Dear Friends, It’s been a pleasure to be a visitor to your inbox this past month. This is a special project for me, now in my second year. I appreciate having the opportunity to dig deep into teachings and readings, reflecting on what it means to me, and hearing from so many what it means to you. So… Read More »
Dear Friends, Today is the last day of the 5 day retreat with Adrianne Ross, so I’ll be back to the land of technology later this afternoon. I thank you for your patience! Meanwhile, here’s a reflection for today! I look forward to catching up with your responses. It’s hard to believe we’re at the end of January!… Read More »
Dear Friends, I’m on retreat right now, so here’s a post to keep you inspired while I’m not engaging with email and the internet. I won’t be able to respond to your emails or posts until Tuesday afternoon. Feel free to share your thoughts below to inspire the others reading these posts. Well, here we are, almost at the… Read More »
Dear Friends, I’m on retreat right now, so I’ve scheduled this email to keep you company until I’m back to the land of emails and internet. I won’t be able to respond to your emails or posts until Tuesday afternoon. Feel free to share your thoughts below to inspire your fellow practitioners! A while ago, I pointed out… Read More »
Dear Friends, I’m on retreat right now, and my phone and computer are getting a break too. So enjoy this email in my technical absence. Feel free to post your comments below to share your thoughts with the others also reading this message. I’ll be able to respond to you by Tuesday afternoon. Yesterday’s email was about mindful… Read More »
Dear Friends, I’m on retreat right now, but I haven’t forgotten about you! Here’s a reflection for today. I won’t be online to read your emails or comments, but feel free to write anytime. If you post a comment below, your words may inspire another! I’ll be back online Tuesday, so I’ll be able to respond to you… Read More »
Dear Friends, Mark Coleman has said that generosity often radial – it’s often easier to be generous with others but stingy with ourselves. He asks us to reflect: What would it be to practice more generosity to ourselves? What would you give yourself to be generous? For some, it might be more space, or more time. Maybe doing… Read More »
Dear Friends, Generosity is a quality that makes us feel happy, bright, and expansive – whether giving, receiving, or both. Yesterday, one of our participants shared a beautiful reflection about being on the receiving end of generosity. I think this is an important part of this practice of generosity – to be able to receive, with mindfulness, what… Read More »
Dear Friends, When it comes to generosity, we often have a limited sense of what generosity means – that it involves a monetary exchange or some grand act. In one of Mark Coleman’s talks on generosity, he says that our own presence and attention is a most powerful thing to give. In that talk he tells the story of… Read More »
Dear Friends, I’m taking a 12-week on-line class that’s diving into various teachings. The topic this week is on generosity. In this series of emails, I’ve been reflecting on several daily life practices we can do to bring more mindfulness into our lives. Generosity is a beautiful practice in this regard. Rick Hanson says we are “genetically programmed… Read More »
Dear Friends, I was inspired and grateful to the people here in Saskatoon and all around the globe that assembled yesterday for events supporting the Women’s March on Washington. (I regret that I wasn’t in attendance.) I have a set of “Compassion Cards” from Pema Chödrön, which have a set of slogans on one side and brief commentary on each… Read More »
Dear Friends, The ninth talk in Andrea Fella’s Daily Life Practice Retreat from April 2016 looks at what we do in this practice, and why we’re doing it. What we’re doing is exploring wise mindfulness – knowing what is happening in the present moment while it is happening. We know that we know; we are aware that we… Read More »
Dear Friends, I had the opportunity to attend a meeting yesterday evening, and the talk turned to boredom, and the tendency that many people have to fill time by doing “stuff”. In the context of that conversation, Doris mentioned a talk she listened to by Gil Fronsdal, in which he suggested a practice of doing one thing at… Read More »
Dear Friends, In the spirit of Andrea Fella’s seventh talk from the Daily Life Practice Retreat, I’m going to keep this simple. Her advice to the participants was to simplify things as part of their retreat week. The question she suggested they consider was: “is this necessary?” In our daily lives, we have to think. But sometimes we do stuff that’s… Read More »
Dear Friends, Kindness! That’s a good thing to reflect on in the middle of the week of the middle of the month! There are traditional meditation practices one can do to incline the mind towards kindness, sometimes called lovingkindness or metta. The Mindful magazine posted a brief discussion of the steps in the practice here: https://www.mindful.org/the-mindful-practice-podcast-loving-kindness-with-sharon-salzberg/ Outside of a formal practice,… Read More »
