neilmckinlay.blogspot.com
Learning to News | Occasional Reflections on Living: October 2011
http://neilmckinlay.blogspot.com/2011_10_01_archive.html
Monday, 31 October 2011. My daughter likes the Beach Boys. It might, actually, be more accurate to report that my daughter loves. The Warmth of the Sun. Is a 2007 sequel to the 2003 compilation Sounds of Summer. As the second in this series, Warmth. Not exactly a tune that dances to mind when this group is mentioned. From one perspective, this fact can be seen as evidence of a horse that has been finally flogged to death. Summer. Some history might be helpful. In broad terms, the Beach Boys’ ca...This sp...
neilmckinlay.blogspot.com
Learning to News | Occasional Reflections on Living: June 2012
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Tuesday, 12 June 2012. It seems a good question. Depression has been a recurrent companion these last months. Given this frequency of appearance, it seems fair - perhaps even incumbent upon me - to ask, to put Chogyam Trungpa’s assertion to test with this painfully familiar experience. Is depression sacred? I have to admit no immediate answer here. Is depression sacred? I just don’t know. What might that look like, sacred depression? What might this mean? How does it appear? Of questioning, inquisitivene...
neilmckinlay-schedules.blogspot.com
Neil McKinlay - Teaching Schedules: Winter / Spring 2017
http://neilmckinlay-schedules.blogspot.com/2017/01/winter-spring-2017.html
Wednesday, January 11, 2017. Winter / Spring 2017. Below is my teaching schedule for Winter 2017. As always, there is a wide range here - events of varying length and format, events appropriate to beginning and experienced meditators alike. All reflect the training I receive from Reggie Ray and the Dharma Ocean lineage. Among more familiar offerings, a few events require comment:. Finally, there a number of longer events slated through the coming months. These include a day-long program at Royal Road...
neilmckinlay.blogspot.com
Learning to News | Occasional Reflections on Living: November 2011
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Monday, 28 November 2011. I’ve been dealing with dragons. A lot of the beasts have shown up lately: a couple of dreams; a side-of-the-bus advertisement; a song. There have been no fewer than three appearances in recent reading material. This morning when I sat down to meditate, two of the creatures swirled about as I practiced. Or, more accurately, as I tried to practice. 8217; ‘Where the hell are these coming from? 8217; ‘Why won’t they leave me alone, in peace, to practice? We live in an era when so ma...
neilmckinlay.blogspot.com
Learning to News | Occasional Reflections on Living: November 2013
http://neilmckinlay.blogspot.com/2013_11_01_archive.html
Friday, 1 November 2013. How do I write what I don’t want to write? These words have been lingering almost a year. The question invites me forward and, feeling their pull, I retract again and again. Just look at this blog; the most recent post is eleven months old. In the year prior to this, more than thirty pieces appeared. This is a sudden and dramatic downturn. She whispers - resist. What words emerged in the course of this vigil? How does one care for a body. Braced against long ago assaults. Life wa...
neilmckinlay.blogspot.com
Learning to News | Occasional Reflections on Living: February 2014
http://neilmckinlay.blogspot.com/2014_02_01_archive.html
Saturday, 8 February 2014. Things Have Changed - Not. I am officially, unreservedly, unashamedly in love with Bob Dylan’s Super Bowl commercial. The YouTube version. Of this spot has, within seven days of its initial airing, earned close to eight million views; I personally have accounted for at least a dozen of this number. And it’s always been like this. In pictures dating back to his years as a so-called “protest singer”, the “voice” and “conscience of a generation”...There’s always been a sense...
neilmckinlay.blogspot.com
Learning to News | Occasional Reflections on Living: October 2012
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Wednesday, 24 October 2012. I’ve left the element on. At one point I assumed this dynamic would lessen. Abandoning one agenda today certainly means I’ll get to do what I want tomorrow. Right? Out on the street I curse myself again. Then I do what now seems near inevitable: I turn around and head for home. There is no time - have I told you this? How else to explain all these appearances? Breath coming short and sharp? A recently slammed door pressing against the moist warmth of my back? Each of these arr...
neilmckinlay.blogspot.com
Learning to News | Occasional Reflections on Living: May 2012
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Friday, 25 May 2012. Chimes of Maitri Flashing. Over the last eighteen months I have done a lot of this work. It may have, in fact, become my main practice. Having committed so much time and energy here, I am now quite familiar with the process: open the heart, welcome a woundedness, allow these to intermingle. One morning, while practicing with loneliness, something appeared in this transitional space. Or rather, some one. Soon I was meditating with loneliness placed before me and a semi-circle of other...
neilmckinlay.blogspot.com
Learning to News | Occasional Reflections on Living: September 2011
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Thursday, 29 September 2011. One of the curious things about all the meditation programs I’ve attended over the years is how little I actually remember of them. I have passed months in shrine rooms, listening. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of hours. Yet what I recall seems barely enough to fill a few blank pages. For a moment,” Pema Chodron once commented. Indeed. 8221; Though I cannot recollect what came either before or after this phrase, I remember the reaction deep in my bones. I was terrified. Things ...
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The Teachers – BLISS OF BEING – Meditation / Wellness Series
https://freecommunitymeditations.wordpress.com/the-teachers
BLISS OF BEING – Meditation / Wellness Series. BUILDING COMMUNITY AND STRENGTHENING CONNECTIONS. Dates, Times , Locations. Sponsors / Community Donors. 2017 Meditation and Wellness Series. Rosalind Taylor teaches personal yoga, mindful movement and yoga nidra. Yoga nidra is a guided meditative inquiry practiced lying down in a comfortable supported position. Rosalind. For your reading pleasure, a great article introducing yoga nidra in Yoga Journal. Find out more about Rosalind at her website above.