Manzanita Village and the Five Changes » by Caitriona Reed

NOT meditating by numbers

Caitriona Reed — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 00:48:20 +0000

Do you fear (as many people do) that true creativity is rare and special, something only for a lucky few, a gift from the muse, or a fortunate accident?

The truth is that everyone is blessed with a greater ability for creative innovation and solution-based inspiration than they could ever use up in a lifetime.

It is a lot simpler than most people think to get in step with yourself, to become congruent, to have your head meet your heart and your body and to tap into that inexhaustible source inside at will, whenever you need to, or want to.

How often do you really allow yourself focused quiet time, inner time, away from the daily habitual clutter?

And do you know that there are specific tools that shift habitual patterns of your self-limiting thoughts, beliefs, and emotions PERMANENTLY! Great spiritual teachers use them, some of the greatest world leaders have used them.

This is not just meditation by numers!

This is exactly why a meditation retreat can be powerfully life-changing. because It gives you enough time to really GET some of this.

We provide you with accomodation, food, and a structure that will help you accomplish more in 3 days of ‘not doing’ than you usually accomplish in three months of ‘working’ on yourself.

PS This has nothing to do with having you take on some extra new belief system or convert to some new ‘religious’ way of thinking … this is entirely about the timeless wisdom and awakening that evolves from within YOU

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Wild Mind

Caitriona Reed — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 03:59:11 +0000

Wild Mind Meditation Retreat

Just as we put up walls and a roof in which to take shelter and live, just as we put up fences to delineate ownership, make maps, make distinctions between categories we invent, and then forget that the source of our life is in the primordial crucible or mud, volcanic ash, oceans, and intergalactic dust, and completely without boundaries .. so too do we make self-limiting distinctions within our minds that lead us to completely miss all that we truly are, and can be.

You could write a book to unpack the idea of the wild. In fact there have been several. I am thinking in particular of Gary Snyder’s Practice of the Wild.

Join us for a retreat to learn ways to open to the simplicity of living from the innate and naturally wild capacity of mind.

A three day silent retreat with Caitriona Reed and Michele Benzamin-Miki at Manzanita Village.

http://www.manzanitavillage.org/meditation-retreats-california-information/2010/#Quick_Links_7

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Buddhist Leadership

Caitriona Reed — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 22:34:57 +0000

Buddhism, Conscious Leadership, teacher abuse, ethics, and Precepts.

Among the community of teachers from several Buddhist traditions that I am a part of, there is a topic of dicussion that is frequently revisited. This is the subject of teacher misconduct, particularly in the areas of the sex and power. Misconduct in this instance means abuse of privilege and trust by teachers.

Over the past several decades many Buddhist lineage traditions in the west have had to deal with unfortunate incidents involving bad habits, or bad choices, by teachers. These have often resulted in fragmentation, confusion in the respective communities, and the disillusionment and departure of students. Though it must also be said that, as with any collective process, such things can often bring depth of understanding and maturity to the common experience. Yet when lessons come in this way, they come at a very high price.

It may also be true that such events have contributed to a growing puritanical tendency in Buddhist convert communities in the west.

Of course, abuse of authority occurs in other areas of our lives – in education, medicine, mental health, and in the military. However, Buddhist training usually involves a long-term relationship with a teacher, profound existential transformation, as well as the resulting vulnerability that can occur for the student on their journey.

In addition, Buddhism has been carried for centuries by a largely male dominated and significantly patriarchal Asian tradition. There are distinct cultural differences from culture to culture; but typically, the authority of the traditional Asian teacher, and teaching style, was rarely challenged. As Buddhism transitioned to the west, this has sometimes led to a confusion between authority and privilege.

Buddhist ethics in the form of the Five Precepts has been a basic guideline since the time of the Buddha. They are generic, and they may not address the full complexity of contemporary life. Yet as a broad set of principles they seem to be a perfect foundation for conscious leadership: non-violence, respect for property, sexual integrity, mindful speech, mindful consumption ..

Here is the Manzanita Village version of the five precepts that we wrote some time ago, and have been using as our own reference for several years.

Aware of the violence in the world, and of the power of non-violent resistance, I stand in the presence of the ancestors, the earth, and future generations, and vow to cultivate the compassion that seeks to protect each living being.

Aware of the poverty and greed in the world, and of the intrinsic abundance of the earth, I stand in the presence of the ancestors, the earth, and future generations, and vow to cultivate the simplicity, gratitude, and generosity that have no limits.

Aware of the abuse and lovelessness in the world and of the healing that is made possible when we open to love I stand in the presence of the ancestors, the earth, and future generations and vow to cultivate respect for the beauty and erotic power of our bodies.

Aware of the falsehood and deception in the world and of the power of living and speaking the truth I stand in the presence of the ancestors, the earth, and future generations and vow to cultivate the ability to listen; and clarity and integrity in all I communicate—by my words and actions.

Aware of the contamination and desecration of the world, and of my responsibility for life as it manifests through me I stand in the presence of the ancestors, the earth, and future generations, and vow to cultivate discernment and care in what I take into my body and mind.

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Silence?

Caitriona Reed — Tue, 11 May 2010 22:28:39 +0000

To listen to this article click here

People often ask about silence and how silent our retreats are and why. And whether there’s any talking at all, if they get some guidance from us, the teachers.

Well, the answer to that is yes, we give some very specific guidance and instruction; and yes, these are silent retreats. Meditations are silent, meals are silent, and people are encouraged not to engage in social talk.

The purpose is not to close you down, or to cut you off from others. It’s something else, leading you towards a greater silence than can really only be found inside.

The world is filled with sound, and until your heart stops beating, and your blood stops pulsing through your ears, there will never be any true silence. It’s relatively quiet here, at Manzanita Village, where I live; but we’ve spent the last several weeks, listening to the outrageously cacophony of scores of nesting, orioles and finches, meadowlarks and more birds that I can name, in the trees and in the eaves of the buildings. Silent is one thing it’s not.

Then there is another sort of silence, that we have all experienced, which has less to do with sound than with our own internal disposition. There are times, for example, when the noise of the city can be a source of agitation and stress; and other times when the sound of traffic and human activity is soothing, exciting, or even comforting. That sort of silence comes from inside. It has to do with inner balance that is not dependent on where you are, or what’s going on around you. To embody it, it helps if you spend some time in a quiet place, away from the noise of your everyday life. But the silence, ultimately, comes from within you.

I am fortunate to live in these Southern California mountains, and to also spend a significant part of my time in Los Angeles. It means that I can appreciate both environments that much more.

Manzanita Village was established as a meditation retreat center − though I’ve sometimes felt that meditation was extra, and that it might be enough for people to simply come here and enjoy the mountains, hills, grassland and forest, and all the noise of life going on around.

Well I’m joking, a little. Meditation is a profound way towards inner silence. And the natural sounds of the world can make meditation, and your journey towards inner silence, that much easier. They remind you that meditation is a natural thing, simple. Birds sing, your sit quietly listening. Meditation does not have to be a big project. But it can be antidote to the habit of being continually busy, or being continually involved in one sort of project or another.

Like silence, meditation is not a project, it’s a disposition. Silence has more to do with how you listen than with soundproofing yourself. Meditation has more to do with deliberate sensitization, than with isolation or sedation. So a meditation retreat is just a simple a way to restore inner balance so that you are better able to do that. It is not a model for how you should live your life, but it is a way to install a quality of silence that you can carry with you into your every day life.

Let me ask you to consider the difference between the sort of silence where, when you hear a sudden sound, it makes you jump; and the sort of silence where nothing could startle you. What’s the difference? Let’s say that it has to do with the silence that you experience inside, that filters the sounds of the world in a particular way. You can call it peace, or personal congruence, or integration.

At retreats we now offer some very specific tools and skills to help you get out of your own way. The rest of the time is meditation, sitting in the zendo, walking, lying in a hammock, listening through all the sounds to the silence .. to what’s underneath … to the silence inside yourself. To listen to this article click here

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The Universe is Alive

Caitriona Reed — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 03:54:12 +0000

Everything is alive, like Allen Ginsberg’s Footnote to Howl. Everything’s holy, everything wholly, everything’s whole. Which is not to say that it’s perfect just as it is and that there isn’t a job for you to do. Well, it may be perfect. But that doesn’t let you off the hook!

Meditation is not mere passivity

Some things are best accessed by sitting meditation, other things by action.
But that’s for another time…

The universe is a hologram,

a metaphor, and a mirror for whoever is considering it

Some Buddhist teaching emphasizes the doctrine of rebirth. I hope this is an ethical device, rather than a metaphysical or ontological paradigm. Surely time, like space, as Einstein has taught us, does not travel in a straight line. Surely we are reborn into the past as much as into the future. Better still, can we not be reborn into the present. To become truly alive.

You just have to look at it, listen to it, imagine it, to know that the universe is alive, responsive .. then again, I only know the part of it that I experience. Then again, if it’s a hologram …

And if it is a choice, I choose to recognize the universe, every last part of it as alive, intelligent, and have no choice but to celebrate this living we do …

Everything is alive, like Allen Ginsberg’s Footnote to Howl. Everything’s holy, everything wholly, everything’s whole. Which is not to say that it’s perfect just as it is, and that there isn’t a job for you to do.

Meditation is not mere passivity. Some things are best accessed by sitting meditation, other things by action.

The universe is also a hologram, a metaphor, a mirror for whoever is considering it.

Some Buddhist teaching emphasizes the doctrine of rebirth. I hope this is an ethical device, rather than a metaphysical model. Surely time, like space, as Einstein has taught us, does not travel in a straight line. Surely we are reborn into the past as much as into the future. Better still, surely we are reborn into the present. To become truly alive.

You just have to look at it, listen to it, imagine it, to know that the universe is alive, responsive .. then again, I only know the part of it that I experience.

If it is a choice, I choose this.

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Meditation and the Law of Attraction?

Caitriona Reed — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 19:59:50 +0000

What the Buddha wants

Long ago I imagined living and working at a retreat on unspoiled land, far from the city, yet accessible enough for people to come here for workshops. I imagined that the land itself would be like a teacher. I imagined becoming native to this place, intimate with the animals and plants that lived here; as comfortable leaning on a rock in the silence of the night, far away from signs of our present century, as I would be in my own bed.

I imagined creating a sanctuary, where those who might not otherwise do so, could venture away from their challenging work in the city to renew themselves, revaluate, contextualize what they did. I imagined it in a single moment; and I knew it would be so.

The winter sun warms the ground, still wet from rain. The scrub-jays and jack-rabbits I watch from the window are not concerned with the global economy, or climate change. The new grass turns the landscape green. Two days ago we ended a retreat. Sometimes people come from as far away as Europe or Australia.

The Buddha and the Law of Attraction?

Meditation doesn’t necessarily make you a better person, or even better at what you do. Meditation is simply the power to direct the focus of your attention. How and where you direct your attention will determine the outcome of your meditation. Whether it makes you a better person, or more skilled at what you do, is entirely up to you.

Let’s say that everything begins with dreaming and imagining. Your attention moves you toward what you have already dreamed and imagined for yourself. What you take to be brand new, is often just a variation of your old themes. Then, once in a while, what seems to be the same old story, turns out to be an entirely new one.

You discover clues for understanding and living your unique and amazing life among the fragments of ancient dreams, or in the whispering of a yet-to-be-discovered one.

The Buddha spoke of intention as being central to every moment of our experience. Intention is at the beginning of every thought, every word, every action. No one knows where intention comes from. Even brain scientists are unclear about how the initial impulse of thought begins. Let’s call it a dream. Yet out of that dream there will always be choices for you to make.

You will naturally direct your attention to what you value — to what is important in your life. Learning continues forever, if you want it to … as you marvel at the way the world dreams back at you.

Some people say that we are like fishermen caught in our own nets. Some say that meditation makes things clearer, some say it just colors the dream with new colors.

We watch the geese fly overhead each year, south in November, north in February. The pond in front of our window is visited by bobcats, deer, blue heron, and red-tailed hawks. People sit there sometimes during silent retreats, re-visioning their lives perhaps.

Our dream is one we share with countless others. We draw into us what we already see. Yet no one can describe the rich patterns that are made there.

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Holiday Meditation Retreat

Caitriona Reed — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 07:03:07 +0000

A silent meditation retreat in California over the New Year holiday. We will use the healing process of vipassana, or insight meditation. It will integrate techniques that help you truly bring meditation practice into your everyday life. Beginners are welcome.

Meditation is not something to isolate you from the world. It is something to give you the insight and power to determine your own course amidst the challenges of your every life. It does not ask you to conform to any set way of thinking, it actually gives you more choices, so that you can free yourself from limiting beliefs, decisions, and habits.

Although the intention is to integrate mediation and mindfulness into your everyday life, going away on a retreat to learn transformational techniques and perspectives will provide you with skills you need to bring meditation home. If you are a beginner it will give you a jump start to continue meditating through the new year, and if you are already meditating regularly, the retreat will strengthen and deepen your meditation.

“The Way is easy
for those who are not rigid.

“When love and hate are both absent
everything becomes clear and undisguised.
Make the smallest distinction, however,
and heaven and earth are set infinitely apart.”
from the Hsin Hsin Ming

The purpose of meditation is not to be devoid of feeling – ‘When love and hate are both absent‘ - rather it is to help you become so fluid that all the natural feelings that go along with being human simply pass, like clouds in the sky, allowing you to choose how you respond, and to let go of old fears, resentments, disappointments – to begin anew.

Feelings are inevitable, they are part of living. Meditation is to transform the stickiness of certain feelings through clarity and awareness, and develop the habit of simply letting go. Meditation is a reliable teacher. The process of meditating leads you to towards the simple capacity of letting go of you ’stuff’.

Loving Kindness and Compassion are key elements in this process also. Loving kindness and compassion begin with how you treat ourselves, how you respond to the inevitable mistakes that occur in daily life. Learning to forgive and let go are essential; allowing you to become expansive, so that you are able to engage in the world with awareness and congruity – so that you become happy, and so that your happiness becomes contagious..

“Angels fly because they take themselves so lightly”

Retreat Information

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The Art of Focus: Ways Meditation Can Change your Life

Caitriona Reed — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 23:00:03 +0000

Video from Caitriona

A Mind as Big as the Sky

Meditation is not just about mind control. Focus and concentration are not just about controlling the mind. It’s better to consider controlling less, trusting more – like a trained dancer, an artist, a musician who can express themselves effortlessly.

Meditation is the art of living, and one important discipline, that allows you to become an artist, capable of effortlessly expressing the essence of your unique life, is focus.

You may have imagined that meditation requires a whole lot more focus and concentration than you are currently able to muster. But that’s not true because what’s important is not the degree of concentration that you have, but the way you use the natural capacity to focus that you already posses. It is the quality of your focus that is important.

When we are distracted it’s often because of incongruities and inconsistencies within ourselves – inner tensions that we do not always recognize. If we continually imagine we have to become someone different from who we are; or if we imagine that we should be doing something differently from what we are doing; our energy is depleted and we become distracted.

When you shift your attitude, when you simply give yourself room to simply be the way you find yourself; and when you are simply present with what you are seeing, hearing, feeling, – something inside you begins to change.

The mind is amazingly capable of turning instantly into almost anything. The mind is as big as the wide world itself. It’s as big as the sky. This could hardly be though a bad thing, especially as it is the source of our amazing creativity. So we we would do well to celebrate the power of the mind to go on it’s own expeditions, even at those times you least want it to – when you are trying to concentrate, for example.

Celebration is a key here. Because you can also celebrate your ability to bring your attention back, when you are meditating, to have it be simply present to what you are seeing, hearing, feeling, experiencing … right here and now.

Becoming focus through meditation very much depends on learning to celebrate the moment, rather than exercising special control to whip your wandering mind into shape! Attitude is key. An attitude of celebration brings joy, and joy leads to congruity, and from congruity emerges effortless awareness.

Practice being fully attentive for a few minutes several times a day, celebrate those moments when you can simply be present with whatever happens to be right in front of you, even though your mind may be drifting away for ninety percent of the time. Don’t focus on stopping that drift, simply celebrate those moments you can become aware of it. Rest right there, in that moment of awareness, wherever you are, whatever you happen to be doing – buying groceries, tending to the kids, waiting for a bus, pausing while doing schoolwork

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Present Moment – Future Moment

Caitriona Reed — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 17:18:17 +0000

Click here to view the embedded video.

If you do not have a destination, a goal, then how can you ever arrive there? At the same time, if you have a goal, but are fixated on arriving there, without really knowing where you are right now, you cannot fully know the steps you must take. To pursue your dreams and goals, AND to live fully in the present, THAT is key. Caitriona Reed

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What’s more exciting than this …

Caitriona Reed — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 05:59:53 +0000

When people ask what we’ve changed I say, “We became more passionate than ever about guiding people beyond any imagined limitations.”

Change is possible. More than we sometimes understand. Someone once said that our ability to imagine doing certain things actually makes the doing of them possible. That’s an outrageous statement. Because it puts all our dreams within our grasp.

Helping others to recognize and embody this, is an act of love.

When you’re ready to make important changes in your life, it’s best that you go ahead and make them – so that you begin to live at your highest capacity – in greater joy – with greater positive impact in the world.

I keep thinking of a quotation from the Japanese poet Basho,

Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the men of old; seek what they sought.

Go ahead, seize the moment, imagine if you were to fully embody all that you can be. None of this has to do with belief systems or world-views. It has to do with your own values, as well as how you value yourself, and your ability to live in deep agreement with yourself … and with the universe.

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