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ONGOING EVENTS THE DAILY SIT via Zoom at 12:00 pm - 12:45 pm (Eastern) Learn more HERE Join us daily at 12:00 PM (Eastern) Mornin' Meditations Zoom Recording Archive Check this homepage for updates and the Upcoming Events page for all events. We will add more events during 2026! UPCOMING EVENTS UPCOMING RETREATS *SAVE THE DATES* MORE INFORMATION COMING SOON Vallecitos Retreat Between Spiritual Bypass and Stress Reduction: Mindfulness and Deep Psychological Work, An Intensive Retreat for Mental Health Professionals July 1-8, 2026 Finding Balance in Chaos: A Mindfulness Retreat for Coming Back to Ourselves August 4-9, 2026 The Institute for Meditation and PsychotherapyCertificate Program September 18, 2026-May 9, 2027 BCBS Opening Cert Retreat September 18-23, 2026 Copper Beech Retreat w/ Chris Germer October 2-9, 2026 BCBS Householder Retreat TBA A Loving Community Focused On Mindfulness for Psychotherapists and Lay Practitioners Read about Founders Bill & Susan Morgan >> WELCOMING YOU HOME Bill and Susan Morgan’s journey to where they are today began well before their 4-year silent retreat at the Forest Refuge in Barre Massachusetts*. In 2009, they felt it was time in their lives to seek a longer-term practice. They decided to see what it was like to be completely free from day-to-day worries and responsibilities in order to gather experience, train in spiritual practices, and deepen their own capacity for compassion and wisdom. At the end of four years, knowing they wanted to continue on the path they had begun on retreat, they carried home their experiences and knowledge and have dedicated their everyday-lives to nurturing, teaching, developing, and supporting a community of practitioners devoted to enriching their spiritual practice. Their life is built around daily practice, teaching, writing, offering retreats, and building their own refuge in the city where practitioners can come and deepen their own spiritual lives and practices. They open their home to those who genuinely want to follow a similar path. *The Forest Refuge is affiliated with the Insight Meditation Society Learn about Bill & Susan's 4-year silent retreat DANA May what we offer be of benefit to as many as possible. The practice of giving is universally recognized as one of the most basic human virtues. In the teaching of the Buddha, the practice of giving claims a place of special eminence, one which singles it out as being in a sense the foundation and seed of spiritual development. ~Bhikkhu Bodhi PAYPAL: Donate button below YOUR DONATION IS GREATLY APPRECIATED SPECIAL OFFERING: The Institute for Meditation and Psychotherapy Certificate Program Info & Apply >> Bill & Susan are meditation teachers within this Certificate Program sponsored by the Institute for Meditation and Psychotherapy (IMP). This nine-month program will comprehensively explore the integration of mindfulness and psychotherapy. The clinical and academic material will be studied in a manner that embodies the qualities of mindfulness, suffusing the inquiry with awareness, insight and compassion for self and others, and engaging both mind and heart.

About the Founders We share a deep appreciation for the interweaving of meditation and psychotherapy in our personal journeys and in our work with others. For 15 years, we have been teaching and leading retreats for mental health professionals and more recently, for couples as well. We share a deep appreciation for the interweaving of meditation and psychotherapy in our personal journeys and in our work with others. We are board members and faculty for the Institute for Meditation and Psychotherapy, a non-profit organization which offers seminars, courses, retreats, and a certificate program for mental health professionals . We are also contributing authors to Mindfulness and Psychotherapy - Second Edition, a book that gives clinicians and students an introduction to mindfulness and it's clinical applications. Susan T. Morgan, MSN, RN, CS At 4 years old I saw starving children from Ethiopia on TV and cried. As a teen, I wanted to work with Mother Teresa. When I was 21, my mother died propelling me further into existential questioning. From these early experiences, the heart and mind found expression as a Psychiatric Clinical Nurse Specialist. Curiosity led to practicing in a diversity of settings and populations—homeless shelters, community clinics, psychiatric hospitals, research clinics, college mental health, Pervasive Developmental Disorders, artists and writers, undergraduate and graduate students, ordinary folk, and couples. These days, I am drawn to work with therapists and caregivers seeking to deepen their own meditation practice and therapeutic presence. It is a joy and a privilege to work with those interested in growing at the edges of their comfort zone. In 1992, the heart and mind found a new avenue of expression. I began practicing in Zen and Vipassana traditions, and more recently, Tibetan practices. In December 2013, I completed a four-year silent meditation retreat at the Forest Refuge in Barre, MA. It is my deepest joy to practice the dharma and to share that practice with those who are interested. Loving-kindness and mindfulness of the body are two themes that have emerged as pivotal in both my personal practice and my teaching. William D. Morgan, PsyD The first wave of Buddhist meditation came to our shores while I was an undergraduate at Tufts University in the early ’70s. I majored in Eastern religion at Tufts and was drawn to meditation immediately. When I was 19, my father died propelling me toward a deeper search for meaning. I took a year sabbatical after my sophomore year and spent six months in a Trappist monastery. I spent the following summer at Mt. Baldy Zen Center in California and lived at Chogyam Trungpa’s Tibetan center in Boston upon graduating in 1975. I then gravitated toward vipassana practice and did three 3-month courses at the Insight Meditation Society with Joseph Goldstein. Following this , I earned my Psy.D. and began a private practice in Cambridge and Quincy. I have led retreats and taught meditation since 1984, and particularly enjoy working with people to incorporate meditation into their lives in a personally meaningful and enlivening way. With Susan, I completed a 4-year retreat at the Forest Refuge in December, 2013. In November 2009, Bill and Susan Morgan began what would become a four-year silent meditation retreat at the Forest Refuge, the Insight Meditation Society's center for experienced meditators seeking longer-term retreat practice. Bill and Susan were interviewed about their experience by John Spaulding of the Insight Meditation Society . Watch the first episode below. You can also watch the entire series on videopart1 A 4-Year Silent Meditation Retreat, Pt. 1: How It Began Play Video

Daily Reflection Sit Join us daily at 12:00 PM (Eastern) The Seven Factors of Awakening: Concentration The Daily Sit Categories THE SEVEN FACTORS OF AWAKENING: CONCENTR... Play Video Play Video 37:47 2025 February 26 : Concentration Using a Metta Body Scan When developing concentration, we engage caring attention in the act of tracking by bringing attention to different areas of the body without analyzing what sensations are present. Instead we simply notice or track the placement of attention and offering the body part metta or lovingkindness. Play Video Play Video 38:22 2025 February 24 : Good Food for the Busy Mind Mantras are phrases, words, or sounds repeated silently or chanted out loud, to collect, calm and focus the mind on one object. Metta phrases are a type of mantra that encourage goodwill. Uniting the breath and metta phrases support the heart & mind to unify and be at ease. Play Video Play Video 38:18 2025 February 19 : Reviewing the Central Importance of Concentration Deeper insight will not arise without it. Play Video Play Video 37:48 2025 February 17 : Momentary Concentration: Khanika Samadhi Continuity of mindful attention from one moment to the next on more than one object; Following the bouncing ball of the mind without distraction. Play Video Play Video 37:57 2025 February 12 : Developing the Staying Power of Calm It is helpful to focus attention on neutral objects such as the breath or sounds. These don’t disturb and agitate the heartmind, making it easier to stay in a calm zone. Play Video Play Video 38:15 2025 February 10 : Concentration & the Holding Environment The Holding Environment, the opening posture for mindfulness meditation practice, is an embodied manifestation of concentration. Every time we set up the practice or reconstitute this foundational posture, we strengthen the skill of concentration. Play Video Play Video 36:52 2025 February 05 : Important Qualities that Help in the Development of Concentration Patience and Inner Compassion, not Striving! Play Video Play Video 37:42 2025 February 03 : Significance of Concentration Explaining the high correlation between the level of concentration and depth of insight.

Daily Reflection Sit Join us daily at 12:00 PM (Eastern) The Holding Environment: Breath Daily Sit Categories THE HOLDING ENVIRONMENT: BREATH Play Video Play Video 39:05 2020 December 01: Softening up the Breath Play, change it up, create it to be comfortable. Play Video Play Video 37:54 2020 September 17: The Holding Environment: Getting up close to the Breath The breath is Neutral object that we can rest attention on and regulate the system with. Play Video Play Video 38:09 2020 September 15: The Yin and Yang Orientations to the Breath Finding balance between receptivity and agency. Play Video Play Video 38:40 2020 September 14: Enlivening the Breath Bringing heartfelt attention to the breath Play Video Play Video 39:01 2020 May 13: Let the Breath Help You How does the breath want to breathe to re-establish calm stability? Play Video Play Video 39:16 2020 April 23: Blow Life Into Your Wind Instrument This is a wind instrument we have here. Blow life into it! Who else is going to? Play with modulating the breath to bring body-heartmind into ease and harmony. Play Video Play Video 39:37 2020 April 21: Befriending the Breath Get to know the breath. Check in. How does it FEEL right now?

Daily Reflection Sit Join us daily at 12:00 PM (Eastern) The Holding Environment: The Body THE HOLDING ENVIRONMENT: BODY Play Video Play Video 2020 November 30: Warming up the Body The body is the container for practice. With caring attention, open it up, settle into a comfortable, and establish a stable (grounded) and aligned posture. Play Video Play Video 44:58 2020 October 30: The Body You Inhabit is a Holding Environment Kindly and wisely, tend to your inner environment as though you were your guest Play Video Play Video 37:51 2020 September 10: The Physical Holding Environment: Taking Our Seat Pointers for feeling into how to support “your” body Play Video Play Video 37:55 2020 September 08: The Holding Environment: Optimizing the Conditions Make physical room and space. Play Video Play Video 38:21 2020 September 03: The Holding Environment, Dharmically Take your time. Set up the posture of the practice. Keep checking in on it. Play Video Play Video 37:40 2020 September 01: The Holding Environment a la Winnicott Attending with care, as a mother with her child. Play Video Play Video 39:35 2020 May 12: Settling Back Inviting a receptive posture in practice. Play Video Play Video 38:09 2020 May 11: Befriending the Pain We Carry In Our Bodies. SEE, FEEL, & DISCERN experientially Holding and Being Held. Play Video Play Video 40:07 2020 April 09: Befriending the Body Let go of as much tension as is possible, many times during the day. Shake it off. That is a compassionate act.