Mindfulness Outreach Initiative

How often do you reflect on having fun and playing as an adult? What do fun and play look like in your life? Does it result in joy? These are the questions Chaplain Kyle Sorys poses to the audience in this week’s talk. After a fifteen-minute meditation, Kyle starts by sharing his past struggles with meditation and his current exploration of including fun, play, and joy into daily mindfulness practice, primarily in the form of “Photography Meditation.” This leads to a short teaching on the cultivation of bare awareness — being aware of the essence of sense experience without adding anything extra. According to Kyle, it all comes down to creating the cause and conditions right now, in this moment, that brings about our future happiness and well-being. And for him, it is vital to incorporate fun and play.  

If you feel inspired by these teachings, and wish to practice generosity, please consider supporting MOI and its teachers by visiting, https://mindfulnessoutreachinitiative.org/generosity/

How has your practice resulted in a greater sense of patience and an ability to be patient? As MOI teacher Johnathan Woodside states in this talk, just by returning again and again to the present moment, we are cultivating patience. Patience involves having a nonjudgmental and non-preferential willingness to engage with what is present. It also includes developing disenchantment, stilling, and direct knowledge of experience. Johnathan adds that patience helps the mind see clearly, especially the illusion that getting what we want leads to lasting happiness. Instead, we realize that everything is constantly changing and is ultimately unsatisfactory. In addition to patience, Johnathan also stresses the practice of non-doing, of just being aware of our experiences and meeting it all with mindfulness. We no longer are out to manage or control our experiences. There is no longer anything to gain or anyone to become. We merely sit and observe what is taking place to gain insight. As Johnathan says, “We don’t have to make anything happen. We just have to be witness to what is happening without delusion.”

If you feel inspired by these teachings, and wish to practice generosity, please consider supporting MOI and its teachers by visiting, https://mindfulnessoutreachinitiative.org/generosity/

In this week’s talk, MOI teacher Mark Wiesman leads us in a guided meditation through the Four Divine Abodes: loving-kindness, compassion, appreciative joy, and equanimity. Mark tells us that we can go to these four places anytime we need. They are tools that can help us cultivate more openness and expansiveness in our hearts and minds, which by nature leads to more calm and peace in our lives.  

If you feel inspired by these teachings, and wish to practice generosity, please consider supporting MOI and its teachers by visiting, https://mindfulnessoutreachinitiative.org/generosity/

Every human being experiences suffering at some point in life. Suffering is one of the ultimate truths that connect us to all humanity. But suffering is also unique to each of us in that we all experience suffering in our own distinct ways. Thus, in this talk, MOI teacher Anne Savery asks us an important question: “What are you suffering with right now? What parts of life are causing you suffering?” The point of this question is not to know suffering itself but to recognize how we relate to suffering. Anne states that when we notice suffering, we often recoil, resist, tense up, and want to run away from it. It takes courage and patience to show up and be present with suffering. In mindfulness practice, suffering is something we can acknowledge, work with, and release into freedom. Or it can be something we continually carry with us, creating more suffering in the long run.

If you feel inspired by these teachings, and wish to practice generosity, please consider supporting MOI and its teachers by visiting, https://mindfulnessoutreachinitiative.org/generosity/

How often do you experience “bad days”?  When asked this question, MOI teacher Jonathan Woodside genuinely answered that he rarely has a bad day anymore.  He attributes this to two things: (1) living a skillful life by avoiding harm and (2) viewing every experience (both pleasant and unpleasant) as an opportunity for insight.  Of course, this naturally arises from the fruits of mindfulness and meditation practice.  But it is also more nuanced than that.  In this talk, Jonathan goes into detail about following the precepts, seeing into the nature of reality, letting go of preferences, and establishing a deep intimacy with mindfulness practice when life feels too busy.  He says it’s about being mindful of when the mind is entangled with suffering and when it is free of craving.  In the end, Johnathan encourages us to continually ask ourselves, “How is the mind right now?  Is there suffering or not?”  

If you feel inspired by these teachings, and wish to practice generosity, please consider supporting MOI and its teachers by visiting, https://mindfulnessoutreachinitiative.org/generosity/

What does it feel like when the mind is overcome by craving and clinging? How about when it is free? When the defilements of craving and clinging are present, we feel it in the body. We feel ourselves being pulled around and controlled by it. We become bound, fettered, and chained to it. But when the mind is free of defilements, we experience more freedom. There is more spaciousness, peacefulness, contentedness, and ease. What a difference! And, as MOI teacher Mark Wiesman states in this talk, mindfulness is the key. We are encouraged by Mark to notice those moments when we are craving and clinging, as well as the moments when we let go and accept things as they are. “Be curious,” he says. “Ask lots of questions. It will lead to more mindfulness and understanding.”

If you feel inspired by these teachings, and wish to practice generosity, please consider supporting MOI and its teachers by visiting, https://mindfulnessoutreachinitiative.org/generosity/

What comes to mind when you think of patience? Is it a positive or negative association? As MOI teacher Anne Savery states, part of the practice is observing our conditioning, history, and relationships with different things in the dharma. According to Anne, patience holds a variety of meanings. It involves endurance, spaciousness, forgiveness, and equanimity. “In the space of patience,” she says, “one can find joy and gratitude.” But first, there needs to be stability and tranquility to access this space. We must know how to calm the body, mind, and breath. Hence, the importance of meditation and present moment awareness. It is only in the present moment that we can practice patience and experience true joy, and with the arising of joy naturally comes gratitude.

If you feel inspired by these teachings, and wish to practice generosity, please consider supporting MOI and its teachers by visiting, https://mindfulnessoutreachinitiative.org/generosity/

What is it like when you notice the mind lost in stories? What is it like when the mind arrives home to the present moment and sees clearly? These are the questions MOI teacher Johnathan Woodside asks us in this week’s talk as he discusses the difficulties of staying with the present moment experience of reality. He says that noticing how busy the mind is, how wild and distracted it can be, is the initial insight of meditation practice. We can easily be discouraged when we notice the business of the mind and how difficult it is to stay present. But Johnathan states that this is good news. It is a valuable insight that not everyone realizes. Without real effort, we can spend most of life lost in thought, caught up in the various stories of the mind. To help us stay present, Johnathan teaches us that it is helpful to keep coming back to the simple instructions of practice: become still, direct the attention inward, mindfully connect with the breath, and be present. It is in the simplicity of our practice that we can tap into all the happiness and joy that life offers.

If you feel inspired by these teachings, and wish to practice generosity, please consider supporting MOI and its teachers by visiting, https://mindfulnessoutreachinitiative.org/generosity/

How often do you notice and reflect on the attitudes and intentions you bring to an experience? How often do these dispositions lead to peace and contentment? In this week’s talk, MOI teacher Kyle Sorys introduces the topic of Right Intention, the second factor of the Noble Eightfold Path. He states that mindfulness of intention is vital to how we walk the path because our intention is the cause of everything we do. Thus, it is beneficial to have a wise and skillful attitude as we approach all the daily activities of our life experiences, including our spiritual practice. “How you’re going to be transformed and changed is not by the activity you do,” Kyle says, “but by the motivations and intentions that are behind what you do.”

If you feel inspired by these teachings, and wish to practice generosity, please consider supporting MOI and its teachers by visiting, https://mindfulnessoutreachinitiative.org/generosity/

How often do you find yourself discussing Dharma and practice with friends? For MOI teacher Mark Wiesman, it is more often than not, as Mark has lots of “dharma friends.” In this week’s talk, Mark shares four themes that have come up in his Dharma conversations with friends over the past month:

(1) Can you meditate too much?

(2) What is the difference between a cause and a condition?

(3) Is there a problem with peak experience?

(4) What exactly is right view?

Mark continually touches on meditation, practice, and the path in this talk. He explains that practicing this path includes investigating the nature of reality. We are asked to frequently look at things, see them as they are, notice the characteristics of how reality behaves, and observe how the mind reacts. Diligent effort eventually leads one to a continual awareness of nature, unfolding moment by moment where there is no clinging or grasping. There is no desire for things to be different than they are. Mark says this practice is about being with things as they are, as they unfold, without getting caught up in them — being engaged with life but not being enmeshed. Essentially we practice this path to no longer depend on outer circumstances for lasting contentment, peace, and ease.

If you feel inspired by these teachings, and wish to practice generosity, please consider supporting MOI and its teachers by visiting, https://mindfulnessoutreachinitiative.org/generosity/

What comes to mind when reading or hearing the word renunciation? What emotions or feelings arise? Is there an association with happiness? In this week's talk, MOI teacher Anne Savery shares the formula for happiness, mainly through the lens of renunciation. Anne explains that renunciation is often associated with letting go, but the original intention of the Buddhist Pali word means to go forth, pointing to what is gained rather than what one gives up. Anne encourages us to reflect on what we are attached to, what we are willing to renounce, what actually serves us, and what is enough. She then asks us to consider how we could personally benefit from the practice of renunciation. How could renunciation lead to more happiness in life?

If you feel inspired by these teachings, and wish to practice generosity, please consider supporting MOI and its teachers by visiting, https://mindfulnessoutreachinitiative.org/generosity/

In this week’s talk, MOI teacher Johnathan Woodside discusses the Four Great Efforts, stating that they are the formula for transformation. This formula is simple: (1) diminish unwholesome states that already have arisen, (2) prevent unwholesome states that haven’t arisen from arising, (3) strengthen the wholesome states that are already developed, and (4) develop and cultivate the wholesome states that have not yet arisen. Johnathan likens it to being a curator of the mind. Just as one hires a curator to develop a collection of art, we can be the curator of our own minds, developing a collection of wholesome qualities for display. Johnathan then encourages us to use the ten perfections of generosity, virtue, renunciation, wisdom, energy, patience, truthfulness, determination, loving-kindness, and equanimity as templates for our own exhibit. Ultimately the Four Great Efforts come down to cultivating supportive conditions for happiness. When such conditions are in place, happiness comes to be.

If you feel inspired by these teachings, and wish to practice generosity, please consider supporting MOI and its teachers by visiting, https://mindfulnessoutreachinitiative.org/generosity/

This week’s talk is all about the first step of the Path — Right View. Traditionally Right View is understanding the Four Noble Truths and the relationship between craving and suffering. But, as MOI teacher Rev. Kyle Sorys explains, it entails much more. “Whatever teachings lead to peace, stillness, harmony, which lead to the disappearing of the problems of life, which lead to clear seeing,” Rev. Kyle says, “is Right View.” It is seeing as the Buddha himself saw, which means seeing the Dharma and the true nature of reality. Rev. Kyle also explains that since our views are intimately connected with our intentions, Right View includes that which creates the intensions of kindness, compassion, and letting go. At its core, Right View is all about cultivating peace, contentment, and clear seeing.   

If you feel inspired by these teachings, and wish to practice generosity, please consider supporting MOI and its teachers by visiting, https://mindfulnessoutreachinitiative.org/generosity/ 

Like gardening and growing crops, spiritual practice involves cultivating the mind and body.  In this week's talk, MOI teacher Mark Wiesman explains how we can develop a mind inclined towards wholesome qualities of peace, contentment, compassion, and understanding.  He states that it's about creating the conditions for skillful thoughts and habits while uprooting the unwholesome weeds of greed and anger.   Mark repeatedly emphasizes that cultivating the garden of mind is not about forcing things or being attached to an outcome.  Instead, he encourages us to let go of struggling and allow things to unfold naturally.  Like growing any crop, cultivating the soil of the mind requires lots of work and dedication.  There will be unexpected challenges that arise.  But eventually, the crops ripen and the fruits of practice do come.   

If you feel inspired by these teachings, and wish to practice generosity, please consider supporting MOI and its teachers by visiting, https://mindfulnessoutreachinitiative.org/generosity/   

What does your spiritual practice look like?  What type of rituals and routines are part of your practice?  In this episode, MOI teacher Anne Savery shares a bit about her practice, specifically through exploring rites and rituals.  She calls it her daily sadhana, which she defines as "a spiritual practice that goes straight to the goal with conviction."  Anne states that her intention is for us to reflect on our practice and explore rituals for ourselves.  Then we can discern which ones are beneficial and which ones are not.  In this exploration, Anne hopes we too can see that practice is much more about skillful actions than completing regular rituals. 

If you feel inspired by these teachings, and wish to practice generosity, please consider supporting MOI and its teachers by visiting, https://mindfulnessoutreachinitiative.org/generosity/

It is the fifth Tuesday of May, which means something a little different than usual.  In this week's episode, the MOI teachers come together as a panel to answer some community questions.  The topics that arise include: (1) How to deal with diminishing returns in meditation, (2) Advice regarding meditating with the eyes open, and (3) Working with our relationship to pleasant and unpleasant feeling tones.     

If you feel inspired by these teachings, and wish to practice generosity, please consider supporting MOI and its teachers by visiting, https://mindfulnessoutreachinitiative.org/generosity/

When venturing out on a difficult journey, it is helpful to have a map that lays out the terrain. According to MOI teacher Rev. Kyle Sorys, this is exactly what the Buddha intended when teaching the Noble Eightfold Path. In this week's talk, Rev. Kyle briefly touches on each aspect of the Eightfold Path in addition to explaining the Path in terms of the Three Trainings -- virtue, meditation, and wisdom. The point of practicing the Path is to cultivate insight and understanding. It's about seeing clearly. "Is the way we live aligned with reality?" Rev. Kyle asks. In cultivating the Path and living our lives in harmony with reality, we not only experience more peace and happiness, but we learn to let go and accept the messiness of ourselves and others in a deeply profound way. 

If you feel inspired by these teachings, and wish to practice generosity, please consider supporting MOI and its teachers by visiting, https://mindfulnessoutreachinitiative.org/generosity/

After sitting a seven-day retreat, MOI teacher Anne Savery shares some of the insights she has gained in this week's talk.  She touches on a range of topics, such as giving ourselves permission to rest, stability,  our habitual conditioning for striving, energy, expectations, and increasing our capacity for spaciousness.   Most importantly, Anne emphasizes the significance of gratitude and compassion -- whether we are on retreat or going about our day-to-day activities.   

If you feel inspired by these teachings, and wish to practice generosity, please consider supporting MOI and its teachers by visiting, https://mindfulnessoutreachinitiative.org/generosity/

Are you any good at concentrating your attention?  Is your mind able to sustain a connection, or is it often fragmented?  In this week's talk, MOI teacher Johnathan Woodside explains the practice of concentration, stating that it's not as difficult to achieve as you may think.  When watching a movie or television show we often experience a concentrated mind.  But when it comes to sustaining a connection with the breath during meditation, many people struggle to stay present.  Johnathan states that this is often due to our conditioning and the mind's habitual tendency to complicate things.  "Are you forcing yourself into some idea of what you think meditation should look like?" he asks.  "That sounds like a lot of suffering!"  Concentration practice is not about the mind going out and setting itself to an object.  It's not about hammering the mind to something.  Concentration practice is all about allowing the mind to gently receive an object, and then sustain a connection to it.  Just remember to keep beginning again.  Have some self-compassion.  Don't give yourself a hard time.  Being distracted is all part of the practice.  

If you feel inspired by these teachings, and wish to practice generosity, please consider supporting MOI and its teachers by visiting, https://mindfulnessoutreachinitiative.org/generosity/

This week's talk is all about the conditionality of things.  In Buddhism, this is known as Dependent Arising or Dependent Origination.  As MOI teacher Mark Wiesman states, this teaching is "profound, hard to see and understand, unattainable by pure reasoning."  As such, Mark spends the hour unpacking this challenging topic.  Except for Nibbāna (the unconditioned), everything relies on causes and conditions for its arising.  "When this arises, that arises.  When this ceases, that ceases," Mark explains.  "Everything is a condition for something else.  Every condition is a condition for another condition."  Even though Dependent Arising can be hard to grasp conceptually, Mark encourages us to just gently see things as they are: impermanent and constantly changing.  Simply see that all experience is a flow of arising and ceasing conditions.  

If you feel inspired by these teachings, and wish to practice generosity, please consider supporting MOI and its teachers by visiting, https://mindfulnessoutreachinitiative.org/generosity/

Where do you get entangled?  What does your mind get tangled up in?  In this week's talk, MOI teacher Anne Savery investigates these questions, stating that we can become entangled in anything our mind thinks about: work, relationships, emotions, ideas, situations, etc.  When we become entangled, we need tools to help untangle the tangle instead of becoming so enmeshed in it.  The Dharma is one of these tools.  Thus, Anne shares and unpacks the Jaṭā Sutta, a short teaching of the Buddha which plainly states how one untangles the tangle.  

The Jaṭā Sutta

     -- Translation 1: https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn07/sn07.006.than.html

     -- Translation 2: https://suttacentral.net/sn7.6/en/sujato?layout=plain&reference=none¬es=asterisk&highlight=false&script=latin

If you feel inspired by these teachings, and wish to practice generosity, please consider supporting MOI and its teachers by visiting, https://mindfulnessoutreachinitiative.org/generosity/

What exactly is mindfulness?  What are the qualities and characteristics that makeup mindfulness?  In this week's talk, MOI teacher Johnathan Woodside explains the spiritual faculty of mindfulness.  He defines it as present-centered awareness free from wanting our experience to be different than it is.  Mindful awareness is knowing what is happening as it's happening.  It's about connecting to our direct experience instead of getting lost in the stories of the mind.  Johnathan emphasizes the importance of how we relate to things and asks if we can find freedom in those relationships.  It's easy to be overwhelmed by ingrained habit patterns of greed and aversion.  But by simply being mindful of the direct experience, by seeing greed and aversion clearly, we can become free from their grip.  It's not always easy, but with patience and perseverance, we can find freedom.  We can know a mind full of awareness, peace, and contentment.  

If you feel inspired by these teachings, and wish to practice generosity, please consider supporting MOI and its teachers by visiting, https://mindfulnessoutreachinitiative.org/generosity/

An out-of-the-ordinary episode in which the community of MOI shares about their individual practice of mindfulness and meditation in daily life.  

If you feel inspired by these teachings, and wish to practice generosity, please consider supporting MOI and its teachers by visiting, https://mindfulnessoutreachinitiative.org/generosity/

In this week's talk, MOI teacher Kyle Sorys speaks to the importance of morality and virtue to one's spiritual practice, which leads to a brief discussion of the Five Precepts and ends with a contemplation practice of Thich Nhat Hanah's Five Mindfulness Trainings.  

If you feel inspired by these teachings, and wish to practice generosity, please consider supporting MOI and its teachers by visiting, https://mindfulnessoutreachinitiative.org/generosity/

Meditating regularly and cultivating mindfulness in our day-to-day lives can be very challenging.  But, as MOI teacher Mark Wiesman states in this week's talk, we have to keep remembering the reason for this practice -- to cultivate a mind of contentment.  To do this is not about arriving at any state of being, or being in peaceful bliss, but simply noticing what is happening as it's happening.  That's it!  Just being aware and watching how the mind reacts leads to wisdom and insight.  We must constantly ask ourselves, "What is being known?" and then let the mind do its own thing.  "The mind will do the work for you," Mark explains, "the mind likes being free and content.  The mind pulls itself to a more contented place over time as we practice more and more."  The key is to keep practicing no matter what, to keep persisting even when it's hard.  

If you feel inspired by these teachings, and wish to practice generosity, please consider supporting MOI and its teachers by visiting, https://mindfulnessoutreachinitiative.org/generosity/

This week's talk, given by MOI teacher Anne Savery, is all about love and pain.  "We can't have pain and suffering without love," Anne states, "and we can't have love without pain and suffering.  They are two sides of the same coin."  As Anne explains the connection between love and pain, she poses a few questions for us to explore, such as: (1) What is your tolerance for the unknown? and (2) What is the difference between acceptance and resignation?  Anne also explores love and pain through the lens of her personal mantra, "Welcome everything and push nothing away," emphasizing that love is the source that allows us to do this.  Love is always within us and it helps us to accept ourselves as we truly are.  Love provides the ability to meet and greet everyone and everything with friendliness and kindness.  This in turn leads to more happiness, more peace, and less pain and suffering.     

If you feel inspired by these teachings, and wish to practice generosity, please consider supporting MOI and its teachers by visiting, https://mindfulnessoutreachinitiative.org/generosity/

What is your typical experience of energy in practice?  Is it usually too much?  Too little?  It can be challenging to find the right balance of energy needed to support a daily practice.  In this week's talk, MOI teacher Johnathan Woodside focuses on the relationship between effort and energy.  He discusses how to work with a mind that is filled with lots of energy, as well as a mind that lacks energy.  "Effort begets energy," he states, "If I make effort, it tends to call up energy."  But be mindful.  Too much effort turns into striving.  Too little effort doesn't get you very far.  It's about finding the right balance and cultivating the Middle Way.  

If you feel inspired by these teachings, and wish to practice generosity, please consider supporting MOI and its teachers by visiting, https://mindfulnessoutreachinitiative.org/generosity/

In Buddhism, the terms desire, craving, greed, and wanting are often used interchangeably.  But do they all mean the same thing?  In this week's talk, Rev. Kyle Sorys explains the nuances of these terms and encourages us to explore for ourselves how they each manifest in daily life and practice.    

If you feel inspired by these teachings, and wish to practice generosity, please consider supporting MOI and its teachers by visiting, https://mindfulnessoutreachinitiative.org/generosity/

Is there such a thing as Wrong Mindfulness?  What do we do if it is too hard to welcome everything in our practice?  And how do we practice with doubt?  In this week's talk, MOI teacher Mark Wiesman addresses these questions.  In doing so, he threads the importance of mindfulness and investigation when working with questions and difficulties that inevitably arise.  First, Mark states, that we simply start with being present and aware.  Then we investigate and ask ourselves, "What is the reality here?"  As we continually engage in this process of mindfulness and investigation, the mind naturally moves towards freedom.  "It's not necessarily easy," Mark notes, "but it is possible.  It can be done."  

If you feel inspired by these teachings, and wish to practice generosity, please consider supporting MOI and its teachers by visiting, https://mindfulnessoutreachinitiative.org/generosity/

How do we become more fluid, more open, and more wise?  How do we embrace trust instead of giving in to fear?  In this week's talk, MOI teacher Anne Savery unpacks the path factor of Wise View, dividing it into the two components of fluidity and fixedness.  She asks us to reflect upon our own views and experiences, exploring how fluid or how fixed they can be.  Anne also revisits two important phrases that arise in her own practice: (1) "Habituate to openness," and (2) "Welcome everything; push nothing away." She states that spiritual companions, or "soul friends," are vital in cultivating openness, fluidity, and trust.

If you feel inspired by these teachings, and wish to practice generosity, please consider supporting MOI and its teachers by visiting, https://mindfulnessoutreachinitiative.org/generosity/

Have you ever experienced the feeling of confidence (or faith or devotion) in your spiritual practice?  Like mindfulness, it is a quality of mind to be cultivated.  When MOI teacher Johnathan Woodside speaks of confidence in this week's talk, he is not referring to that of arrogance, but that which arises out of wisdom and clear seeing.  He states that it comes from the trust that is established through personal lived experience.  As with everything, confidence is dependent on causes and conditions.  The primary three include (1) giving attention to the impermanent changing nature of reality, (2) giving care and respect to one's mediation practice, and (3) developing a continuity of mindfulness.   

If you feel inspired by these teachings, and wish to practice generosity, please consider supporting MOI and its teachers by visiting, https://mindfulnessoutreachinitiative.org/generosity/  

The mind, by nature, is radiant, shining, and pure -- like perfectly refined gold. Yet, many difficulties can arise due to visiting forces in the mind, known as defilements. In this week's talk, MOI teacher Kyle Sorys explores the primary defilements of greed, aggression, and delusion. In addition to mentioning what they are and ways to work with them,  he also encourages us to deeply know them. "Tremendous understanding comes from being able to engage the defilements," he says, "It is this understanding that will free you from them."   

If you feel inspired by these teachings, and wish to practice generosity, please consider supporting MOI and its teachers by visiting, https://mindfulnessoutreachinitiative.org/generosity/

Based on past questions and conversations with students, MOI teacher Mark Wiesman discusses the following five topics:

1. Working with difficulties, especially with events from the past and worries about the future.

2. What's the purpose of this path?  What to do when practice feels like it's not working or going very well.

3. Counteracting the Five Hindrances of sensual desire, ill-will, sloth & torpor, restlessness & worry, and doubt.

4. The various Buddhist traditions.

5. Nirvāṇa / Nibbāna

While unpacking these topics, Mark emphasizes the importance of periodical reflection.  He suggests frequently asking the following: "What do I want from my practice?  Where do I want to go with this?  Is their wisdom to be gained here?  What can I learn from this?"  In addition, he tells us to remember the importance of kindness and compassion to ourselves and others.  

If you feel inspired by these teachings, and wish to practice generosity, please consider supporting MOI and its teachers by visiting, https://mindfulnessoutreachinitiative.org/generosity/ 

In this week's dharma talk, Anne Savery discusses the importance of pausing, reflection, and contemplation as it relates to the Winter season.  The cold months are a time for becoming still, slowing down, and connecting to gratefulness.  "How do we slow down?" Anne asks.  By scheduling in breaks, resisting the culture of business, being okay with the discomfort of slowing down, and reorganizing one's environment.  

If you feel inspired by these teachings, and wish to practice generosity, please consider supporting MOI and its teachers by visiting, https://mindfulnessoutreachinitiative.org/generosity/ 

Johnathan gives the first Dharma talk of the year, in which he discusses the power of cultivating generosity in our practice.  This practice, he emphasizes, is not about what we can get or what we can gain, but about how can we let go.  It's about shifting our mindset from that of not enough to that of abundance, gratefulness, and contentment.  

If you feel inspired by these teachings, and wish to practice generosity, please consider supporting MOI and its teachers by visiting, https://mindfulnessoutreachinitiative.org/generosity/