saturday meditation 5.16.2020

i think i skipped the previous sit’s summary post. ! i have notes for it somewhere. alas.

garth-stevenson-field.jpg

here’s a link to the music we shared during the sit opening. find it via @garthstevenson Garth Stevenson’s instagram account, his post on May 2nd .

also garthstevenson.com

you may have seen garth play in our barn, and his wife, Annie Lynch, played hogfarm studios many times as Annie and the BeeKeepers.

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during the pre-meditation talk, gil mentioned the salamander migration going on during the nights now, while we (mostly) slumber. just TODAY we came across this really wonderful NYT article - documenting a salamander migration and it centers around happenings in Maine, no less! (Unity, Maine, to be exact.)

With the World on Pause, Salamanders Own the Road - The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/18/science/salamanders-amphibians-wildlife-migration.html



as always, thank you to everyone that joined us! the next sit will be the new time - THURSDAY EVENING 8pm eastern, May 28. i’ll send out the link as we get closer. if you’d like to be added to the newsletter email group, or know of someone that would like to be added please drop a line to hogfarmstudios@gmail.com

saturday meditation 4.18.20

besos, amores.

again, our hearts are FULL after seeing you all today. mil gracias. xoxoxoxox


after our sit, poli strutted (waddled) in and grumpy-faced explained to us, yet again, how we continue to do everything incorrectly without her guidance. 😐😆




here’s the passage gil read:

 
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and here’s the link and info David shared:

David : there is a free online retreat going on this weekend from 12:30-7:30
https://www.ramdass.org/virtual-retreat-stream/

LOVE YOU CRAY.
c

things mentioned during the march 28 meditation

it’s been a little while.

We’ll use this spot to post readings and other bits from the weekly meditations.

Today (march 28, 2020) Gil read a quote from Sharon Salzberg

It is never too late to turn on the light. Your ability to break an unhealthy habit or turn off an old tape doesn't depend on how long it has been running; a shift in perspective doesn't depend on how long you've held on to the old view.
When you flip the switch in that attic, it doesn't matter whether its been dark for ten minutes, ten years or ten decades.
The light still illuminates the room and banishes the murkiness, letting you see the things you couldn't see before.
Its never too late to take a moment to look.”

― Sharon Salzberg, Real Happiness: The Power of Meditation

also…here’s a link to our bear - er- raccoon friend! a video and more photos, including the turkey parade, at this link:
https://www.instagram.com/p/B-STYE5AxmH/

One Year Later . Mindfulness in Politics

Both inspiring and pragmatic, A Mindful Nation shows how the benefits of mindfulness apply to the current challenges that affect each of us in our own lives and in our communities, and thus have implications for our society as a whole.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sZDM93HFGs

Can we carve out some time to get back to our common root, of being human, and realizing we are all in this together.  We are all floating through space on one giant beautiful boat, peeps.

Onward, in this moment.

 

inspired

Along with faith comes the requirement for dogged persistence. At first meditation may bring you mild highs or some relief from suffering. But there may come a time – just as there does in the development of any skill – when there will be a plateau. You may be bored, discouraged, or even negative and cynical. This is when you will need not only faith, but persistence. Often you will find yourself in training that forces you to sit when you wish you didn’t have to. You subject yourself to this because something deeper within tells you to go on. It forces you to persist despite your abhorrence of the process. This persistent effort brings greater faith. 

Even to the end of the journey faith is vulnerable. For example, though your faith may be strong enough to sit in meditation, if you mix with people who sneer at it, their skepticism may weaken your resolve. But if you stay with meditation, faith in your path will strengthen until you can withstand any criticism, even your own doubt and dark night of the soul. 

When meditation works as it should, it will be a natural part of your being. There will no longer be anything apart from you to have faith in. Hope starts the journey, faith sustains it, but it ends beyond both hope and faith. 

Ram Dass