Wise Caregiving

Ignorance is the contraction of awareness. It is the foundation of our suffering. Jonathan Prescott describes how ignorance traps us and how the miracle of mindfulness offers a way back to the freedom of the present moment.

Jonathan Prescott describes how indolence is failing to act on what we know. We can be indolent by doing too little, but also by doing too much. This is the 5th talk in the 8 Realizations of Great Beings practice period.

Michael Melancon offers a beautiful explanation of how the human mind is always searching outside itself and never feels fulfilled. This is the 4th talk in our 8 Realizations of the Great Beings practice period.

Jonathan Prescott looks into the second Great Realization - that more desire brings more suffering - and offers a practice for transforming our own desire.

Gail Kirgis offers a beautiful guided meditation that brings us into intimate contact with impermanence.

Michael Melancon explores the first of the 8 Realizations of the Great Beings - Impermanence

In this first talk of the 8 Realizations of the Great Beings Practice Period, Michael Melancon shares the historical context of the Sutra's Silk Road roots and Jonathan Prescott explores the Sutra's first word - wholeheartedly.

In this conversation between old friends, Jonathan Prescott and Michael Melancon discuss joy - what it is, what it is not, and how to foster it in your life. They look to their 20+ year friendship as a training ground for finding joy in practice forms, generosity, relationships, and the accomplishments of others. Although they use different language to describe joy, both agree that joy is what sur...

Fear stalks us all. It lurks in the shadows and avoids our conscious awareness. But fear is not something to fear. It is something to turn towards, embrace and transform. Fear is an energy that both protects us and distorts us. Helpful fear keeps us out of danger, but sometimes hardens into unhelpful fears that color our perceptions and separate us from reality. Our practice is a healing balm that...

Jonathan Prescott tells stories of kindness so we can feel kindness come alive in our bodies. But kindness is more than a feeling; it's an action, so we explore what kindness is and how we can cultivate kind actions that benefit everyone. ----------- This week, we bathed ourselves in kindness. We enjoyed stories told by both the givers and receivers of kindness and felt the experiences in our own...

We might not be sure whether a Buddha gets angry, but we're certain that anger stalks us. In this talk, Jonathan explores how to practice with our anger by walking that knife's edge between denial and indulgence. ~~~~ This week, we asked 'Does a Buddha get angry?' Well, who knows? But it's clear that anger stalks each of us, so maybe a better question is 'What do we do with our anger?' The Buddha...

Silence is the foundation of a contemplative life. Jonathan Prescott explores outer silence, inner silence, and their roles in deepening our engagement with the world. ~~~~~ May you open the gift of solitude In order to receive your soul; Enter the generosity of silence To hear your hidden heart; Know the serenity of stillness To be enfolded anew By the miracle of your being. -- John O'Donohue Joh...

In this second Unapoletically Ourselves Retreat talk, Michael Melancon leads us towards finding equanimity and balance so that we can be ourselves in this challenging world.

In this first talk of the Unapologetically Ourselves Retreat, Jonathan Prescott shows how vulnerability and difficulty can open the door to our True Self.

Zen invites us not to simply answer the questions, but to question the answers. Jonathan Prescott explores how to use the open mind of Great Doubt to foster awe, wonder, humility, and connection. ~~~~~ We humans are a curious lot. We have questions and want answers. But Zen reminds us to not simply answer the questions: Zen questions the answers. It challenges our certainty with paradox and our op...

Join Jonathan Prescott for an exploration into our ancestors. Our ancestors were humans, just like us. They made mistakes, just like us. Can we find a way to forgive their shortcomings right now, in our own lives? And can we learn to be better ancestors ourselves? ~~~~ This week, The Anacortes Mindfulness Community held our ancestors in love. We practiced the 5 Earth Touchings to bring to honor th...

Jonathan Prescott offers practices to help us smooth our sharp edges and become beacons of love in this world of suffering. ~~~~~ Oh boy! We don’t seem to be getting along. Pundits shout => Leaders fail => We fall. If we don’t change, if we don’t stop screaming, ‘IT’S ALL YOUR FAULT!’ our suffering will only get worse. Luckily, we have access to something far more powerful than suffering: Love. Ou...

In this week's Dharma talk, Jonathan Prescott offered 5 ways to understand (and benefit from) the teachings of our Golden Age Zen masters. During Zen’s Golden Age in China (6th - 10th centuries), Zen teachers spoke a direct, poetic language. Modern English speakers can have a hard time understanding what they were saying, so Jon suggested that we learn a few Zenglish hints. They include: The Zen M...

This week, we returned to the ‘our minds are a mess’ theme and looked unflinchingly at the three-ring-circus of our minds. Even as we resolve to sit in meditation and simply observe, we find ourselves almost instantly swept into our minds' dramas and ruminations. In Buddhism, we name this experience samsara. In English, we name it delusion. Naming helps. Naming is a three-step practice: Name what...

If we want to escape being victims of our mind, we have to understand how our mind works. A map helps; even (and especially) a simple one. The simple mind map we’ll look at today has only two elements: perception and evaluation. Perception: Our mind perceives what arrives through the senses. Humans have many ways to perceive the world (more than the traditional five senses) and in Zen we recognize...

Guest teacher Michael Melancon shares warm wisdom about using COVID to see more deeply into our relationships with the earth and our practice.

This week we continued our study of Thich Nhat Hanh’s book Peace Is Every Step by reading and discussing how to decompartmentalize our lives and embrace aimlessness. Thay points out that it’s common to be mindful in the meditation hall yet not in the kitchen, or to be kind to strangers but less kind to our spouse. He invites us to see every moment and activity as a single compartment that holds ou...

We met online again this week, welcoming guests from as far away as Canada and Connecticut. The evening began with a short Dharma talk and guided meditation to help us transform our fear. Jon invited us to identify and embrace five debilitating, chronic fears in order to see them as states of mind that prevent us from living happily in the here and now. If you missed it, you can listen HERE. After...

This week we enjoyed our first-ever Anacortes Mindfulness Community online gathering. We shared our open-hearted presence without sharing any pesky viruses :) We began our Peace Is Every Step practice period by learning a bit about Thich Nhat Hanh, including what led him to write the book we’re currently enjoying. For more information about Thay’s life, explore this article. Thay can’t be understo...

Zen is a meditation-based form of Buddhist practice that offers a stripped-down, direct experience of the present moment. Zen is lived rather than understood. Words about Zen are nonsense. And yet, here are some words...