Join us Sunday, January 24 & 31 from noon-1 p.m at Common Ground for a Media Unplug! As much as the Internet has made our lives easier, let's face it, there are moments we curse the day it was born. How many times a day do we really need to check e-mail, last night's sports scores, ...
Category Archives: Reflection
How to Know What You Need to Know
First, forget everything you have learned, that the American Dream is a worthy cause, that you need a couch and a dishwasher, another opinion, pair of jeans, or that complicated relationship. Go alone to an empty, quiet place and stay there until you don't want to leave. Take a deep breath and feel it swirl up your spine, wash your mind and descend. ...
Reflections on a Ten-Day Retreat
By Martha D. When I signed up for the June retreat with Steve and Kamala, my overriding concerns were whether I'd be physically comfortable and whether I'd make it through ten days. I was pretty much uncomfortable the whole time ... and the ten days seemed like an eternity. Uncomfortable? I didn't sleep well. I got migraines. I ...
Learning with mindful teens
By Paul Sackaroff A handful of exceptional young people just completed a four-eek pilot class at Common Ground call "Is this for Real? Mindfulness for Teens". We met for four weeks, 75 minutes per class. I had a general plan for the first week, after that it was a lot of ad lib. By the end of ...
Common Ground Gardens Update
The site plan/landscaping plan is at the City for what we anticipate to be the final review/approval, so we are now in the process of getting cost estimates for construction. The two largest-cost items are going to be the excavation (tearing out the asphalt where the gardens will be and grading/placing topsoil) and doing the ...
Reflections on Heart of the Forest retreat
By John Russell I remember thinking that people who went on last year's Heart of the Forest Retreat were much further along in their meditation practice than I was. I had only done a few of the three-day Holy Spirit retreats. I liked the idea that one day I would take the risk of ...
Observations of a barely yogi
I recently finished my first residential retreat (a weekend) at the Christine Center, led by Steven Armstrong and Kamala Masters. I had anticipated the mental dullness and torpor and--for someone who likes to talk--the stress of being silent. Got that. I had heard about the good food. Got that. I had anticipated good teachers. Got ...
Reflections on dana
On the last day of my very first meditation retreat, I kept thinking, "Who is Donna and why is everyone giving her all this money?" I soon learned (of course) that dana is the Pali word for generosity and is also one of the more beautiful and challenging practices of this path. It's beautiful because it ...
Paul: Classroom practice and openness to unpredictability
This is the third of three conversations with Common Ground members about how they take their practice into the world. Scroll down for the first two conversations. Paul Sackaroff, an English teacher at Columbia Heights High School, first got interested in meditation 12 years ago when he did a 10-day retreat in Thailand. But it was ...
Cindy: Garden practice and the hindrance patch
This is the second of three conversations with Common Ground members about how they take their practice into the world. Scroll down for the first installment, titled "Patrice: Prison practice and letting go." For my second conversation, I had a cup of tea with Cindy Pratt and her dog Sadie. I had expected to learn about ...