Writings
Glimpses of the Gatherings
While drawn from a variety of sources, most of these writings originate in the Online Gatherings – affording readers glimpses into this affecting community.
The Flow Of Compassion
The Online Gatherings have been considering the ground of compassion. What is needed for us to experience a free and natural flow of compassion - of feeling (-passion) with (com-) - in our practice and lives? Two developments come to mind. In general,...
Navigating Portals
The Online Gatherings has been considering what we've described as ‘complementary understandings’ of what practice instructions offer us. On the one hand, there's an understanding characterized by stepping stones. The instructions are stepping stones, one to the...
A Two-Way Street
It’s easy to think of meditation as a one-way street. I do this myself. Unfortunately, I often reinforce this impression when teaching.“Let’s slow down,” I say at the beginning of a practice session. “Slow down and let your attention surrender to the absorptive...
Like Any Other
Minus my own features, the screen before me was empty. It was 10:38 am PT on Thursday December 11, 2025. The absence of other faces in the Zoom meeting I had opened ten minutes earlier suggested no one else was coming today.This happens from time to time. On...
Inclusive, Alive, And AI
A recent Online Gathering generated a short discussion about Artificial Intelligence (AI). Like so many platforms, Zoom has introduced an ‘AI Companion’ to it’s smorgasbord of features. When someone noted this seems to have been turned on for us, it was promptly...
More Than A Whiteboard
I imagine it looks like any old whiteboard to most observers. A busy whiteboard from one perspective. A messy board from another. But a whiteboard, nonetheless.We have been exploring embodiment these past couple months. Returning after a summer away from regular...
The Role Of Imagining
When we settle into this embodied moment, our relationship with the basic brilliance in each of us - basic brilliance and all it's helpful qualities - becomes more immediate, more direct, and more transparent.In order to settle into this moment as fully as...
Mindfulness And Empowerment
In-person meditation classes recently resumed at Monterey Centre. We came together on a warm Wednesday evening to kick off another season of connection and exploration. How wonderfully affirming that our first night focused on basic brilliance.Basic brilliance...
A Summary Of Summaries
The Online Gatherings has taken the summer span to practice a little bit more. At the same time, we have been remembering some of the highlights that emerged in our midst through our Winter/Spring explorations. Each week I've shared one such summary with the...
Comments And Lightning Bolts
One never knows when and where bursts of knowing might ignite in our lives. Like an unexpected flash of lightning, they often appear out of nowhere, illuminating the landscape anew for an instant before vanishing - leaving us to sort out just what might have...
Familiar Reminders
Saturday in the Online Gatherings is pretty open. We spend 45 minutes in self-guided practice, then shift into a 35 minute discussion period. We have a rotating set of launch pads for these conversations; start points from which we allow ourselves to wander...
An Updated Bio
I have always suspected meditation brings something important into the world. Whether moved by the beauty of an unexpected moment or the challenges of this time we share, a wordless knowing has always affirmed the relevance of practice to the situation at hand....