Hooked and unhooked – Buddhist approaches to greed and aversion
This summer Dharma Zephyr’s Beginners Mind group is going to consider “the hook” – that moment we all experience of grasping, tensing, tightening, and closing down. What are our hooks? An annoying coworker? Our partner’s behavior? Political views? Shopping? Finances? We’ll look at wise and unwise approaches to the hook,…
Report from Nepal: a child safe place
Here is a report from one of the Nepal nonprofts mentioned in the previous post Healing Earthquake Anxiety By Cathy Clifton – Communications Director, Ama Foundation One of the most difficult things about living after two giant earthquakes – the one on April 25 and the 7.3 “aftershock” that occurred…
Nepal earthquake – what to do?
A lot of us at Dharma Zephyr have been talking about how we can best respond to the devastating earthquake in Nepal. Many of us have traveled to that beautiful, gracious country, and have friends and family there, so we have been thinking about earthquake damage and responses. We thought…
Dharma Zephyr’s new “Mentor Council”
On March 1 sixteen longtime Dharma Zephyr members met at Christy’s house to talk about how to better offer dharma teachings to our community. Lots of ideas emerged from the meeting: adding meditation to existing yoga practices; continuing to develop earth-centered practices like the Earth Care Group; continuing our prison work;…
Mindfulness and Movement: An interview with Dharma Zephyr member and yoga teacher Angela Sullivan
Next in our continuing conversations with Dharma Zephyr members about their practice: Angela Sullivan. Angela has been my yoga teacher since I started practicing yoga and I always have been struck by how meditative her style of yoga is. I asked her about it. How long have you been practicing…
Buddhism, Art, Life—No Separation
Sangha member Deborah Stevenson has a longtime practice and is also an accomplished painter. I asked her to talk about the relationship of her Buddhist practice and her creative work. Here’s what she wrote. – Anne Deborah: I was first introduced to meditation in 1972 in a mini college class…
Sitting with Shaila
Some impressions of Dharma Zephyr’s Halloween residential retreat with Shaila Catherine at Camp Galilee Tom: It is a wonderful experience to be able to live for 9 days on the shore of that ever-changing and always stunning Lake Tahoe! And as I said to the group on the last…
From a Poet’s Perch
by Rita Geil . . . haiku occurring in “noble silence” during a meditation retreat on mindfulness, breath, and impermanence conducted by Marv Treiger at Lake Tahoe, August 17-22, 2014 Aware of being aware of being aware is Being, aware. Even out of sight the sun, prancing on the lake, illumines my breath. Sunlight…
Kathy, Christy, and Dharma Zephyr
Did you ever wonder how Dharma Zephyr Insight Meditation Community got its start? Find out below as as blog editor Anne Macquarie interviews Christy Tews and Kathy Schwerin, our beloved Community Dharma Leaders. Anne: How did you two meet? Kathy: In 1986 I was a hiker on a trek through…
Dharma Zephyr’s Earth Care Group
Why take care of the earth? Why try to live more lightly in the world, leaving room for other living beings? Isn’t global warming too big for us? Can anything we do as individuals make any difference? Can’t we just live our lives, meditate, try to make our own lives and…