In this online session for FCM members, we will be using our minds, senses and art supplies to do simple projects that deepen our mindfulness. We also will be sharing deeply with others the thoughts, feelings and insights that arise. Each class will begin with an exercise to help us to become centered and then move on to an art activity that will help us to develop the qualities of the awakened heart.

The intention of this offering is to allow people to experience practice in a different way. All sessions will be grounded in mindfulness. These classes do not attempt to teach techniques making art but do use art as a conduit to practice.

Because participants are sequestering at home, materials will be those commonly found around your house. Please join the Zoom call with everything you need 10 minutes before the class so that you have time to settle before we begin.

Beth Schroeder, founder of CAWM, is a lifelong artist and former Arts in Healing coordinator for Naples Healthcare System. She has been practicing Buddhism since 1997, when she took the 5 Precepts with Thich Nhat Hanh at the Omega Institute. She has been a student of Fred and member of the Florida Community of Mindfulness since 2003.  

As laypeople, we are fully engaged with ordinary life. Our experience of the world is an ever unfolding series of relationships inseparable from the emotional ups and downs associated with those relationships. From personal relationships with family, friends, work, pets, possessions to larger things like our views and ideas about social and political unfoldings and climate change, our minds are filtering everything that appears. We typically react to these experiences with attachment or aversion based on our conditioning and habitual reactivity, which ends up being the source of much of our emotional afflictions.

The Dharma teaches another way to be in the world. To live with ease and compassion and with freedom to respond wisely to whatever arises – to be in the world without being driven by the world. To be fully involved and present and yet not ensnared, stressed or emotionally depleted.

How do we move through life without attachment and at the same time, without rejecting or withdrawing from the world? How do we live with love, compassion and healthy engagement rather than with emotional drama? In this half day workshop, Fred will provide targeted big picture teachings, real world examples, and concrete practices to facilitate participants ability to navigate their worldly life with greater ease and understanding.

Fred Eppsteiner, a Dharma teacher in the lineage of Thich Nhat Hanh, has been a student of Buddhism and a practitioner of meditation for over fifty years and has devoted himself to teaching the Dharma (teachings of the Buddha) since 1996. Although Fred has practiced primarily in the Zen and Tibetan Buddhist lineages, he bases his teachings on the full breadth of Buddhist philosophical, psychological and meditative traditions.

Many of us embark on a spiritual path seeking to live a meaningful and purposeful life--a life of authenticity, integrity and goodness. Aspiration, vows and intention are key elements that empower us on our path.

Our aspirations refer to the highest and deepest heart-felt wishes we have for our lives, our relationships and the world--our shining north stars, so to speak. Making vows and setting intentions are tangible ways we can channel the energy of our aspirations and infuse them with determination and commitment. These three elements--aspiration, vows and intention--provide direction in our lives, keep us on the path when we are challenged or confused, and help us make wise choices that are congruent with our inner values.

In this workshop, led by Betsy Arizu and Dona Menz we will look deeply into our lives to examine, uncover and clarify each of these elements, and learn how to use them in our daily practice. Please bring something to write with, so that we can write down our personal aspirations, vows and intentions for the various areas of our lives.

Examining our aspirations, vows and intentions is not a one-time endeavor. We hope that this January workshop will become an annual community event for all of us, so that these elements are present for us in each day of the year. To truly live a life of conscious intention, we place these elements and their power at the heart of our practice.

This workshop is free, offered as a gift to FCM members.

Please plan to join us! 

Save the date for this workshop with Alex Lerner and Ken Lenington.