Mind Roads Meditation Center

Evening Meditation

Morning Meditation

When you arrive for early morning meditation, please park in the back and enter through the rear door of the building.

If you arrive after the sitting period has begun, please wait until you hear the sound of the bell to enter the meditation studio.

Kindness, Compassion, Joy, and Serenity Meditation Intensive

A Nine-Month Practice Intensive in the Four Sublime Attitudes

...with loving-kindness for all beings....
...with compassion for all beings....
...with appreciative joy for all beings....
...with serenity for all beings....

Known in the Pali language as the Brahmaviharas, the Four Sublime Attitudes reflect the most hopeful aspects of our essential self. In this nine-month intensive, we will meditate and discuss how to cultivate loving-kindness, compassion, joy, and serenity, right amid our busy, demanding lives. All are welcome.

The Brahma-Viharas are mindfulness practices that protect the mind from falling into habituated patterns of reactivity and awaken healing energies. Through these beautiful practices, we can transform our heart into a refuge of calm, focused awareness, free from hate and ill-will toward self and others.

Part 1: Kindness
Loving-kindness ("metta") is likened to a soft rain that penetrates the heart, relaxing the defense mechanisms associated with fear and resentments. As the heart inclines towards metta, it begins to feel an acceptance for self and others that can be expanded to include everyone. With an active loving-kindness practice we can experience life with greater gentleness and attention to the here and now.

Part 2: Compassion
Compassion ("karuna") is a resonance with the tender and painful aspects of life. As the heart opens with acceptance it becomes strong enough to hold our suffering with less shame and more honesty and respect. Karuna meditations foster an open heart that cares for all beings, dissolving old hurts into an expanse of care and forgiveness.

Part 3: Joy
Appreciative Joy ("mudita") builds the capacity to experience joy and happiness. When you see others happy, their joy becomes your joy, free of jealousy, or self-pity. Mudita practices lift the heart out of its preoccupation with scarcity and fear. As a result, the buoyant energies of gratitude and generosity can restore our spirit and allow our heart to blossom.

Part 4: Serenity
Often translated as equanimity ("upekkha"), this part of the Brahmavihara meditations strengthen our capacity to meet life's incessantly changing circumstances with increasing poise, integrity, and acceptance. Equanimity practices grow our serenity, strengthening our ability to control our own thoughts, words, and deeds, no matter the circumstances.

Each part of the practice intensive builds on the previous session in order to provide deep absorption into the meditation experience. Students are required to participate in all four parts if registering for the class. Class expectations include acommitment to:

• Meditate five times per week for at least 20-30 minutes.
• Attend all class sessions.
• Keep a practice journal.
• Read assigned material (TBD) and discussing practice experiences with other members of the class.
• Support all participants in creating a class practice community ("sangha").

Meditation Made Easy

Join us for this 90-mn introduction to meditation. While this is a beginning level class, it is open to everyone who would like to revitalize their meditation practice. In this class, Jim will present:

• Instruction in basic sitting and walking meditation,
• Practices for breath awareness and quieting the mind,
• Suggestions on posture and sitting technique.

Fundamentals of Meditation: STARTS FEB 25!

An Introduction to Mindfulness Practice

Create an oasis of calm by learning to meditate.

Join us for a "hands-on," supportive approach to getting started with practice and integrating it into daily life. Class sessions include guided meditation, instruction in breath awareness, mindfulness, and sitting and walking meditation, and an opportunity to ask questions about setting up a personal practice at home.

See how mindfulness meditation can help you become more in charge of your health and happiness.

The Mindful Way Through Depression

Recent research has shown that a combination of mindfulness practices and cognitive based therapy (MBCT) is very effective in treating adult depression. This on-going mindfulness group will combine the two modalities along with the benefits of group interaction and support. Intake session required.

For more information, contact Jim Jacobs LICSW, at 651-353-0658.

Living Kindness for Self and Others

Do you have a vigilant "inner critic"? Take the opinions of others too much to heart? Wish for deeper peace and contentment?

Open your capacity to receive goodness with this class on Loving-Kindness. We will look at the beautiful Eastern practice of "Metta" (loving kindness and compassion), meditations that revive hope and joy, remove tension and struggle, and build harmony in our relationships with others.

In this six-week seminar, you will:

• Practice mindfulness of your breath, body and feelings
• Develop awareness of your needs and desires
• Cultivate greater openheartedness and generosity toward yourself and others
• Deepen your acceptance of yourself "just as we are"
• Use the power of your intention to wish for our well-being and the well-being of others

This class introduces classic loving kindness meditation, a protection meditation, and practices for healing the inner critic. It combines silent meditation, guided meditation, mini-presentations, discussion, and class handout-outs.

Mindfulness and the Twelve Steps

This weekly practice group explores basic teachings of the Buddhist practice of mindfulness and their reflection in the twelve steps. The group supplements recovery and is designed to reveal to us that consistent mindfulness and meditation practice is vital to spiritual progress.

We begin each session with a period of meditation and follow with a brief presentation and discussion. Anyone who wants to support a 12-step recovery program with a deepened understanding of meditation and Buddhism is welcome.

Preamble

“We meet Monday evenings, one chapter in a nation-wide community of Twelve Steps and Mindfulness meetings. Our addictions are wide-spread: drugs, alcohol, food, gambling, cigarettes, or codependency. Everyone is welcome.

 We introduce ourselves by going around the circle, saying our first name and Twelve Step affiliation. We have a common interest in meditation practices and how they can inform our recovery from addiction. Each month, we discuss one of the Twelve Steps and how Buddhist thought, meditation, and mindfulness practice can inform its application to our life in recovery. We sit in silent meditation together, hear a talk by one of our members, and share our reflections.

 As with many Twelve Step meetings, we are a diverse group of people, yet we are part of the great stream of beings seeking deeper serenity in our lives, grounded in sobriety by the Twelve Step program, inspired to awaken and live in the present by the practices of mindfulness meditation. In our addictions, we were never here in the moment. We wanted to be gone. Now we are learning to wake up to the joy of being alive. Please make yourself at home.”

Adapted from Mindfulness and the 12-Steps by Thérèse Jacobs Stewart
(MN: Hazelden Publications, 2010.)

Download handout on Meditation Room (“Zendo”) Etiquette

Mindfulness, Yoga, & the 12-Steps: Weekend Spring Retreat, 2012

This weekend retreat explores the spiritual components of 12-Step recovery through a unique integration of mindfulness meditation and gentle yoga practices.

During the weekend of rest and reflection you will:

• Gain a body felt understanding of serenity.
• Deepen your "Conscious Contact" through meditation.
• Experience simple movements to restore sanity and reduce stress.
• Learn a kind and compassionate process for taking personal inventory.
• Come away with a practical plan for using these meditative tools in "all of your affairs."

Join us and take refuge with these practices of meditation and gentle yoga as they apply to 12-step recovery.

St. John's Abbey Guesthouse in Collegeville is ideally located 90 miles NW of the Twin Cities on 2600 acres of woodlands and lakes. Trails into the forest and around the lake literally begin at the front door. Accommodations are private with private bath. Each guest room has a view of Lake Sagatan. There will be time built into the weekend schedule for walking, reading, and napping – away from the demands of daily life.

Weekend Retreats at the Dan Anderson Renewal Center in 2012

Mindfulness, Yoga, and the 12-Steps: Living Recovery in the Present Moment

Awaken your true self through this unique integration of mindfulness meditation and gentle yoga practices. In this weekend of rest and reflection, you will:

Gain a body felt understanding of serenity. Deepen your 11th Step practice of conscious contact through meditation.Experience simple movements to restore sanity and reduce stress.Learn a compassionate process for taking 4th Step and/or 10th Step inventory.Come away with a practical plan for using these tools in all of your life affairs.

Join us for this weekend retreat at the beautiful Dan Anderson Renewal Center at Hazelden and touch the quietude of the "great reality within."

Open to people in all 12-Step recovery programs.

Groveland Fellowship Meeting

Finding Pearls in the Dustbin: Mindfulness and the 12-Steps

More information available at grovelanduu.org.

Groveland UU is a small, lay-led, open and affirming group for those seeking a liberal spiritual home and anyone looking to receive and share ideas basic to a philosophy free of creed and dogma

Women in Recovery Meeting at The Retreat, Wayzata, MN

4th Wednesday ~ June 27, 2012 ~ 7:00 PM
"Women in Recovery" - Women's Meeting at The Retreat

A special evening with Thérèse Jacobs-Stewart, author of Mindfulness and the 12-Steps: Living Recovery in the Present Moment. Thérèse will speak to us about meditation practices that enhance recovery and our 11th-Step.

Learn more and enjoy the fellowship with other women in the recovery community. Treats and fellowship start at 6:30pm with the meeting starting promptly at 7:00pm.

Learn more