Mind Roads Meditation Center

Mindfulness and the 12 Steps

Guest speaker William Alexander on August 9, 2010.

Join us for this special event! Author Bill A., Still Waters: Sobriety, Atonement, and Unfolding Enlightenment, is our guest speaker. Book signing follows the meeting.

Morning Sitting Meditation

When you arrive for early morning meditation, you can park in the back of our building, 2046 Saint Clair Avenue, and come in through the rear entry. If you arrive after the sitting period has begun, please wait until you hear the sound of the bell to enter the meditation studio.

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

Summer Practice Circle

Deepen your meditation practice with weekly sitting, reflection, and support.

This meditation circle offers brief instruction and in sitting meditation, body awareness and walking meditation and loving-kindness practices, as well as an opportunity to practice with others. Participating in a meditation circle is a wonderful way to support your practice and the practice of others.

For anyone who has basic meditation experience at Mind Roads Meditation or another practice center.

Fundamentals of Meditation

An Introduction to Mindfulness and Loving-Kindness Practice

No more wired and tired! Create an oasis of calm by learning to meditate. This class includes instruction in breath awareness, mindfulness, and sitting and walking meditation, with an emphasis on including loving kindness in your relationship with yourself and others. Join us for a "hands-on," supportive approach to getting started with practice and integrating it into daily life. See how mindfulness meditation can help you become more in charge of your health and happiness.

We will follow the practices in Thérèse's book, Paths Are Made By Walking: Practical Steps to Attaining Serenity — a unique synthesis of brain science and the study of spirit, including practices for creating calm, developing mindful awareness, and observing our reactive habits. Classes include lecture, discussion and guided meditation.

This course includes a free copy of the Paths Are Made By Walking meditation CD.

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

2009-2010 Loving Kindness Intensive

This eight-month training will progress through all seven levels of formal Loving Kindness practice. It supports participants in deepening their meditation practice and entering the profound joy of bringing loving kindness to all relationships, including relationships with self, loved ones, and difficult people in our lives. This intensive is designed for participants who have prior experience in mindfulness or loving kindness meditation. A commitment to meditate at least five times a week is required.

The program will provide structured, sustained guidance and contact with Thérèse Jacobs Stewart, as well as encouragement and support from other class members who are in a similar phase in their practice.

Participation in the Loving Kindness Intensive includes:

• Commitment to sit in meditation at least five times a week, at home, at MindRoads Meditation Center (MMC) or at another practice center
• Willingness to participate in body movement practice (yoga warm-ups)
• Attendance at all classes and mini-retreats to the best of your ability
• Participation in small group meetings in the class session
• Keeping a practice journal
• Reading and reflecting on class hand-outs an reading assignments (TBD)

Interested persons apply and are accepted for the year-long program. For a printable application in PDF format, click here.