Sangha/1
With the Sangha I meditate to decelerate my rampaging mindI meditate to focus on clear image of you smiling in TahoeI meditate on words of Hanshan and Wang Yang-ming I meditate to be able to…
Category: Saint Louis Mindfulness Sangha
Some of the Dharma/1
The dharma is everywhere. It doesn’t matter where you are. All emotion is from thinking. In my mind there are three things: concentration, loving-kindness, and peace. Your heart knows everything. Thoughts of the past and…
A Path with Pith
With the sangha a few years ago, I read many of the Buddhist sutras as well as Thich Nhat Hanh’s commentaries. It’s good to plunge in and read these classic texts in community. However, the…
The Good News of a Sangha, 3.25.2017
Five years ago today, Jenn Reyes Lay and I started a St. Louis sangha in the lineage of Thich Nhat Hanh. Annie Fitzgerald offered Sophia House on Gibson Avenue for our first gathering. Many…
The Good News of a Single Blueberry, 3.19.2017
Almost five years ago, Erin Szopiak organized a mindful dinner for some of our friends: Everything for the menu had been grown locally, several of us helped prepare the meal in the King’s spacious kitchen,…
Coming Up
Friday 3 March: discussion of Svetlana Alexeievich, Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets, with Lori and Helen at Handlebar Restaurant Saturday 4 March: sharing with sangha on In the Buddha’s Words: An Anthology of…
What Jarvis Learned
At a recent gathering of the Saint Louis Mindfulness Sangha, I shared the following excerpt from Pema Chödrön’s book, Go to the Places That Scare You… The second of the three lords of materialism is the…
Agenda, Second Saturday Sangha 12 November 2016
Opening/The Heart Sutra The Bodhisattva Avalokita, while moving in the deep course of Perfect Understanding, shed light on the five skandhas and found them equally empty. After this penetration, he overcome all pain. “Listen, Shariputra,…
Gathas Written at Northwest Coffee, 11.9.2016
1. Breathing in, all this toxicity Breathing out, compassion is available 2. Breathing in, noticing this state of being stunned Breathing out, realizing this state is impermanent 3. Breathing in my friends’ despair Breathing out:…
Sunday Share the Wealth with Melissa–Coming Back to Life: Healing through Self-Care, Presence, and Service
“Don’t ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” ~Howard Thurman Melissa will…