Category Archives: Uncategorized
Springtime Newsletter 2019
Dear Friends,
Trusting this message finds you mindfully moving forth into the blossoming of our new season of Spring 2019. Whilst all seasons are wonderful in their own way, Spring does brighten the mind and lighten the heart as we see and feel the significant changes in nature with its varied flora and fauna.
This week we marked the arrival of Spring with a Sunday Meditation Day Retreat at Ratanagiri – Farrants Hill led by Venerable Pannyavaro from Bodhi Tree Forest...
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Well-being and Warmth in Winter
Dear Friends
Trusting this message finds you well and warm as we progress through our Winter of 2019.
Here on the Tweed Coast of NSW we have has some cool days as well as some much welcomed Winter rain.
Our Half Day Retreat on Sunday 7th July was well attended as usual. We even found some time in between rain showers to do Walking Meditation outside.
The theme of our Retreat was ‘Meditations, Readings and Reflections on Enlightened Living’. This theme allowed me...
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Finding our way home
FINDING OUR WAY HOME!
Dear Friends
In some way or another we are all looking for the place of peace, that place of ease, that place of surrendering the struggle and strain of daily life. We are looking for our home, even Psycho-Spiritually, our ‘Real Home’. It is so easy to become attracted and distracted from the Path and from our Journey.
We might even think that some well made ‘high road’ or ‘Highway’ is better than a bush track or by...
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The Bodhi Tree – Any Tree and All Trees
Easter Personal Retreat: BODHI TREE FOREST MONASTERY – SATIPATTHANA VIPASSANA MEDITATION CENTRE
Dear Friends
This Easter 2019 I took the opportunity to take a Personal Retreat at Bodhi Tree Forest Monastery and Satipattana- Vipassana Meditation Centre.
I saw this time for Personal Meditation Retreat as a both a gift to myself and to all those that I come into contact with; appreciating that if I have greater Calm, Clarity and Insightful Wisdom, this is shared with others.
On Retreat, I delighted in this...
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Autumn Newsletter 2019
Dear Friends,
Trusting this note finds you settling in to our Autumn months and cooler weather. Amidst the rain over the last few days we did have wonderful weather Sunday 31st March for our Half Day Meditation Retreat at Ratangiri – Farrants Hill. Our Retreat was well attended, and I thank all of you that attended for giving up your Sunday to share your presence in Mindful reflection and meditation.
The theme for our Retreat was The Four Foundations for Mindful...
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Life at the Corner
Dear Friends – we often think and feel that our life is mostly about what has been and what will be.
However, this particular philosophy or thesis may be missing the point?
The point being that our life might just be happening right at that still point, that small corner between the past and the future. Take a meaningful pause in the present and breath-in and read-in my poem!
John B.
LIFE AT THE CORNER
It seemed to many of us; most of us;...
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Happy New Year 2019
Dear Friends
Happy New-Year 2019.
I do hope that you have had a pleasant Christmas – New Year break, with some quite time connecting to nature, either in your garden or out somewhere wonderful.
Over the last couple of weeks I have spent quality time in our large garden, both planting and weeding; a great way to connect to the land, to get ‘earthed’ and become grounded in the present much like our plant and tree friends.
I hope that this New Year,...
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The Alchemy of Experience, The year been and the year to become!
Dear Friends
Like all things that come into being and then change or pass away, so too this year of ours now finds its ending.
With Mindfulness and Wisdom, we can transform experiences into opportunities for great growth of Insight and Understanding. This can especially be the case where life has been challenging. This is what I call ‘The Alchemy of Experience’. Here we can transform some base unpleasant experience into the priceless worth and wealth of Wisdom.
We now have...
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Summer 2018 Newsletter
Dear Friends
Welcome to Summer.
I trust this note finds you well and warm having arrived into our new month of December and the new Season of Summer.
It is now 2 years since I closed my Psychology Practice and Meditation Centre – WELL-AWARE-NESS in Sydney and made the move to live and work full time on the Far North Coast of NSW. I do hope that those of you that live in Sydney have been able to find a suitable replacement...
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STILL-HERE; STILL-NOW; STILL-LIFE; STILL KNOWING
STILL-HERE; STILL-NOW; STILL-LIFE; STILL KNOWING
Dear Friends
There is a way of ‘Knowing’ that is far superior and far surpasses the domain of thought. This ‘Knowing’ is a way of seeing, feeling, knowing and being that informs a different way of experiencing life. This ‘Knowing’ creates a depth of intimacy and even a coalescence with the known. It is a ‘Knowing’ that is both fundamental and primary. It is the source of profound understanding and great insight. It accesses and...
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