Recently there've been some really cool things in the city I'd love to go to and the distance feels like a hassle ... but mostly I love living at the edge of the river and the opportunity to sit in the stillness.
Here's a great article from the New York Times on The Joy of Quiet.
Flying at cross-purposes in early morning light. These geese make their way down river while up high, a plane leaves DC.
My aunt and uncle were semi-professional ornithologists. Whenever they didn't know what a bird was, they instantly labeled it 'immature.' So, with that training under my belt, Tara and I watched the sunrise behind a Bald Eagle's nest when I spied a large bird on a tree nearby. I immediately declared it an immature Bald Eagle.
On closer look, I think it actually IS an eagle.
That's an eagle, isn't it?
I thought it might be nice to bring a bit more awareness to my passion for photography to post the Best Image of the Week. This morning it was such an image bonanza I've decided to try Best Images of the Week.
We live a mile or so above the Great Falls, where there is a Great Blue Heron Rookery. Most of them take off during the winter, but the gnarly ones hang around.
Normally pretty shy, they focus more on conserving their energy in the cold weather. I was able to creep to about fifteen feet of this critter this morning, resulting in the following, which I'll entitle "Great Blue Heron in Three Parts."
You'll note the tufts of down from recent preening and the fact that only one leg is exposed to the cold.
It's such a deep privilege to serve our meditation retreats and the New Year's Retreat always has a particular potency. For the participants it's a time of stepping away from the intensity of modern life to immerse into silence, sitting and walking meditation, mindful movement and contemplation. The instructions are pretty simple: relax and pay attention.
This year, instead of individual interviews during the week, we had group interviews of about eight participants. For a about an hour twice during the retreat each participant gathers with a teacher and a small group to name what's challenging, what's unusual and what's opening up inside.
These sessions are also a time of 'deep listening,' to not just to share your experience but to be informed by others naming the landscape of what's arising.
Despite the social silence, this was a deeply shared experience. We were in this together.
Retreats are incredibly busy time for us who serve them. Each day I led three mindful movement sessions, facilitated a group interview and met with individuals. I also gave an evening talk on the Five Hindrances, which I'll have up on my podcast soon.
Despite have a day that starts with a 5:30 wake up bell and ending at 9:30 after the final meditation, the sincerity of each participant kept my inspiration and energy level flying.
If you ever have the chance to step away from your busy life for a meditation retreat, please consider working it into your year ahead. For me, retreats are one of the best investments I can make.
I like to think of them as a time when 'we are alone together.'
Check out IMCW's site for the schedule for 2012 and beyond.
Soften your eyes wider
Know the space then look closer
What moves becomes still
Climbing a ladder is one thing. Making sure your ladder is against the right wall is something totally different. A great teacher I once encountered said, "The higher up you are in an organization or the more responsibility you are carrying, the more you need to be on retreat."
When we rely on the executive function to make important decisions that affect not just our lives but the lives of those around us, we have to find a way to create healthy distance from the day-to-day details to reflect on what is most important and intuit what is next.
I had the good fortune to speak at Tony Mayo's leadership group. Their focus is on 'vitality, service and outstanding performance'. Mindfulness is a key to his approach to conscious leadership.
If you feel the need for executive coaching and working with like-minded leaders, Tony is accepting a few new people in his course this January. I am impressed by the caliber of his presence as well as by the participants in his group.
More information here, including videos, podcast and articles.
The truth is the truth and yet it seems to have infinite flavors. I'm just back from a retreat with Tara and Anam Thubten.
While in the context of a classical Theravaden schedule - walking and sitting meditation, social silence, group interviews, mindful movement - retreatants also got a blend of teachings from the Tibetan perspective with Anam, Tara's western Buddhist psychology perspective and to complete the mash up, my own blend of mindful movement and commentary.
As Joseph Goldstein writes so beautifully in his book, One Dharma, all these views emanate from the same source.
This blending of teachings, experiences and cultural perspectives resulted in a sense of great friendship and camaraderie. Anam will be leading meditation and giving a talk at my class in Arlington tonight.
As above, below
What looks like down must be up
What we are is space
The heavy cloud cover in the mornings has made for fascinating light.
It's that's time of year when the deer start going wild and the starlings start clustering into community again. This morning by the river seemed rather bland and uneventful when a swirling mass of starlings undulated overhead and moved on.
The Meditation Teacher Training Institute's two-year training started this weekend with 60+ participants. What a wonderful group of dedicated teachers. This is the first regional training of it's kind and I'm amazed to think what it will be like for the DC Metro area to have such caring teachers taking it to the streets here. We generated a list of the populations these folks feel called to serve and literally gives me goose bumps to think of the healing potential being unleashed. Folks are drawn to work with those who are incarcerated, youth, hospice, those working with addictions, those working on the corporate level, those who feel marginalized and don't have access to these transformational practices and teachings.
It's an honor to be part of this journey.
This week I spoke about how we can train not just our mind through attentional training, but also our heart. Where your attention goes, the energy flows. Consciously generating kindness and compassion for yourself, those in your inner circle, your society and even to your enemies can result in profound inner and external change.
I was ruminating on this during the week when I ran across this from an old ashram buddy:
You just can't estimate the value of stepping back from daily routines and habits. Our daylong retreat last Saturday included hours of silent meditation, two movement flows, two deep body scans, time sharing silence and words as we explored what happens when we both relax and pay attention.
If you can wedge a retreat into your schedule, do it! As the saying goes, 'the more dynamic your rest, the more dynamic your activity.
I'm a bike freak. I've had many bikes over the years, mostly trying to modify them to fit my 6'5" frame. I could never get very comfortable on them as much as I wanted to.
Way back when I completed my Peace Corps stint in Niger, West Africa, I built a bike up and attempted to cross the Sahara Desert from south to north. The dust and sand got so bad I would have to repack the bearings again and again. This was before mountain bikes and sealed bearings. (The harmattan winds and hot season came early that year and got the better of me. I realized later the sizzling sound in my ears was my brain deep-fat frying.
I've had a folding bike and recumbent bikes, which are simply amazing.
When I moved to Northern VA I was limited to trails, so had to give up my recumbent. After a fair bit of research I discovered a cool kind of bike which is starting to make waves.
This is a modified RANS semi-recumbent that functions as a cargo bike. You can fit six full grocery bags in the panniers, enough kit for a long trek or enough to go 'condo camping' for the day. It's extremely comfortable and actually quite stable on the trails.
I got mine at the ultimate emporium for non-ordinary bike enthusiasts here in the DC area, Bikes at Vienna. John Bruno is the owner. They'll take good care of you and let you explore their selection of recumbents, trikes, folders and cargo bikes.
There's a documentary in the works on cargo bikes and it suggests how the little things we do to cultivate greater sustainability make all the difference.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Yy3kXIaKp8&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Walking the woods these days I'm often aware of missing my four-legged companion in adventure who passed on recently. Just as he moved from form to the formless, the passing season is a reminder of how this embodied journey is one of constant change. And it's beautiful. A few images from recent days:
This Saturday I'm leading a retreat called "A Meditative Journey: Movement, Meditation and Deep Relaxation." We'll be exploring meditation through the lens of relaxation, taking time to contact and release deep-seated stress through breath and movement as well as lying down 'body scan' meditations.
The day is all about slowing down and drawing the attention inward.
This is one of my favorite retreats. Do come if you can! Click here to register online.
It's been said that it's never a tragedy when and old man dies.
But it sure feels sad.
Hakuna, the monster beast pictured above, in his New England dead-of-the-winter youth, passed on this morning just a month shy of his 15th birthday. He pretty much milked everything he could out of his body. It was was fully used up and worn out.
If you ever had the chance to meet him you know what a character he was.
I understand grief comes in waves. I will miss this creature immensely.
I was in Alberta, Canada this last weekend leading a retreat called "Yoga and the Art of Inner Listening." I'm fascinated by the play of awareness and intuition and deeply enjoyed the immersion into embodied inquiry with such kind people. As I flew across the continent and watched the landscape shift from the wooded east to the plains of the midwest I remembered my years in college and grad school while simultaneously working on a farm on the Illinois/Wisconsin border.
There is a reason they call this the heartland. There's something about the openness of the earth that is reflected in the open hearted kindness of my fellow adventurers.
Here's an image from a little further north and west than where I was. (Thanks, Laurel.)
And here's a link to the image from NASA.
Last weekend the 5th DC Global Mala Event drew over 100 participants to raise money to bring yoga to underserved areas. Anahata Grace sponsors the event. I was happy to give a dharma talk as a lead in to the 108 sun salutations led by yoga teachers from around the city. A bunch of money was raised for a yoga program on the West Bank.
A shot of the flowing sun salutations in Meridian Park:
