Walk with Me Screening Webinar

We are working to bring Walk with Me to a theater in Ithaca, NY.  Here is the webinar from July 22nd to explain how to bring it to your town.  Walk with Me Screening Webinar

The next Engaged Mindfulness Ithaca meeting will be Sunday, July 16 at 4 PM - 5:30 PM at the Southside Community Center, 305 S Plain St, Ithaca, New York 14850. See their Facebook Page for more information.

July Book Club Meeting

The next book club meeting will be Sunday, July 16th at 10:30 AM to 12:00 or 12:30 PM.  We will discuss Mindfulness as Medicine Chapter 4 and 5, Trust and Faith, Reverence and Respect.

Nancy Koschmann has offered to host our next gathering.  Nancy's address is 705 Ringwood Rd, Ithaca NY.  If, for some reason, this does not work out, Pamela Goddard has offered her home as a backup.

I know that this will not work for everyone who is interested, and I'm sorry for this.

Rick and Diann have suggested that the next meeting after this be Saturday Aug. 5. This works for me. What do others think?

Returning Home

This is a guided meditation given by Judy Leaf at our June 28th Sangha gathering.  Thank you, Judy.

Returning Home

Breathing in, I am aware of my in-breath.
Breathing out, I am aware of my out-breath.

Breathing in, I take a deep breath and feel my diaphragm expand.
Breathing out, I relax my diaphragm, and feel the tension in my body release.

Breathing in, I feel the air come into my body and I smile.
Breathing out, I feel the air leave my body and I smile.

Breathing in, I come home to myself without worry or fear.
Breathing out, I feel comfortable in my safe home.

Breathing in, I collect my feelings and thoughts kindly.
Breathing out, I smile at my feelings and thoughts.

Breathing in, I know that I can always stop, breathe and go home to myself.
Breathing out, I feel grateful for this practice.

The Dalai Lama: Why the World Needs Him More Than Ever

From the July 2017 issue of Lion’s Roar magazine

 “The Dalai Lama: Why the World Needs Him More Than Ever''

He is a voice for compassion, nonviolence, and care for the earth.  At a time when so much hangs in the balance, 12 leading teachers, writers, and activists reflect on any we need the Dalai Lama and his message more than ever.

The Ordinary Become Extraordinary
Jon Kabat-Zinn

In my experience of spending time with him over the years, the Dalai Lama embodies on a regular basis what is deepest and best in all of us, by virtue of our being human.

In that sense, he is not special, as he himself never ceases pointing out. But for qualities such as equanimity and kindness to come out in us and flourish usually requires cultivation, which is what meditation is really about. Then, what is "not special'' becomes very special indeed, and what is ordinary becomes extraordinary.

Here, I am not talking just about His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Imagine what the world would be like if more of us were able to undertake that cultivation. If motivated by our own dissatisfaction and suffering, our intuition as to where real happiness might Iie, and our love for the beauty in the world and in life itself - including the unfamiliar other which sometimes scares us - we realize we are so much bigger than our fears and narratives about the world and who we are.

Then, we are just as we are, only awake to it.  Nothing is different, except everything.