Sunday, January 3, 2016

2016 Monthly Schedule

[NOTE: This group meets on the second Tuesday of each month in Room #1 at the Northbrae Community Church in Berkeley, CA. The group facilitator listed below is subject to change.]

February 9: Walt Opie

March 8: Walt Opie

April 12: Walt Opie

May 10: Walt Opie

June 14: Walt Opie



Why Meditate?


The effort and commitment needed to pursue meditation is so demanding that it is appropriate to ask what value it has and where it is leading. Meditation has to do with opening what is closed in us, balancing what is reactive, and exploring and investigating what is hidden. We practice to open, to balance, and to explore.

~Joseph Goldstein, Seeking the Heart of Wisdom




Photos by Walt Opie (Burma/Myanmar 2015)

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

2015 Monthly Schedule

PLEASE NOTE: We now meet on the second Tuesday of each month in Room #1 at the Northbrae Community Church in Berkeley, CA. The group facilitator listed below is subject to change with short notice.

Tuesday, September 8: Kevin Griffin

Tuesday, October 13: Walt Opie

Tuesday, November 10: Walt Opie

Tuesday, December 8: Walt Opie




Friday, February 13, 2015

Quote on Craving from Dhamma Everywhere by Sayadaw U Tejaniya

Craving is very tricky; it’s always pushing you. Whatever you think, whatever you say, whatever you do, craving is pushing you, motivating you. There are many ways for craving to come in or arise in your mind. What do you want? Sometimes you should ask yourself: What do I want? Do I want something? There’s always wanting. Because of this wanting, desire, craving, expectation (same meaning), the mind is suffering, tense, and dissatisfied.

If the mind doesn’t want anything, it is free.

You cannot get what you want. If you understand the principle that you cannot get something because you want it and that you only get what comes from conditions, cause and effect, then desire gets weaker and weaker. Craving will be less and less. Everything happens because of cause and effect, not because you want it to happen.

Actually, you only get suffering if you want something with craving.

Peace, liberation, freedom comes because you don’t want anything.

If craving disappears, this is liberation.



[Note: I shared the quote above with the group on Tuesday, February 10 and several people requested that I post it here. Also, the photo is of Sayadaw U Tejaniya at his monastery in Myanmar, which I visited recently. -walt]

Monday, January 5, 2015

2015 Monthly Schedule

PLEASE NOTE: We now meet on the second Tuesday of each month in Room #1 at the Northbrae Community Church in Berkeley, CA. The group facilitator listed below is subject to change with short notice.

Tuesday, January 13: Walt Opie
Tuesday, February 10: Walt Opie
Tuesday, March 10: Walt Opie
Tuesday, April 14: Walt Opie
Tuesday, May 12: Walt Opie
Tuesday, June 9: Walt Opie




Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Upcoming Schedule

Tuesday, December 16 - NO GROUP due to Family Emergency
Tuesday, December 23 - NO GROUP due to Holidays
Tuesday, December 30 - Walt Opie & Special Ritual
Tuesday, January 6, 2015 - Walt Opie



The Four Principles of Mindful Transformation (taken from The Wise Heart by Jack Kornfield)

RAIN (technique for looking at our difficulties):

1 – Recognize (pause & step out of denial for true freedom from suffering—name and inwardly bow to our experience—“ah, the judging mind…”)

2 – Accept (relax & open to the facts before us, not passive; Say, “This too.”)

3 - Investigate [body, feeling tone, mind & dharma] (also called "seeing deeply"; Jack Kornfield says, “Whenever we are stuck, it is because we have not looked deeply enough into the nature of the experience.”)

4 - Non-Identify (notice how we identify it as “me” or “mine” + awareness)