Sawadhi kha, 🙏dear readers. My first day in Thailand felt quite significant, for myself and for the entire community. Some of you may recall from last year’s Tales: I reported a sense of physical and energetic deterioration in the S.D.S. (Bangkok) center’s vitality level.For one thing, Ajahn Chom’s work crew was spending all their time in the southern center, creating fantastic new water features and landscaping miracles every...
Read MoreHello again, dear readers. You all have reminded me why I write these Tales. Every year I experience prolonged labor and difficulty with Tales #1. My primary symptom is a sense of over-exposure… like I’m on YouTube giving birth. Then your responses come rolling in, almost immediately, bursting with the enthusiasm of shared confessions, and relief (this year) to be “not the only one” who is so damn crazy and strung out on...
Read MoreHola, my dear readers. Harvesting veggies in the community garden I like to imagine each year is totally different from the one preceding it…. But I do seem to recall that the exact same thing occurred last year …hmmmm: I arrived here in the lovely town of La Paz (Baja Sur) and sloughed into a pleasantly vegetative state, setting up my little 1950’s kitchen, getting my drinking water, renting a bicycle…. And revisiting my...
Read MoreWelcome to this upcoming year, dear yogis! Wattle Hollow is currently closed in the winter and will reopen in late March, 2023. Meanwhile, if you’d like to receive the “Winter Tales from Joy” newsletter, send me your request and gmail address to: joyfoxwath@gmail.com...
Read MoreSaturday, APRIL 1, 2023 (10 a.m. -4 p.m.) **Registration is Now Full, with a waiting list! ** We will be practicing the various forms of Vipassana Buddhist meditation:** Sitting (no sessions more than 30-40 minutes), various types of practices.** Walking (both indoor and outdoor)** An hour-long movement/yoga session** Eating (lunchtime will be silent, with special focus on the food)** Metta/Lovingkindness practice The practice of...
Read MoreAPRIL 13 – 16TH (6 p.m. Thursday – 4 p.m. Sunday) These longer retreats are a deeper dive into the triple gems of Buddhism: abiding conduct (sila); deepening our focus (shammatta) and then “clear seeing” wisdom (panna). We will perhaps glimpse the holographic, simultaneous and intimate relationship between these triple gems. The retreat will be conducted in Noble Silence except for group discussions and individual...
Read MoreSunday, April 23rd 9 a.m…. …starting at the top of the Wattle driveway Our annual play-day romp with this inspiring and dedicated naturalist and author, Joe Neal (a.k.a. Baba Joe, the Birdman). Bring your binoculars, if you have some! We generally share a potluck lunch on the deck overlooking Wattle pond after our walk.
Read MoreSunday, APRIL 30, 2023 – 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. We will be practicing the various forms of Vipassana Buddhist meditation:** Sitting (no sessions more than 30-40 minutes), various types of practices.** Walking (both indoor and outdoor)** An hour-long movement/yoga session**Eating (lunchtime will be `silent, with special focus on the food)** Metta/Lovingkindness practice The practice of Noble Silence will be observed all day,...
Read MoreMAY 5-7, 2023 I’ve lost track of the number of fabulous weekends (29, maybe?) during which we have seen our “inner children” run free of their boundaries in a joyful exploration of what is possible, musically and creatively. Our amazing and talented guides are Jack Williams and Still on the Hill musicians, Donna and Kelly Mulholland. It feels like a family reunion, and the newest members are lovingly absorbed right away. These...
Read More10 a.m. – 4 p.m. Saturday, May 27, 2023 We will be practicing the various forms of Vipassana Buddhist meditation:** Sitting (no sessions more than 30-40 minutes), various types of practices.** Walking (both indoor and outdoor)** An hour-long movement/yoga session**Eating (lunchtime will be `silent, with special focus on the food)** Metta/Lovingkindness practice The practice of Noble Silence will be observed all day, except for...
Read MoreDharma Days are a one-day opportunity, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., to take a personal tour in the Theravadan Vipassana meditation traditional practices of sitting, walking, eating and loving-kindness/metta. It’s a great chance for beginning meditators to get their feet wet, and for oldies to refresh their practice. We also do a mild 50-minute stretching/yoga/or creative movement session. An organic vegetarian lunch will be served. No charge...
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Heading south to SDS II, known as Bodhisattva Valley, we began to feel lighter and lighter. Nawng Joy, Aey and I have a way of sparking each other into silly happiness. Here we are at a lunch stop along the way. Yes, rice paddies are really that green. I packed pillows and extra towels and bedding into my luggage, in order to survive a week of sleeping directly on the cement floor like I did two years ago. And ear plugs, to drown out...
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Hello, dear readers, or sawadhi kha. I’m here at the center now, in Bangkok. My dearest friends Nawng Joy and Aey picked me up at the fancy hotel where I was quarantined. They had spent all day, like many other days, in conferences about the future of S.D.S. now that Khun Mae is gone. Nawng Joy explained that my home here had been uninhabitable until VERY recently: i.e. just before I arrived. She had appealed to a young and wealthy...
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Greetings, dear readers…. From 30,000 feet up in the air! I realized, in the middle of this 11-hour flight, that there is another Tale to be told, between the Baja and Thailand (where I’ll be, in eighteen more hours en sh’allah). And this is my only chance to write it. Maria, wife of Odin, at the bird sanctuary I said goodbye to my sacred spots, took a couple outings with my host family, and taught a few more yoga classes to my...
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Wattle Hollow is a relatively small retreat center (40 acres of woodlands on a mountainside in Northwest Arkansas) with capacity for 20 - 25 folks.