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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 BCBS Cert Closing Retreat May 28-31, 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.

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Daily Reflection Sit Join us daily at 12:30 PM (Eastern) The Eight Worldly Winds The Daily Sit Categories THE EIGHT WORLDLY WINDS Play Video Play Video 39:58 2021 December 28 : Samvega and Pasada: Spiritual Urgency & Confidence in the Path What motivates us to practice? Samvega - spiritual urgency - is a positive quality that can deepen our commitment to practice as we see our world on fire and seek another way. Pasada - confidence in the path of meditation - is a balancing quality to samvega that brings calm and protects against pessimism. Play Video Play Video 38:20 2021 December 27: The Holding Environment, Animated! Narrated by Jaye Moyer Animation & audio by Elizabeth Mehling Play Video Play Video 37:05 2021 December 21: The Beneficial Presence Benefactors or a beneficial presence can be a supportive part of our holding environment. The support of benefactors provides warmth and compassion to our practice. Play Video Play Video 40:24 2021 December 20: Practice in Daily Life Steady yourself frequently by coming back into the holding environment. Notice when the holding environment needs some sprucing up. Refresh, rebuild, reconstitute that atmosphere of wise caring attention and then decide what to do next. Play Video Play Video 38:16 2021 December 16: We Want to Come Home We want to deepen and widen our capacity to feel more at home within ourselves and each other. We set up the conditions to support this in daily practice. Play Video Play Video 11:57 2021 December 14 : Nature's Support to our Practice Nature can teach us how to hold ourselves and help us to create our own holding environment. We can carry the lessons of nature throughout our lives - not just outside. Play Video Play Video 39:21 2021 December 13 : Daily Practice Daily practice loosens and releases some of the rougher energy and the grosser tensions. Play Video Play Video 39:51 2021 December 07: Retreat Practice Emphasizing the centrality of retreats in deepening understanding and compassion. Play Video Play Video 38:20 2021 December 06: We're Going on a Year-Long Retreat But the Daily Sit will continue in our absence, led by our senior students! Play Video Play Video 39:09 2021 November 30: Homeostasis and the Inner Holding Environment We say we want the truth, but we want to feel more deeply at home. Play Video Play Video 38:35 2021 November 25 : Gratitude on Thanksgiving Quiet the wish for more, and rest in gratitude. Play Video Play Video 37:30 2021 November 23 : Feeling Like You Are "Not Enough"? Instead of hiding our thoughts and feelings of not being enough behind a more public face, invite them to tea. Hold yourself with some compassion. Play Video Play Video 38:26 2021 November 22: The Practice of Generosity Generosity is an important practice . It expands the language of you and me to the language of we. Play Video Play Video 38:19 2021 November 18: What to do with Shame Withdraw attention from this line of thinking: Been there, done that, know where it goes. Then, TAKE A BREATH. Bring ATTENTION out of the mind and back to the present moment & into the body. KINDLY WATCH OVER the tangle of sensations related to that line of thinking, untangle. Play Video Play Video 40:44 2021 November 16: I am Nobody, Who are You? Exploring the suffering of grasping and clinging to the need to be “somebody” and the alternative of releasing and cultivating humility and gratitude in the context of not-self. A middle path to facing shame. Load More

Daily Reflection Sit Join us daily at 12:00 PM (Eastern) The Seven Factors of Awakening: Equanimity The Daily Sit Categories THE SEVEN FACTORS OF AWAKENING: EQUANIMI... Play Video Play Video 37:09 2025 October 29: FEEL the Flexible Stability of Equanimity Each time Mindfulness “wakes up” in the middle of a story, Take a Breath—Let go of the story—Come back inside—Let the dust settle & come back to center. Repeat often. This rebalancing conditions equanimity to arise. Play Video Play Video 39:41 2025 October 27: Etymology of Equanimity in Latin and Pali Neither aloof nor overly invested. Play Video Play Video 38:48 2025 October 22: The Winds Help Our Equanimity Strengthen Seeing how the winds of change actually help us strengthen our roots, like trees. Play Video Play Video 38:46 2025 October 20: Finding Equanimity In the Midst of Uncertainty The gift of not knowing. Strengthening our ability to be steady no matter what arises. Play Video Play Video 37:07 2025 October 15: Equanimity: Growing Sea Legs Equanimity is best entrained in stormy seas! Play Video Play Video 37:48 2025 October 13: First Step Toward Equanimity Don’t step on things, or reject ,or turn away. Play Video Play Video 39:38 2025 October 08: Equanimity: Feeling More, Not Less How equanimity adds wisdom and builds on and expands on Metta, Karuna and Mudita Play Video Play Video 38:06 2025 October 06: Equanimity in the Midst of Turbulence We can’t control the winds but our practice and training teach us how to adjust our sails. Play Video Play Video 39:10 2025 October 01: The Holding Environment and the Brahmaviharas Weaving the BVs into our inner holding environment, with special attention to equanimity, our focus for the next month. Play Video Play Video 39:02 2025 March 31 : Shifting Out of the Good/Bad Binary Seeing that all human beings have the potential, in any moment, to act from greed, hatred and delusion, or from wisdom and compassion. Can we take responsibility for our unskillful actions and learn from them, and deepen our commitment to non-harm? Play Video Play Video 38:20 2025 March 26 : A Prayer of Equanimity This meditation is shared as a support for reflection Play Video Play Video 37:25 2025 March 24 : Supports We Can Use to Orient Ourselves Towards Equanimity With an example of how equanimity can hold us when we are feeling less than perfect. Play Video Play Video 39:10 2025 March 19 : Making Equanimity Manageable Exploring small ways we encounter equanimity in or everyday lives and appreciating how we are already cultivating equanimity alone and together. Play Video Play Video 38:50 2025 March 17 : Equanimity as a Relationship of Wisdom Equanimity knows that the nature of all conditioned phenomena is the same, which allows us to be less attached to how things are moment to moment. We can learn from noticing our resistance to how things are. Play Video Play Video 38:15 2025 March 12 : Equanimity is a Felt Experience Recognizing when equanimity is there and when it’s not so we can be mindful of it, celebrate it, or practice “ground, breathe, settle, soothe’ to balance. Load More

Daily Reflection Sit Join us daily at 12:00 PM (Eastern) The Holding Environment: The Breath 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? The Holding Environment

Meditations & Chanting Setting the stage for meditation with movement with Susan and a sample of meditations and talks from Bill. Meditation Preparation -- Setting the Stage The body is always collecting some amount of tension. The moves in the videos below encourage and support the body to drop what is unnecessary. What Shake it Loose is a free-form practice that releases stress and opens the body and breathing in a playful unscripted way. Let the body have its way with you! This creates space for the heartmind to unwind its burdens in. When BEFORE formal meditation practice AND periodically throughout the day. How Move all of the joints, all of the limbs, as much as they are able. Let breathing be free and full as the body moves. Bend, open, lengthen, roll, shake off tension that has recently accumulated. Not so vigorously that you injure yourself, but enough to tenderize the meat on the bones. Meditations & Chanting Select from the playlists below to listen to a meditation series, hear a talk on The Hindrances and the Seven Factors of Awakening, or participate in a chanting session. Meditations Chanting Download a copy of Suffusion with the Devine Abidings Download a copy of Verses of Sharing and Aspiration

Daily Reflection Sit Join us daily at 12:00 PM (Eastern) The Five Precepts The Daily Sit Categories This channel is coming soon!

How We Teach Our years of experience in psychotherapy, meditation practice and extensive retreat time has shaped our teaching and what we share with others. The Heart of Our Teaching Deepening Practice Although we have studied both Western and Buddhist psychology, the heart of our teaching has evolved from two primary sources: our many years of personal psychotherapy and our combined 12 years of intensive meditation retreat practice, along with many years of working with others in both of these arenas. From this body of personal and professional exploration, a comprehensive style of teaching has emerged. This style is malleable, in order to work effectively with another, the unique dispositions, natural inclinations, psychological strengths and less developed capacities of the individual must be identified and considered along the way. Many Western practitioners struggle to establish a meaningful and regular meditation practice, necessary prerequisites to the deeper understandings and insights about ourselves and the nature of mind. Addressing acculturated issues of tension, striving, and a sense of unworthiness are essential if practice is to take root in one’s life. We have found most meditation instructions do not spend sufficient time creating a wholehearted, embodied container for the unfolding of meditation practice. Western students in particular need guidance and attention in these areas to create an inner holding environment that supports the awakening of insight and compassion. Once established, specific open awareness meditations and mindful inquiry exercises orient toward deeper understandings of impermanence, cause and effect, suffering, the nature of the self, and other core mental and physical processes. We have found that to go deeper in meditation practice, generic meditation instructions are seldom sufficient. The interface between our psychological style and spiritual aims needs to be addressed and clarified in an ongoing way, and each person must discover their own uniquely inspired mode of practice. As such, we subscribe to the “Hello Human Being” school of psychotherapy and meditation, which invites a more nuanced spiritual and personal meaning-making exploration. Our aim is to help others explore and create the conditions necessary to support this quality of investigation. Our overarching intention is to help others deepen their appreciation for life, to stabilize a posture of practice that informs skillful action, and to feel a greater sense of connection to ever-widening streams of awareness and compassion. We work with individuals, couples, and groups. Locations include our office, on the phone, on Skype/Zoom, and in residential retreat settings. Since March 2020, at the onset of the Coronavirus pandemic, we began the Daily Sit which is an online morning meditation program (Eastern Time) open to all. The Inner Holding Environment Our Intention Please watch this beautiful video on the Holding Environment , presented to Bill and Susan from their first Teacher Training group. For those who choose to work with us There is only one request we make of those who choose to work with us, and that is to sustain a daily meditation practice of at least one-half hour a day. We have verified faith that mindfulness bears fruit when practiced regularly and appropriately in accord with each individual. The quality of meditation is primary; we work with others to deepen interest and engagement with their practice. Meditation begins to flourish when it is both personally meaningful and restorative. We want you to look forward to meditation, rather than seeing it as another “should.” We work in a collaborative fashion. The better we understand your spiritual history, deepest joys, personal hooks and setbacks, and aspirations, the more we will be guided to help deepen your practice. We ask you to try things out in meditation and in daily life and to return with your insights and feedback. May you reach your highest of aspirations.