We train and we practice to emerge knowing our own natural goodness- a compassionate form of wakefulness.

In our mindfulness and in our meditation practice, our early training may be quite frustrating at times as we are routinely distracted by this highly conditioned mind that routinely wanders away from our intent to be still and watchful. This is what our minds have been trained and ‘wired’ to do- to be restless and distracted. In this practice, we experience a direct rotation of consciousness in our training to “stay” calmly and peacefully rather than submit to our habitual conditioning of to “go” and to “run”. To walk this path- this Way of awakened nature requires a purposeful intention- one motivated with curiosity, freshness, fullness, and immediacy. Mindfulness training is not a part-time endeavor- it’s a lifetime practice- a way of seeing, sensing, perceiving, relating, being, and doing… both on the cushion and in our everyday activities.

Fitness of the mind is cultivated from a calm, stable, and open presence of free attention and spacious awareness. Our training and practice serves to uncover what is already within us. Through this awakening process,we uncover and reconnect with a power that resonates not only within our own being but collectively within us all. The highly revered Thich Nhat Hanh refers to this universal quality of interconnection as interbeing. It is the umbilical chord that joins the collective experience of mind and heart, and which perpetuates the potential of the human race to not only live but to thrive in peace and in harmony.

We train and develop confidence in the awareness of our natural goodness- and in our capacity to be compassionately wakeful for ourselves- for the people we love- for all the people around us- and for our planet as a whole.There is no ‘separateness’ as mind, heart, awareness, and experience are one. The whole of who we are is mindfully centered and present in the fullness of our experience. Our fitness and strength in confidence and stability is born from our direct and genuine experience not only in the practice but in our daily lives.

Our faith is to stand in the face of all that we have been conditioned to believe about the Way of our habitual existence. Our practice will become a real testing ground for the truth of our own basic goodness.Through ongoing contemplation and reflection, we will ask the questions and look deeply within our practice to gently and carefully inquire of another Way– free of mindless and mechanical reactiveness and habituation.

Daily exercises and insights for mindful living can help us focus directly on training with free, stable attention and open awareness. Our meditation in motion is looking and observing without resistance and friction from what we are afraid to face- nor is this movement intended to foster attraction and attachment to the potential bliss of our resting or relaxation in the empty space we may experience through this compassionate Way of awareness. To effectively train in the fitness of our own minds- we must learn to simply attend from where we are- in the here and the now– calmly and steadily abiding to whatever our experience beholds as this is our path to our true nature and to a life of presence.

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