Mindfulness Meditation, Samadhi and the Dhamma Path
Mindfulness is the practice of coming home, again and again. Samadhi is the practice of gathering a clear eyed unshakable presence.
There is a steadiness available to each of us, a quiet seat of awareness from which we can meet the risings and fallings of a life fully lived. The path of the Dhamma invites us to welcome the whole of our experience with kind, gentle, and clear attention. We don’t push anything away. We don’t cling. We see what is here, and we meet it with a wise heart.
The tradition I call home is Theravāda Buddhism, the lineage that preserves the earliest surviving record of the Buddha’s teachings known as the Pali Cannon. I love its simplicity. Virtue steadies the mind. A steady mind grows collected, still and present. Presence opens into insight, and insight ripens into wisdom: The seeing clearly of how things truly are. That seeing is true freedom. That seeing is coming home. The precepts, practices, and teachings all serve this one final unfolding.
The path is simple, yet not easy. It asks us to meet ourselves, one another, and the world exactly as we are. With equanimity and trust. Seeing our places of imbalance; the patterns of grasping, aversion, and confusion that keep the heart and mind stuck as doorways to a more essential nature. Spaces that we then choose to bravely enter to recognize impermanence and loosen our grip. The Buddha taught of wise effort. To nurture the wholesome in our lives. To deepen our commitment to virtuous action and integrity of character. To refrain from harm in thought and deed. To release what causes suffering, even the perceived delights, to nourish what leads to genuine contentment and peace. Through the patient cultivation of loving-kindness (METTA), compassion (KARUNA), sympathetic joy (MUDITA), and equanimity (UPEKKHA), the heart-mind (CITTA) finds its way back to its origin space – a wholeness free of the wheel of suffering.
I’ve been a devotee of perennial spiritual traditions since 2008. Yet my path in the Theravāda tradition is going on a year of intimate practice and study. I’ve sat in 25 total days of Silent Retreat north of San Francisco in Spirit Rock and Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts. My practice currently consists of a minimum on 1.5 hours of daily seated meditation, 30 minutes of walking and a continuity of mindfulness and 20-30 minutes of Qi Gong. I’ve completed a Buddhist Essentials course with Mark Coleman and The Power of Awareness with Sounds True. I am currently immersed in an 18 month Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program led by Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach.
As part of this training and in alignment with this path, I am opening space for yogis to begin sitting together in Sangha (Sacred Community). If your practice and commitment progresses to a place where this path speaks to your core as a way of life, I will then take on a small number one-on-one students as a Kalyāṇa-mitta. An ally, guardian and wise friend on the path. The Sangha will meet once a week online for 90 minutes to establish and deepen a daily sitting practice, explore the Dhamma teachings, and bring the wisdom into the texture of everyday life.
These sessions are offered in the tradition of dana, the practice of generosity. You are welcome to give in return whatever feels generous and sustainable for you, even if that is just your time and devotion. Dana supports my ability to keep my path of guidance and learning. But whatever you offer, or are unable to offer, will not change the care and welcoming you receive.
Ānanda, the Buddha’s personal attendant, once told the Buddha that spiritual friendship is half of the holy life. The Buddha answered, “No no Ananda, Spiritual friendship is the whole of life.” My hope is to walk beside you and gather a Sangha of earnest and virtuous hearts to can practice together.
Whether you are new to meditation or have been sitting for years, hold devotion to another path and have deep curiosity in the Theravada tradition, or if you feel drawn to its wisdom and community, I would love to hear from you. Click below to fill out a form to see if this path is the right fit for you.
