The Mid America Dharma Board of Directors is seeking volunteers to help with strategic planning by serving on the planning committee. This sounds like a more complex thing than it is. We have seen some dramatic changes in participation in our various offerings since the pandemic and we want to see if we can align our offerings with what people want. No board experience necessary.

By Donna Strickland

Almost twenty years ago, I took the leap to attend my first residential meditation retreat. Shortly after the retreat began, I found myself sitting face-to-face with a stranger, being asked to take in their presence, to pause, and to reflect out loud on the ways that I was currently experiencing dukkha, or stress, in my life.

By David Chernikoff

I was recently sitting quietly in the rocking chair in my home office reflecting on what felt like a koan that many people seem to be wrestling with currently. A koan, as some readers know, is a paradoxical question, story, or statement that is used as an object of meditation in the Rinzai tradition of Zen Buddhism to push the intellect beyond its conceptual limitations.

By Joe McCormack

In September of this year, Robert Brumet and I will be offering an online Householder’s Retreat. The Householder’s Retreat schedule starts and ends with a daylong retreat. There are two evening check in meetings during the week. The leaders give assignments with instructions for practicing mindfulness during the week. There are check in sessions which help to observe the reactions we have to the stresses of everyday life.

By Bridget Rolens

And how do we train the mind to engage in the experience of a human life with the wisdom that frees us from suffering? The Buddha gave us the Four Foundations of Mindfulness (MN 10), i.e. – four ways of establishing mindfulness as the direct path for attaining the end of suffering. This is the perfect guide for developing and cultivating a mind that leads to true happiness – a happiness that cannot be shaken by the constantly changing conditions of this human life.

By Mark Wiesman and Lisa Reboy

Mid America Dharma welcomes Mark and Lisa to their new board positions and also welcomes Terry Alan a new board member from St. Louis, MO who works on the website and is learning retreat managing.

By Kyle Sorys

When people think about Buddhist practice, they often imagine silent meditation halls, incense-filled temples, or peaceful retreat centers. Few picture a jail unit where incarcerated men and women gather in a fluorescent-lit room, learning how to be present with their breath and their own thoughts.

By Whitney Price

Whitney Prince attended “Cultivating Tranquility, Insight and the Awakening Factors” retreat with Philip Jones held in August, 2024.  He contributed poems inspired by his practice of the 16 steps of mindfulness of breathing found in the Ānāpānasati-sutta (MN 118) for the Fall 2024 Newsletter. In these poems he shares more of his inspiration from that retreat.