Testimonials
Short words from students.
I love coming to workshops and continue to show up because I have gained a deeper trust in life. I am not blindly looking up to any figure or being told to worship something—what I am trusting is my own experience, my own love, and everything that has gotten me to where I am right now. That has given me so much strength and confidence.
I've been learning how to live with joy and how meditation and mindfulness opens me. I feel it in my experiences. I'm stronger and more free. I love my parents deeper when I am not bound to expectations or their approval. I love my friends deeper when I accept them for who they are and where they are at. I love my experiences deeper knowing I have only so much time.
These meditation workshops empower me and I feel freer, less encumbered. There's an emphasis on lightness of being, which is so much less of a drag than taking all of this to be a big deal. I'm learning happiness from people who practice this lightness of being. Humor, humility, wisdom, power, love, independence, awe, play—you name it. All the things that make life more fun, more poignant, less of a drag, and less confusing, I seem to find here, so I continue coming back to learn and participate because to do anything else is to sell my experience short. But most of all, it just feels right. It feels different in all the right ways, and what more is there than that? All we have is our experience, we create our reality, so if it feels right, that's a cause for gratitude and celebration.
I am learning how to be a strong, independent, and capable woman. Actually not even “how to be” but really more like I learn to understand that I already AM a strong woman and how to step into that power. I learn to go beyond what society believes is okay and what I am “supposed to be.”
On the path, I've been learning how to prepare my mind to live and work in this world. We do not retreat to the mountains for the rest of our lives (which would be fine too), but we learn how to be still, silent, and calm in a world that presents wars at our feet. I am learning how to make decisions. Smart and loving ones at that.
- I like learning about the very old Buddhist teachings and learning how to apply them in modern life today; I learn from all my cohorts.
- I’m gaining an open-hearted disposition that comes from meditation, dharma talks, and time spent in nature; I love how this open-heartedness feels so natural.
- My perspective is expanded, my heart is opened, and my motivation is ignited when I attend a workshop.
- I’m being given tools to approach the parts of my mind that make me feel bad, or limit my feeling of connection to life.
- I like being continually surprised by the changes that I notice in myself, and continually surprised by the experiences I feel in my meditations.
- I’m gaining a sense of yet to be realized potential.
- Participating in hikes and activities has been fun, exploratory and hilarious.
- I want to become strong and open so that others may also become strong and open.
- I love how this practice helps me see everyday things in a new way.
- I love having an open community of friends that help me to remember the beauty and preciousness of life when I forget.
- I love that everyone keeps it real.
- I love how the path of self discovery is not based on hand-holding and rule following, but instead on personal learnings and problem-solving in the crazy experiences of life; I love that this path is self-directed where I am entirely responsible for myself; this helps me uncover my own personal connection with life in that way that is truest to me, not truest to a set of rules.
- I love that nothing is vilified on this path, and that all experiences are met with compassion and an eagerness to learn.
Most importantly, I love the path because it is so much fun. I love cooking, dancing, singing, and meditating with people who care about authenticity. I become free and get to be my truest self around people who rejoice rather than judge. It makes me want to give selflessly the way I have been given to. To share such goodness is so special and so rare in this world. Why wouldn't I be here?
Coming to the meditation and mindfulness workshops, I'm learning to flow easily and see that when that's not the case, I'm responsible. I'm gaining the ability to navigate challenges and come out with new learnings. Integrating the truths I've known deep down into daily life makes it more fun and manageable.
I had been feeling more and more constricted in my life. When I first came to a workshop, something so deep resonated within me. When I started meditating I remember feeling joy that I hadn’t felt in years. The simple joy of just being alive, and realizing how it is a gift. I had forgotten this. I started taking note of the noise in my mind. It wasn’t easy, but it was so real. To notice the thoughts always playing in the background that are cumbersome and hold me down.
When I attend the meditation workshops, I’m reminded of my strength. I’ve been learning how to stop looking at the world to tell me what is right, and instead look inside of myself. Meditating is making me more honest and I’m breaking out of the cages I was inside: of embarrassment, shame, and self-pity. I’ve been experiencing greater freedom and joy. I’m noticing beauty in new ways. I’m more interested in how my life feels versus how it looks. I’m laughing more—at myself and the hilarity of life. I’m taking myself less seriously.
At the workshops, I have met joyful, strong, and kind people. It is so beautiful to have the intent with others to choose clarity over confusion. I’m experiencing kindness from others with no strings attached. There are no expectations. No one has ever asked anything of me or laid a trip on me. It’s all very free flowing. I attend or not as I please. I feel extremely grateful that life has brought me here.
From what I'm learning at the workshops, I've come to enjoy the space in my every day moments, and can draw on my newly-remembered awareness. I have found a deeper sense of who I truly am versus who I thought I was. There's less noise in my mind so I'm less held down by heavy ideas, insecurities and worries. I feel clearer.