In a progressive path approach to practice, we sometimes fall for the idea that liberation is in the future.  We are conditioned to believe that we must end thinking, master practices, meditate for years, and purify our minds. Without realizing it, our beliefs maintain the conditioning that stands in the way of our direct realization. ...

With the American election coming up, and the spike in COVID cases around the world, it is inevitable that many people may be experiencing PTSD, panic attacks, worry and concern. Many people ask how can meditation help when all you are doing is sitting on the cushion? Don't we have to get up, go outside...

In this talk Mary will talk about identifying those constricted and frightened parts of ourselves that we may not even be aware of. When we're caught in any type of addictive behavior, we're also often trapped in habits of mind that are driven by fear and an inability to be with reality. When we hold...

This months teaching will take the form of an Eight Step Recovery meeting 

With any experience, there is a felt sense that arises within us before the onslaught of stories and emotions. It often happens so quickly that we are unaware of it. These feeling tones set in motion the habitual reactions of our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors that we get caught up in.   The Buddha taught us...

So much of our lives can be driven by unconscious reactivity: the endless struggle to avoid painful or negative feelings. With mindfulness meditation, we can develop the skill of patience and presence, so that we can experience calm and contentment even in the midst of all of the challenges of our lives.

  Our bodies hold so much that we’re not aware of. Our shoulders are tight, our jaws are clenched. This tenseness is often a reaction to cravings, aversions, and other habits of mind that we’re also unaware of. In this meditation and talk, Mary will invite us to relax the body and mind which allows...

 Myokei Caine-Barrett currently holds the position of Bishop of the Nichiren Shu Buddhist Order of North America.  She is the first woman and the first American to hold this position.  She is also the first American woman and first person of African American-Japanese descent to be fully ordained, having completed this process in 2007 with ...

Life is naturally difficult and disappointing. All living creatures are programmed to seek security and safety, and as humans, we also seek certainty. As a result, we often live life as unconscious prisoners of fear.  Fear of this world and of a next world, fear of sickness and of death, fear of insecurity and of...