I’m sharing my love for meditation, my joy in Santa Fe and my sweet little casita home with a series of meditation retreats this summer.

I would love to have you join me!

The July dates align with the Santa Fe International Folk Art Market (which I mentioned in my Mothers of the World post), and the rich Hispanic culture ofSpanish Market.

In August, follow 2 days of heart-opening meditation with the soul and spirit of Santa Fe Indian Market. This 92-year-old Native art market is the largest and most prestigious Native arts market in the world and the largest cultural event in the southwest.

Our meditation retreat time goes from 9 am to 5pm each day. You can easily send family and friends off to explore Santa Fe while you’re on retreat, then join them Market festivities on the weekend.

Meditation. Vacation. Celebration.
This summer in Santa Fe.

Registration details are coming soon. Be sure you’re on the mailing list for updates and my special gift for early registration.

 
As we approach Mother’s Day, I’m delighted with the stories by and about mothers who have made the world a better place.

I watch my friends who are parents, astounded by the profound sacrifices and commitments they’ve made to their children in a spirit of tenderness and love.

I think of the global, growing phenomenon of Grandmother Power. These women are embracing the needs of their communities. They inspire us all.

I revel in the stories told by Santa Fe International Folk Art Market artisans. They bring their beautiful creations here, and return to their people with dreams for their villages and the money to make those dreams come true.

And I bow to the tiny, holy actions that go unsung every day. Done with great love and without fanfare, simply because someone saw a need and answered it.

A Mother’s Love

In the Buddhist tradition a mother’s love for her only child is held as the model for the highest, purest love.

We are all called to be Mothers of the World, caring for all beings as a mother would care for her only child.

How do you answer the call?
 
 
Join us in August for a Mothers of the World / Santa Fe retreat! Details coming soon. You want to be on the mailing list for this! Sign up on the right.
 
 

I’m sharing this video as my offering for Tara Mohr’s Grandmother Power blog campaign. Click here to visit Tara’s blog campaign for more inspiring offerings.
 

 
When you’re heartsick you may forget that you have a choice.

You can helplessly follow the scattered trail of your thoughts and emotions. replay scenes, chase after every story, multiply “the suffering of suffering” on top of the initial pain.
 

Or you can choose radiance.

Hold the paradox of inner strength and grief in the same moment. Be present with your feelings and at the same time unbound.

Your radiance is always present within you.

Sometimes it comes in a surge of love. The birth of a child. Making love. Being in nature.

Other times it appears when you’re forced to your knees in surrender. When there is nothing solid to hold onto, you discover a luminosity that exists in spite of everything.

Today was the day I planned to announce the Radiant Inner Silence retreat. I planned to start a conversation about silence as an essential element of stepping into your true magnificence.

I’ll leave the link here because I believe we desperately need silence to reclaim the radiance that will heal our lives, our families and communities.

But this day requires something a little more immediate, so I leave you with these thoughts and invite you to share your responses.

When you’re heartsick…

Choose awareness even though it is harder.
 

Commit to train in radiance.

Vow to take everything life sends your way onto the path of love and compassion.

Practice Tonglen meditation, breath in the pain and suffering of others and send out love.

If you don’t know Tonglen, or if it feels like to much for you, just send love.

With your breath, with your thoughts, with your heart send love to others.

That is how you train in radiance.

 
If you resonate with these words please share the love. Leave a comment, link on FB, Tweet, and Pin. Thank you!

Since we have a lot of new people coming to the site, I’m going to share some foundational themes about meditation, Heart Center, and how my focus is different than you may have found in other meditation programs.
 

Last week I wrote about meditation beyond the cushion.
 
Today I write about choice and how meditation supports our becoming.
 

Every single day I say prayers for the happiness of all beings. I know what suffering is and I never want any to experience it in any way shape or form. But the paradox is, speaking from personal experience only, my life becomes more clear and more powerful through my experiences of pain.  I want to give voice to the potential that lies within those experiences.

We don’t have the ability to control our circumstances in any given moment. But we always have choices in how we respond.

We get to choose who we are and who we become.

Maybe we have to make that choice more than once. Maybe we have to keep re-membering ourselves, especially when life turns upside down.

What do we do when we’ve lost touch with who we are? Or when we can’t be who and what we want to be? How do we find security in the middle of loss or change and lack of control?

Meditation, specifically heart meditation on love and compassion, became my lifeline through my darkest days. It helped me stay in contact with daily reality. At the same time, it showed me something much bigger. Pure love, the ground of our being.

When you hear the word meditation, you may have some kind of image in your head. But I’m talking about more than sitting on a cushion. Meditation is continual practice of returning to awareness.

It may mean sitting. Just as often it includes engaging awareness “on the spot” throughout the day.

I understand suffering. Right now your wish may be as direct as freedom from fear, grief, or anger. You may need a break, the blessing of one single moment of ease.  You may feel the most you can hope for is less stress and a little peace of mind.

Meditation will help you find a quality of spaciousness you didn’t know you possessed. Space to rest and heal, clarity to face what is real for you, compassion for yourself and for others.

Meditation provides a vehicle, a chariot, for transformation. You can hope for more than stress-relief. Make room to shift beyond self-grasping to discovering comfort in the world. Make room to become who you are inside, regardless of outer circumstances. Believe, for just a moment, you can develop a heartfelt connection with all beings

When you develop inner stillness, you’ll discover that love and compassion arise naturally. You cultivate it for yourself and the people you’re close to, then expand it in every widening circles.

In time something unexpected and almost magical will happen. Your capacity for compassion deepens. You begin to experience a quality of love beyond anything you’ve ever known. You catch a glimpse of what it must be like to have the heart and mind of a great leader or spiritual master.

Your clear mind, your unobstructed heart is not different from these great Teachers.

You, we (!) can become a source of blessings in these times.

If you resonate with these words please share the love. Leave a comment, link on FB, Tweet, and Pin. Thank you!

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Let’s begin with something I feel passionate about…
 

Meditation Beyond the Cushion

Without thinking about it, form a picture in your mind of You. Meditating.

Where are you? What does your meditation look like? Are you sitting on a cushion? Doing walking meditation? Gazing into a cloudless blue sky?

While I don’t know exactly what you’ve envisioned, I think I can safely assume you didn’t picture yourself dragging bags through a crowded airport when all flights have been canceled, sitting with tears streaming down your face as you read the latest news, or watching a child (and their parent) have an emotional meltdown in the grocery store.

I doubt you imagined yourself struggling with exhaustion, having a huge argument with someone you care about, or sitting with a friend who is grieving.

Let me tell you, these are exactly what your meditation practice should look like. These are the moments you need draw on clear inner stillness to respond with care. They’re the moments when acting with love, compassion and awareness can truly bring benefit.

These are the moments you come face to face with strength or weakness of your meditation practice and begin to see the potential of your own blossoming.

Maybe you will catch a happy glimpse of fruition, “Ah, I handled that a little better than I would have in the past.”

Or you’ll discover you’ve increased your capacity to be lovingly present, regardless of circumstances.

Just as often you will notice your lack of skillful means, the button that got pushed again. Even that noticing is a sign of new awareness.

Meditation is a dynamic process of cultivating heart and mind while actively engaged with the world. Sometimes it will look like sitting on a cushion, but just as often it will be called forth in response to daily life.

I call that meditation beyond the cushion.

If you resonate with these words please share the love. Leave a comment, link on FB, Tweet, and Pin. Thank you!

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It’s been hard to keep quiet. But I wanted to make the announcement on my birthday and now, after a full day of celebrating, it’s time!

Not long ago, I wrote I was walking an inner pilgrimage and coming to peace with some losses in life.

I’m humbled and immensely grateful to say the Promised Land emerged as the creation of a meditation center, both on the web and in Santa Fe.

A meditation center!

I’m the founder of a meditation center.

This feels ordinary and at the same time extraordinary.

I’ve been thinking about creating a meditation community for a long time. I wrote an initial “manifesto” back in September. I even chose the name, Heart Center, and fell so immediately in love with it I forgot to check if the domain name was available. (It wasn’t.)

I was sitting in meditation on February 14th when the words Heart Center for Meditation swept into my mind, along with a feeling of absolute rightness.

A Perceptual Shift

I never imagined this movement, from MahalaMazerov.com to HeartCenterforMeditation.org, would create such powerful change, but it has already begun.

When I was creating as myself, I almost didn’t know how to write about anything except my own direct experience. I know what works for me. But it’s uncomfortable suggesting what you should do or feel. I wrote, and I trusted you to take what resonated.

As the founder of a meditation center, I step outside of myself with ease. I focus on the fundamentals you should know, the practices that will bring you the most benefit, how to present them, and the order they should be offered.

It’s easy and natural to shift the focus of attention to you and your needs.

My priority is creating meditation programs and resources that will serve you, no matter what life is sending your way.

I will always be sharing my experience. But blogging will take a back seat to these other creations.

Right now I am making prayers, dreaming curriculum, and preparing this new home. I so want you to be part of it.

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Come along for the journey. It’s a whole new pilgrimage, and it’s sure to be beautiful.

I have started previous blogs with this very prayer. It seems fitting to continue the tradition.

May all beings everywhere
Plagued by sufferings of body and mind
Obtain an ocean of happiness and joy
By virtue of my merits.

May no living creature suffer,
Commit evil or ever fall ill.
May no one be afraid or belittled,
With a mind weighed down by depression.

May the blind see forms,
And the deaf hear sounds.
May those whose bodies are worn with toil
Be restored on finding repose.

May the naked find clothing,
The hungry find food;
May the thirsty find water
And delicious drinks.

May the poor find wealth,
Those weak with sorrow find joy;
May the forlorn find hope,
Constant happiness and prosperity.

May there be timely rains
And bountiful harvests;
May all medicine be effective
And wholesome prayers bear fruit.

May all who are sick and ill
Quickly be freed from their ailments.
Whatever diseases there are in the world,
May they never occur again.

May the frightened cease to be afraid
And those bound be freed;
May the powerless find power
And may people think of benefiting each other.

If you resonate with these words please share the love. Leave a comment, link on FB, Tweet, and Pin. Thank you!

Sign the mailing list for updates, special announcements, and early bird pricing!