It is our body’s hunger that leads the way to the telling of the very story that is both the heart of our wound and our remedy. Since we are in fact not separate beings, but intricately interconnected, healing does not happen alone. Healing happens together, in the light of our stories being told and being heard, in the spinning of the tale, the web of our connection. – Nina Wise
Dear Napa Valley Insight Meditation Community,
Please join us this Tuesday evening, August 11th, from 7:00 – 8:30, as NVIM welcomes back Nina Wise as our featured guest teacher. Nina is a gifted theater artist, writer and dharma teacher who was enthusiastically received by our community when she visited us last April. The author of A Big New Free Happy Unusual Life: Self-Expression and Spiritual Practice for Those Who Have Time for Neither, Nina has received several Bay Area Critics’ Circle Awards as well as multiple fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts. As Isabel Allende, author of The House of the Spirits, writes, “Nina is an empowering, joyful, and celebratory guide to a fuller life.”
At one stage in her journey, Nina taught a class at Spirit Rock Meditation Center for people with life-challenging illness called “Buddhism When It Really Matters.” During that time she also wrote an article for Inquiring Mind entitled “The Freedom To Fall Apart.” The following is a passage from that piece:
“When I began to practice Buddhism, I learned that the Buddha presented a methodology for freedom from suffering. I imagined this meant I could manage life’s myriad challenges in a state of steady, unmediated bliss. As my practice deepened, I grew to understand that freedom is not about resting in sublime equanimity despite the suffering of loved ones and strangers. Freedom is about the willingness to feel deeply. Freedom is about the willingness to fall apart. Freedom is about holding onto nothing. And at the heart of that letting go, that dissolution, that surrender, you discover something sublime and unspeakably, heartbreakingly raw. Call it love. Call it compassion. Call it kindness. Call it redemption.”
Hopefully, you’ll be able to join us for another special Tuesday evening with Nina.
On another note, as NVIM expands I want to invite us to bring our attention to welcoming those who are visiting for the first or second time and/or to outreach to those of us who may not have made a connection to someone in our community. This is truly a collective effort as we tend to be welcoming several new people a week! A goal of NVIM’s is to value diversity and welcome people of every race, nationality, gender, sexual orientation, age, and physical ability. I encourage us all to approach the upcoming weeks in a spirit of openness and engagement as our community continues to grow and evolve.
Take care, thank you for your practice, and I look forward to seeing you soon~
Mike Coughlin
Napa Valley Insight Meditation
www.napainsight.org
On-Going NVIM Event & Information:
Thursday Morning Silent Meditation: For those interested in supporting their daily practice, we invite you to join NVIM on Thursday mornings for silent meditation. This 30-minute meditation will begin promptly at 9:00am and is a wonderful opportunity to nurture your practice in an intimate and supportive setting.
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