Change — Can we believe in it?!

Dear Still Water Friends,

This Thursday Evening, after our meditation period, our program will be facilitated by Maia Duerr, who is visiting the Washington area from her home in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Since 1993, Maia has been practicing mindfulness and working as as writer, editor, researcher, and manager with engaged Buddhist projects . Currently she helps to coordinate the Upaya Zen Center Buddhist Chaplaincy Program.

Maia writes:

There’s been a lot of talk of “Change” in the air this year. Impermanence and change are the only things we can really count on in life. Change can be for the ‘better,’ but at times it can also be difficult.

How do we practice with change, loss, and transition? I would like to reflect on some of the changes in my own life, and in our country, that have occurred over the past two years since my last visit with the Still Water community. And I will share five practices that have been helpful to me during this time:

1. Stay with what is –- don’t ‘spin’ the situation

2. Affirm our essential Buddha Nature

3. Take care to not create an adversary where one doesn’t exist

4. Honor the full spectrum of my emotions, but give myself space to settle so that I am not reacting to others or to the situation just from my emotions

5. Don’t rush to find a solution to a difficult situation sooner than a wise one presents itself

I would like to invite Still Water members to also reflect on how they have faced difficult transitions in their lives, and how they have transformed seeds of suffering into seeds of peace. I look forward to sharing with and learning from the community.

You are invited to join us.

The best times to join our Thursday evening gatherings are just before the beginning of our 7 p.m. meditation, just before we begin walking meditation, around 7:25, and just after our walking meditation, around 7:35.

You are also invited to join the Still Water community for our Winter Practice Retreat, February 20-22, at the Charter Hall Retreat Center on the Chesapeake Bay. Places are still available.

Warm wishes,

Mitchell Ratner
Senior Teacher

 

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