Hello, dear Sangha and Sangha-to-be! Just like last year, regarding our Wattle Hollow events: ONLY FULLY VACCINATED FOLKS WILL BE WELCOME. So you beautiful soulful millennials and others who are on the fence about this issue, it’s time to get in line for your vaccination if you want to come to Wattle Hollow programs this summer and fall. The booster is also something I heavily encourage! Blessings to you all and may your mindfulness...
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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– 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. – October 1 ** now full with waiting list! **November 20th Dharma Days are an opportunity to take a personal tour of Theravadan Vipassana meditation (traditionally practiced in SE Asia and in the West) practices: 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...
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October 7 – 9th I’ve lost track of the number of fabulous weekends (28?) 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...
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October 21 – 23rd / ** retreat is now full with a waiting list! ** Most of us link our happiness to conditions, in this culture: to health, wealth, relationships, or auspicious events. Come and explore whether a deeper version of transcending happiness might be possible. The weekend will be held in Noble Silence, except for group discussions and interviews with Joy. No charge for this event, though dana is accepted. Send Your...
Read MoreNovember 4th – 6th (Fri 6:00 pm – Sun 2:00 pm) ** THIS RETREAT NOW FULL with a waiting list ** We are again quite fortunate to lure the amazing Mark Cain away from his extremely busy farm schedule to join us forthis event, and to share his grace as a yogi-meditator. He and I will co-teach and guide you. This event has happened annually every year for (about?) sixteen years, minus the pandemic one year. This is a deeper...
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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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Hello again, dear readers. This will be, I suspect, my last Tale from the Baja. As is often the case with liminal experiences, (the frontier between two perceived phenomenon – e.g. sunrise, sunset, birth or “death,” as we like to call it) …my senses are heightened today, especially with the fullness of the moon and the prospect of leaving Mexico very soon. Visiting with the whales seems to have filled a deep longing that...
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Hello again, dear readers. Having shared the beauty of my landlord Clemente in the last Tale, I thought it would be fair to also feature Carmen and her family. The mom (Rosa, in pink) teaches ancient history at the university here. Dad tinkers with his enormous collection of antique clocks and watches. Yesterday, we all sat in the patio and I shared pranayama and yoga for a couple hours, while they took turns entertaining the...
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Hello again, dears. In case some of you looked at, but didn’t actually “see” my landlord Clemente, in Tales #3…. I wanted to give y’all another opportunity. … to understand the nature of my home here, a personal Museo Folklorico that he has created: Each corner has a theme, not unlike Wattle Hollow.left, music…to the right, social consciousness. I originally had plans to stay here in the Baja for a month. Obviously,...
Read MoreHello again, dear readers. Thanks again for your heartfelt response to the Tales. You might be surprised to know how very vulnerable I feel when I send them out. The mural (below) is new this year…. It is near my morning meditation spot on the bay. I’ve been studying the difference between looking and seeing, for decades. For instance, I had looked at the mural above and admired it a couple times before, but didn’t actually “see” it...
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Hello again, dear readers. Thank you for your very kind response to the first Tales. This #2 will not be as action-packed. Like many Boomers my age, I am merely sitting out the winter, with very little human interaction, waiting for this insanely infectious Omicron variant to run its course. This is not a loss for me. I relish the time to invest in my own inner landscape….like my “Honeymoon with God” time during my solo summer...
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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.