October is almost here. Or maybe time is half-inching along what with the pandemic, smoke from epic fires, and the pending shitshow election, and it felt like it would never get here. Sigh. When in the past we might have looked to Halloween to lighten our spirits…this year maybe social distancing will require alterations. Glum faces on our children and youth. Perhaps we should burn our Daruma dolls early this year?

Two young monks are arguing about a flag. One monk says, “The flag is moving.” The other monk says, “The flag is not moving, the wind is moving.” A very senior monk just happens to be walking by (don’t ask, this is a Zen story) and overhearing the young monks, he says, “The flag is not moving; the wind is not moving; the mind is moving.” The monks look at each other and think simultaneously, “WTF?”

The first is that Dr. Dan Brown will be presenting the preliminary findings for our study comparing his Three Pillars approach to repairing attachment disturbances with Mettagroup’s The Meaningful Life curriculum at the 2019 London – Congress Attachment & Trauma – Relationships, Consciousness And The Developing Self conference.

Mettagroup is now a licensed non-profit!! I think I should go into this a little more deeply. Mettagroup has a hybrid business structure, we are a combination for-profit B Corp and 501 (c)(3) non-profit. We feel strongly that everyone who works here, teachers, meditation facilitators, yoga teachers, administrators, should all receive a living wage and benefits.

The holiday season is upon us again. With Halloween behind us and Thanksgiving looming, may I suggest the practice of Metta Meditation in Life. Touch into yourself, closing your eyes if there is the opportunity, careful not to create disconnection from the person in front of yourself, express Metta to yourself, “May I be peaceful.” Then, looking at the person in front of you, express Metta for them, “May you be peaceful.” Back and forth.

In the sorely-needed good news department, Mettagroup has reached two milestones. First, we have joined Dan Brown on an outcome study evaluating the effectiveness of his Ideal Parent Figure Protocol (IPF) in repairing attachment disturbances in adults. The effectiveness of Mettagroup’s The Meaningful Life Intensives approach will be evaluated and contrasted to IPF.

“It is going to be a scorcher…,” is something I said in a childlike imitation of corn farmer wisdom growing up in Chicago during the dog days of summer. This was back in the cruel, barely re-imaginable, pre-air-conditioning days. More precisely, my father put one of those new-fangled window units into his (and my mother’s) bedroom, the children got their second-hand fans, albeit large window fans with low, medium and high, and reversible in/out air flow. Still, ouchy-wouchy!!

If traffic is not the cause for complaint in Los Angeles, it is the weather. April Overcast followed by May Gray followed by June Gloom…not that I ever go, but I long for beach weather. My internal visual thinking, me, forever prostrate, worshiping the sun from the shade, my head propped up against a tree in perfect viewing position.

What I consider Spring-like weather, by any reasonable estimation, is late this year. Living in Los Angeles, below sixty degrees post-February I experience as I imagine the Antarctic. The Happy Light on my desk blinds for hours combating May Gray and the resulting California Seasonal Affect Disturbance (CSAD).

This year, Mettagroup’s small band of intrepid meditators (Paola and the Metta Boys) hit the road to experience firsthand the three holiest sites in Myanmar.

Off we go again to annual Metta Jhana retreat at the Chanmyay Myaing Forest Meditation Centre in Pyin Oo Lwin, Myanmar.

I am getting off to a slow start to 2018, what with the hectic holiday build up, The Meaningful Life Winter Retreat, and then a bad bout of the flu. Speaking of the retreat, I think we have worked out the bugs at the new retreat center, so that the retreat container really supports the work we are doing.

From a practice perspective, perhaps focus on developing patience for everyone catch up in their conditioning. Metta, Karuna, Mudita and Upekkha. Loving-kindness, Compassion, Sympathetic Joy and Equanimity. Also, some focus on emotional regulation could come in handy. I would also suggest that you keep Sangha close.