He has a playful spirit and a big heart. The guy can make a cold church warm.
YLM, he told me in that great soft voice of his, wasn't an academic thing. Or a book thing.
It was - and I'm paraphrasing here - a sangha thing and a dharma thing. A living, breathing practice thing. It just might help free you up in your stuck places. Lighten you up in your heavy places. Pump you up in your deflated places.
I walked home. Hands stuffed deep in my pockets.
YLM sounded like a great thing. But it was also a big time thing. And a big money thing. Monsters and roller coasters didn’t scare me. But spending time and money sure did.
I did a week of hemming. Another week of hawing.
Bill Watterson, the Calvin & Hobbes cartoonist, once said: "With each decision, we tell ourselves and the world who we are."
At some point in my hems and haws, I realized that if I didn't do YLM, I'd be telling myself that fear mattered more to me than finding a life I loved to live.
Our lifetime is so brief. I want to spend it doing what actually matters to me.
I told Jonathan I was all in. Sent him my application. And got accepted.
YLM kicked off in early springtime.
There were about 25 of us. Over the year, we met in warm living rooms on cool nights. In airy churches on hot days.
We focused on being at ease in our bodies. Finding spaciousness in our thinking. Holding fear and doubt and uncertainty with curiosity, even compassion.
And this here is where the love part of the story begins.
Not love for a person. Or an animal or vegetable or mineral, for that matter.
But love for life. The - as Mary Oliver would say - "wild and precious" life we get handed when we come out of that small womb and into this big world.
As YLM unfolded over the year, I started appreciating things.
Like the taste of hot tea. And the touch of warm showers.
And I started noticing things.
Like how I was now spending some time doing scary stuff (back-of-napkin brainstorming about where I wanted to take my work). And spending some money doing healthy stuff (seeing a nutritionist).
There was no denying it: I had some blood pumping in my life again.
It was no presto-chango transformation type thing. As the designer Debbie Millman would say, "Expect anything worthwhile to take a while."
But with YLM, transformation wasn't a solo journey. I was alongside 25 like-minded practitioners.
There were hands in the dark when I got lost. Lifts up when I fell off the bandwagon. And a common experience of walking the road together.
If, as they say, we are the average of the people we spend our time with, here were some people I wanted to be the average of.
So, when all was said and done, what did I get from that Year of Living Mindfully?
Well, I got all shook up and all freed up. I got new practices and new friends. I got guts and gumption. And I got my hands out of my pockets and into this beautiful, messy world of ours.
And what did I do with all that I got?
Well, last year, I left the security of my Capitol Hill job. Took one of those back-of-the-napkin brainstorms - one that I loved, believed in, was terrified of failing at. And made it real.
In the spring, I launched The Lightning Notes, a short daily post to help us move the world forward. It features great ideas and striking stories to remind us that we matter and that improving the world is our matter.
The Lightning Notes has no ads or paywalls. I don't like those as a reader and it's not kind to serve a guest cake I won't eat. So, it's funded solely by big-hearted monthly donors.
It's all a big risk; I've never done anything like it before. But I did it knowing I can hold the uncertainty and fear with curiosity. Maybe even compassion on my good days.
Plus, this risk matters to me. And I want to spend my life doing what matters.
Now, I told you I'd tell you a love story. It's not a conventional love story. I don't get the boy.
But I do get my life.
The Year of Living Mindfully helped me find the wild and precious life in me - you've got it in you, too; every last one of us does - and, boy, do I love it.
And there's one other bit of love in this story:
The first official donor to The Lightning Notes? It was a friend from YLM.
Caitie Whelan is the Founder/Noter-in-Chief of The Lightning Notes, a short daily post to help us move the world forward. Prior to that, she was a Senior Foreign Policy Advisor on Capitol Hill, co-founded a school in India for lower caste musicians, and raised pigs in Italy. She’s a graduate of Brown University, the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies, and is a 2007 Truman Scholar.
iTunes podcast here, online listening here, stitcher here, and Jonathan’s YouTube channel here.
