Meditation Opportunities

Thursday evenings at First Presbyterian  

We will meet for meditation on all Thursdays in January and February from 7:00 – 9:00 pm in the fellowship hall. Our format for the first hour is two 20-minute periods of sitting in silence with a 10 minute walking meditation in between.  For the second hour, we are doing a contemplative listening book reading.  The book was recommended to us by Ruben Habito and is titled Selfless Love:  Beyond the Boundaries of Self and Others  by Ellen Birx.   Ellen shows how meditation can help us realize that we don’t love — we are love.  She draws from the Zen tradition, her experience as a mental health therapist, and the Gospels.  We will read a short portion of the book together out loud, sit with it in silence, and then share with each other.  You do not need to read the book ahead of time or even buy the book if you don’t want to.  You can just listen.

Tuesday evenings at Hei’s house

Hei has opened his house to those who would like to join him for meditation from 6:00pm – 6:30pm on Tuesdays.  It is one half hour of sitting meditation.    Please call him at 899-4845 for directions and to let him know that you are coming so he can prepare a place for you.                                                               

January Retreat Day 

Saturday, January 31, 2015

8:30 am -1:00 pm

In the Fellowship Hall

Past Watchful Dragons:
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Purification by trial to prepare for spiritual warfare? Who cares? No one, until a modern teen defeats a fire-breathing dragon by out-flying it on his broomstick … then it’s a record-breaking book and movie!

Join us on Saturday, January 31 for our Monterey Meditation Retreat Day. In addition to our two sittings of meditation, Susan Raab will tap into Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (book 4) to reveal another layer of how Harry cast his global spell with J.K. Rowling’s enchanting system of heart-touching Christian symbols.

Coffee, tea and refreshments will be provided.  A freewill offering will be available. 

Upcoming Events

Ongoing                                Hei’s Tai Chi class at Oldemeyer

Center (Tu/Thur at 10:30 am)

February 28                         MMG Retreat Day of Zen sitting

8:30 am – 3:00 pm

Summary of November’s Retreat Day

Our retreat topic in November, “The Science of Connectedness”, was presented by Joe Neary and Joseph Cottam. One of the books that inspired the topic was written by the late Benedictine monk, Bede Griffiths titled A New Vision of Reality: Western Science, Eastern Mysticism and Christian Faith. In this book Bede describes the usual view of reality (book published in 1989) as a reductionist approach in which we take apart the whole to examine its parts. Bede put forth the questions, “What if the whole is greater than the sum of its parts?” and “Are we missing anything?”.

The two Joe’s addressed these issues using current research in the scientific field of Quantum Mechanics and by looking at the work of a Christian Jesuit and paleontologist, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin.

The second half was a look at practical spirituality and the ways that we can practice our spirituality.

I am not able to sum up our day together any better than how Chris, one of our participants, described the day:

“Today’s retreat with the two Josephs was excellent. The second half was especially outstanding. They touched on spiritual practices that I had often thought about, but had never put into words. I loved the thought that we are all connected with creatures, inanimate objects, and other human beings and that what we do on this earth has a spiritual connection, even if it is something as simple as doing the dishes. Sometimes in our daily lives we need a boost to keep pressing on, and the two Josephs gave us all a great spiritual blessing today.”

In closing,

Come out of the circle of time,

and into the circle of love.

Rumi