MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE
MINDFULNESS PRACTICE GROUP

☸  Baby Steps to Buddha’s Brain
January is a particularly good time to start a meditative practice with the help of the Mindfulness Practice Group. Phyllis Culham will offer a series of four consecutive January Sundays on not only starting but simply planning to begin to start, using topics from Rick Hanson’s Just One Thing: Developing a Buddha’s Brain One Simple Practice at a Time, coordinated with the Eight-Fold Noble Path. (Hanson, a practitioner of Insight Meditation, was a co-author of Buddha’s Brain, read jointly in fall, 2011, by Skeptics, Freethinkers, Agnostics, and Atheists and by the Mindfulness Practice Group.) All sessions are 11-noon in the Emerson Room of the Fahs House. The sessions are independent and can be understood individually:
Sun. Jan. 8 “Being On Our Own Side,” developing the conviction that we must take ourselves, our feelings, and our needs seriously (as, indeed, we must take reality seriously) and that we fully deserve to take time for meditation. (Right Intention)
Sun. Jan. 15 “Intentionality,” we form what Zen would call the intent to practice. (Actually Right Effort, not Right Intention.)
Sun. Jan 22 “Slow Down for Mindfulness,” we dwell in the Present Moment. (Right Mindfulness)
Sun. Jan 29 “Developing Positivity Bias,” we redirect our habit-energy. (Right View)

☸  Sat. Feb. 25, in the sanctuary at UUCA, registration 9:15 or in advance, practice in Noble Silence 9:30-4:30. Led by Jane and Garrett Phelan, members of the Order of Interbeing at the Mindfulness Practice Center of Fairfax. Sitting meditation, walking meditation, mindful eating, gentle healing yoga, Deep Relaxation, dharma talk. Wear comfortable clothing and bring a vegetarian dish to share with utensils and plate for yourself. Suggested donation $40, $20 student or underemployed, or what you can afford. No one turned away.