Important Update for In-Person Meetings

Hi all, I hope that this message finds you well and happy.

 

I am writing to let you know that I have made the difficult decision to stop leading the in-person Sunday Night Meditation sessions. There are a few reasons for this, and I didn't make the decision lightly, but I feel now is the right time for me to take a bit of a break and re-center.

 

I want to thank each and every one of you for your support and encouragement over the years, I would not have kept doing this as long as I have without that. Special thanks as well to Blythe and Dave who helped immeasurably, especially when I wasn't able to cover.

 

Also special thanks go out to the good folks at Breathe Wellness who generously allowed us to use their space for free. I have let Shelby at Breathe know, and I would encourage you all to continue to support them and their classes. Do feel free to reach out to them if you want to know about other meditation opportunities.

 

So what now? For my part I am not going anywhere. I am going to use this time to re-group and re-set - I have already started on deeper study of the Pali writings and will be taking the opportunity to deepen my own understanding and practice. I will continue to write my weekly Metta Letters, and for now that will be my main vehicle for teaching. I hope you continue to enjoy and value them. I will be keeping up with the website too - I will update it in the next few days to reflect these changes, and I have some plans to update and broaden it in due course. In particular I want to make it a better resource for everyone.

 

I don't plan to teach in-person for now, but I am always open to teaching in the future. Who knows? I'm always open to ideas if you have any.

 

I know that for some of you this will come as a blow as there aren't a whole lot of meditation opportunities in the area. However I am hoping that as a group we can continue to share and chat through email - if any of you wanted to set up a more formal group on some platform I would encourage you to do that, and I would help however I can. Do reach out with any thoughts.

 

As I say, this was a tough decision and it wasn't taken lightly. Note this has nothing to do with the COVID situation, although that obviously hasn't helped. When I temporarily suspended meeting a few weeks ago I did so with the full expectation that we would be back together in a few short weeks. The recent spike in cases is on its way down now, and I was in the process of planning to resume. However, it was during that planning that I had the opportunity to re-think and re-assess, which has led to this change.

 

While it has been a privilege and a joy to lead the group over the past nineteen years (!) it has also sometimes been quite stressful. There is always a feeling of responsibility to the group and a not-insignificant amount of prep work. I have limited time and energy (I run my own business), and it felt like it was a good time to focus that.

 

I have always given the meditation leadership and teaching away freely, with no expectation of any return. That is why your support and enthusiasm has always been important for me. I would love it if that support and friendship were to continue, even though I am sure this is an unwelcome decision for some of you.

 

Things change, and this is a big change for me and for many of you. I am excited about what I will be doing next, even though I don't yet fully know what that is. Once again, thank you all for your support and I look forward to sharing new but different things with you all going forward.

 

                Metta, Chris.

 

 

 

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“In fact, the mere act of opening the box will determine the state of the cat, although in this case there were three determinate states the cat could be in: these being Alive, Dead, and Bloody Furious.”

― Terry Pratchett, Lords and Ladies