Monday, September 1, 2008
Greetings,
22 men registered for the last Mindfulness Practicum on the practice of Refraining. The July Practicum was the 4th in the series that began in January, and I’m facilitating one last Practicum for men on Saturday, September 20th, focused on the practice of Discernment. Since this is the last one-day event for men before the October (23-26) retreat and actually for the remainder of this year, it will likely draw attendance from those that have participated in the whole series and those that have had to miss one or more events and those that are looking forward to participating in at least one of the Practicums before the series ends; therefore, if you plan to attend please register early to reserve your spot (new registration flier included with this message). We’re adding names to the pre-registration list now so indicate your intention to participate and we’ll add your name to the list. On the 20th we’ll be doing a review of the 4 practices and then focus on the practice of Discernment. The day will include Mindfulness meditation, conscious connected breathing sessions and discussion.
It’s important to understand the difference between judgment and discernment. The right use of discernment comes closest to what we refer to as exercising sound judgment as distinguished from being judgmental. For instance, we can discern that a person is overweight or that someone is thin. It’s when we have an opinion about whether that’s good or bad that we’ve traveled into the problematic realm of judgment. We can discern that we have a preference for people who believe as we do without judging those who don’t. We may prefer vanilla to chocolate, but that doesn’t make chocolate bad. When we release the judgment habit, we don’t discontinue having preferences, we just let go of applying negative labels and connotations to the things we don’t prefer. We’ll explore the practice of discernment, another facet of Mindfulness Training that allows us to balance our rational thought process in harmony between head and heart.
I’ve had a number of women remind me that I haven’t done an event for women in several years and they’ve requested that I put on some events to include them. With that in mind, I’ve decided to facilitate a Mindfulness Practicum focused on the 5 practices to be held at Holy Spirit Retreat Center on Saturday, November 8th. This event will be a day just for women participants. Rich and Mitch will assist me as we hold the space for the women to convene for their own day of exploration into the training of Mindfulness. More information will be forthcoming, however, feel free to let that special woman in your life know about this event. Further information will be forthcoming.
I have booked 6 more dates at Holy Spirit throughout 2009 commencing in January. My intention is to host a one-day event for couples as well as events to include men and women. I’ll be determining, along the way, how each event will be structured. I trust that you’re enjoying your summer and taking time to be Mindful along the way.
Our 21st Annual Fall Sacred Path Men’s Retreat is less than two months away. Though we were anticipating last April that we’d be in the new building at Hilltop, there were completion delays so that we were still in the tents. However, this October will be the first time in 4 years that we’ll be able to utilize the newly reconstructed facility. We are also excited about the expansion of our program to include US Veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan as well as Vets from previous campaigns such a Vietnam. You will find, included in this newsletter and on our web site, my pre-registration letter and the registration fliers that can be downloaded and printed.
We would greatly appreciate it if you would forward the retreat information to family members, friends and acquaintances. We’re in an expansion mode and wish to reach beyond our regular mailing list to invite new men to join us on the mountain. In addition to the Internet materials we have printed a quantity of hard copies, and if you’d like to have some fliers to distribute, please let us know.
In brotherhood,
Stephen
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