"I have noticed, over months, increasing levels of respect and gratitude and appreciation for the skill and craftsmanship—and yes, true beauty that has gone into the unfolding of the Foundations and Pathways experiences. As a life-long student, I’ve encountered many brilliant and talented and experienced teachers, each of whom has brought something wonderful into my life. And that does not discount the “teachers” who are not so designated by culture: my husband and our son; parents and family members, and perhaps most profoundly, the desert and riparian landscape and broader natural world that I grew up “feeling” with the senses, entraining to, appreciating, learning from.
Pathways and Foundations is a dramatic and new experience. The gradually deepening community that started with Julianna and Don and their video Foundations students, expanded into the large Pathways group of “strangers”, none of whom I had met, other than a couple of you, briefly, at retreats—then the dyads and triads, and finally the vividly functioning sangha of our study group. . .just the community aspect is astonishingly powerful—particularly because it’s all via online presence. The atmosphere in these meetings is so light, so full of beauty. But the entire curriculum design, support structure, and logical presentation of Shinzen’s steadily coalescing simple and immediately functioning techniques has made it possible for us to teach confidently and effectively within a relatively short period of time.
I have seen people take “See” and “Feel Rest” into immediate softening and relief of anxiety and drivenness—and received many other very positive and incredulous feedbacks. And the challenge of bringing these techniques to my friends and family, to my churches, is a treasured gift. It, too, unfolds constantly—has its own form of Flow, of expansion and contraction. My own practice has blossomed, essentially all for months through practice-in-life—but there are a lot of practice hours in my life right now, with coaching and the classes, the prep, constant background practice, hospice work, music. Practice now infuses everything I do, every moment. I am massaged by reality in every crevice of life.
You have my deepest bow, timeless and overflowing gratitude, tears of joy.
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