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For the freedom you deserve ..   for the world we long for

Meditations is simply
an intelligent way
to enjoy your life.

Thich Nhat Hanh

 

Meditations from
Manzanita Village

Morning Meditations 2021

New Year Prayer – The Inevitability Process *

Caitriona Reed 01/02/2021

The Five Precepts

Link to the Five Precepts

1 Non-Harming

Michele Benzamin-Miki 01/04/2021

2 Not Taking – Just Enough

Caitriona Reed  01/07/2021

3 Eros

Michele Benzamin-Miki   01/09/2021

4 Speech

Caitriona Reed  01/11/2021

5 The Intoxication of Consumption

Michele Benzamin-Miki  01/14/2021


How can we sustain deep awareness of the suffering of the world, without being utterly overwhelmed? How can we live with that awareness, and be informed by it, even nourished by it, and allow it to bring us to ever deeper balance and joy, to self-actualization—rather than  being devastated, or reduced to neurosis, rage, anxiety, fear, or numbness? How can we hold great the fear and sorrow, without turning into another expression of the problems we are facing?  


Sila . Samadhi . Prajna

(integrity – focus – wisdom)

Caitriona Reed 01/16/2021

Anger . Fear . Love

Michele Benzamin-Miki   01/18/2021

Internal Congruity and Visioning

Caitriona Reed 01/21/2021

Gratitude and Trust

Michele Benzamin-Miki  01/23/2021

Breathing Through

Caitriona Reed  01/25/2021

Walking Meditation *

Michele Benzamin-Miki  01/28/2021

Eating as Meditation *

Caitriona Reed  01/30/2021

Five Skandas – Heart Sutra

Caitriona Reed  02/04/2021

Resilience. Inner Resources

Michele Benzamin-Miki   02/06/2021

Awareness of Feelings (Vedana)

Caitriona Reed 02/08/2021

Awareness of Perception 

Michele Benzamin-Miki  02/11/2021

Loving Kindness Meditation

Michele Benzamin-Miki  02/14/2021

Four Boundless States – Brahma Viharas 

Caitriona Reed  02/16/2021

Five Elements 

Michele Benzamin-Miki   02/20/2021

Four Directions 

Caitriona Reed  02/22/2021

Foundations of Mindfulness

Michele Benzamin-Miki   02/25/2021

Anchoring the Four Boundless States

Caitriona Reed    02/27/2021

Deep Relaxation

Michele Benzamin-Miki   03/01/2021

Gratitude for all things

Caitriona Reed  03/04/2021

Meditation as Poetry

Michele Benzamin-Miki   03/06/2021

Just Sitting

Caitriona Reed    03/08/2021

Renewal

Michele Benzamin-Miki    03/11/2021

The River – No Separation

Caitriona Reed     03/13/2021

Earth – No Separate Self

Michele Benzamin-Miki      03/15/2021

Fire – Bodhicitta

Caitriona Reed       03/18/2021

Air – Breath – Consciousness

Michele Benzamin-Miki       03/20/2021

Only “Don’t Know”

Caitriona Reed        03/22/2021

Everyday Loving Kindness

Michele Benzamin-Miki         03/25/2021

The Three Times

Caitriona Reed         03/29/2021

The Practice of Gratitude

Michele Benzamin-Miki          04/01/2021

Meditation on Touch

Caitriona Reed         04/03/2021

Walking Meditation

Michele Benzamin-Miki         04/05/2021

Healing Mind, Healing Body

Caitriona Reed          04/08/2021

Loving Kindness – Ancestors and Future Generations

Michele Benzamin-Miki           04/15/2021

Tara Meditation

Michele Benzamin-Miki           04/22/2021

Dance of Tara

Caitriona Reed  04/24/2021

Manjushri – Heart of Wisdom and Compassion

Michele Benzamin-Miki   04/26/2021

You Are Pachamama

Caitriona Reed  04/29/2021

Suffering, Sickness, Old-Age, and Death

Caitriona Reed  05/06/2021

Cause of Suffering 

Michele Benzamin-Miki   05/10/2021

Choose Freedom 

Caitriona Reed    05/13/2021

Mindfulness 

Michele Benzamin-Miki    05/15/2021

Right View 

Caitriona Reed     05/17/2021

Right Speech 

Michele Benzamin-Miki      05/20/2021

Right Thought – Right Intention

Caitriona Reed       05/22/2021

Right Action – Right Livelihood

Michele Benzamin-Miki        05/24/2021

Right Effort – Energy

Caitriona Reed         05/27/2021

Right Mindfulness – Right Concentration

Michele Benzamin-Miki          05/29/2021

Inter Being *

Caitriona Reed         05/31/2021

The Four Boundless States

Michele Benzamin-Miki          06/03/2021

No Safety

Caitriona Reed           06/05/2021

There is no safety, ever. Once you have chosen to love, to have longing, to follow an art or devotion, you automatically accept your death as payment for being blessed with a mortal life to live out your longing.
– Martin Prechtel

Taking Refuge in the Sacred (Three Jewels)

Caitriona Reed           06/10/2021

Meditation on Time *

Michele Benzamin-Miki           06/12/2021

Unconditional Love for Yourself *

Caitriona Reed            06/14/2021

Pachamama – Expansion

Michele Benzamin-Miki            06/21/2021

Stories

Caitriona Reed            06/24/2021

Health and Healing

Michele Benzamin-Miki             06/26/2021

Prayer for the Seven Directions *

Caitriona Reed              06/28/2021

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Caitriona Reed and Michele Benzamin-Miki

10 Comments

  1. Charlie Miles
    April 19, 2020 @ 7:57 am

    I am deeply grateful to be able to participate in this practice with Michele, Caitriona, and all of the other participants. The guided meditations have helped me reconnect with my sense of the divine, the beauty of life, and brought me great joy amidst this challenging period when so many suffer. I am honored by the trust and insight shared by the group, and look forward to continuing to practice in this way and learn from one another.

    Reply

  2. Richard Prystowsky
    April 19, 2020 @ 8:18 am

    During this time of disconnect in the world, and prior to our engaging in these daily meditations, I often felt anxious and fearful. I am so grateful to Michele and Caitriona for bringing this meditation practice to us in this time of uncertainty. Indeed, the daily meditations–and the accompanying support from and connection with the group–have given me a way, have given me permission, both to accept with lovingkindness and to lean into my own fear and anxiety. The result has been quite healing. I feel deeply connected and grateful to Caitriona, Michele, and the group for helping me to discover joy and a sense of inner calm in the midst of, and perhaps even sometimes because of, the pervading sense of anxiety, fear, and uncertainty that otherwise could overwhelm me.

    Reply

  3. Maxine
    April 19, 2020 @ 9:26 am

    This meditation series has changed my life! and the lives of my family! for the positive! Seriously!
    These daily morning sessions during the 2020 stay home pandemic have transformed me from claustrophobic, snarling grouch to a much more peaceful, loving member of my household. They can tell something’s different, and they are grateful and respond in kind and kindnesses.
    For me, each morning I follow the calm, guiding voice of Michele or Caitriona, exploring different breathing exercises or visualizations to feel more relaxed, more positive and better connected. Though many times I did not feel much happen during the session, sometimes due to intense chaos of family, by the time of my bedtime journal writing, I could see clearly the meditation had influenced my day in a positive, thematic way. I also, during this session, gained the strength to say, “This can wait, I’m going to meditate,” and go put on my noise cancelling headphones and escape the drama for a blessed time. I return to the fray much less frayed.
    Also, during this zoom session, I enjoyed sharing the screen with a wonderful and generous community connected to Manzanita Village, to spend the morning with a group of wise, thoughtful, joyous people has really helped to expand my world and my heart during this constrained time.
    Plus, with an additional nudge of some of their constellation work, I’m been successful in clearing out enough working space in my cluttered studio to start making art again! It started with removing some parental stuff, literally and energetically. Yay for powerful magic with common objects!
    To you dear reader, I recommend you take the leap! You’re stay-cationing anyway. Travel by sound across the internet to a beautiful place inside yourself!

    Reply

  4. Penny and Joe Gully
    April 19, 2020 @ 10:56 am

    We are so grateful to Michele and Caitriona for making this meditation series available. Every meditation offers up something different, a different aspect of thoughts, feelings, and spirituality to examine, take in, change perspective, let go of or embrace. It has been profound for us, the meditation and discussion stays with us all day, sometimes for days, it has brought up some wonderful conversations and further examination, it is life changing. I (Penny) find I am less reactionary, less angry, less sad. I have new skills and a new outlook. There is a calmness and acceptance of the moment and an understanding that I am ok and I can trust this. So simple and yet so profound.

    Reply

  5. Meredith Smith
    April 20, 2020 @ 8:23 am

    This series of meditations has been deeply nourishing, grounding and uplifting, with so many rich and varied resources to deeply care for ourselves and our world at this tender moment in human history.

    Reply

  6. sandye linnetz
    April 21, 2020 @ 7:43 am

    I consider myself a spiritual practicalist… one foot in each world, and these two weeks of meditation “got me” in both! Thank you for the time, energy, loving kindness and flat out brilliance that you shared. I want more!

    Reply

  7. Rochelle Cavlert
    April 22, 2020 @ 8:41 am

    Caitriona and Michele offer such beautiful presence and deep teachings in a time when we need support in this way. Traversing these practices together in community has been deeply supportive to me and those I serve in this time.

    Reply

  8. Terri Coughlin
    April 22, 2020 @ 6:02 pm

    Thank you Caitriona and Michele for an amazing meditation series and for recording them. I am able to review the ones I missed and am continuing a daily meditation by going through the series. I do not do well on my own, so the continued use of your teachings is highly of value to me, especially as another tool for dealing with this pandemic crisis we’re in. I also want to thank Rodney and Bethany Sanchez, leaders of our Tender Shoot of Joy Sangha in Milwaukee, WI to you and your offerings!

    Reply

  9. Tracy Saeman
    April 22, 2020 @ 6:20 pm

    I was honored and blessed to be a part of the 2 week daily meditation series. Highly impactful, life-changing, thought-provoking, and so much more. The fellowship time of meditation, chant, songs, and sharing have been the highlight of my days and I’m so excited that this will be continuing. As someone that has practiced meditation for several years now, I’ve learned new ways to meditate through this process and look forward to more time to evolve and grow. Thank you Caitriona Reed and Michele Benzamin-Miki for sharing your expertise and vision.

    Reply

  10. Cynthia Cain
    August 8, 2020 @ 3:56 pm

    I anticipate each meditation, knowing it will give me a fresh way to look inward, to look around me, and to seek peace. The effects of this practice (and the NLP training) have been immediate as well as surprisingly far reaching. I have suddenly found a way to forgiveness in relationships that seemed impossible. I attribute this to the meditation and the return to my first teachers, Caitriona and Michelle.

    Reply

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