Two of my greatest passions,

   a deep love of nature,

 and a hunger for inner peace

 have come together in the creation of Sky Meadow Retreat

         Meditation and the Simplicity of Nature

            

             I found myself in a Buddhist Monastery in Sri Lanka at the age of
nineteen desperately seeking something real and genuine and worth pursuing
in this life.  I discovered this in the teachings of the Buddha and the simple
practice of direct awareness meditation.  Since that time I have been
interested in establishing a place where people from our over stimulated
culture could come to let go, and sink into the stillness of our own being.

                My love for nature has been present most of my life, and as a young
man took the expression of living very simply close to the earth.   Here at
Sky Meadow we grow many of our own vegetables and fruits, heat with
wood, and have a daily relationship with this land which sustains us.   This
simple, physical lifestyle supports and enhances the often difficult work
of going inward through meditation and mindfulness.    Working with our hands to grow the food we eat, and maintain the buildings and land, gives our lives a steady grounded rhythm that contributes to being present and aware.
 
           The difficulty most of us have with healing and spiritual awakening
is that it is too simple for us to notice.   We carry the truth and the
light we so desperately seek in all of our worldly achievements and material
gains, right within our own being.  Yet we hide it from ourselves, because our
habit is to look elsewhere.  We think that the answer must be complex and dependent on factors outside of our control.  And so we carry this deep longing, and tend to see ourselves as powerless to do anything about it. 

  
            Sky Meadow reflects my own experience that the answer to our
happiness lies right in front of us at all times, and that the difficulty is only in
slowing down and being present with what is.    Here, away from the mad
rush of the world, there is a chance to see this for ourselves.  This is a small
place far removed from urban development where nature still dominates our
experience.  Being here fosters and requires an immediate presence that is
overlooked in the world of complex concepts and ideas.

            Sky Meadow is unaffiliated with any organization or religion because
the truth itself is not bound by labels or categories.   While I have been
greatly inspired by the teachings of the Buddha, I do not consider myself Buddhist and do not teach Buddhism.   The development of a Buddhist culture or ideology is a departure from the conceptual emptiness Buddha pointed us toward, and often feeds the illusion of a separate self identity, which he presented as the source of human suffering.

                               My Teaching Style

                My teaching reflects my experience of the present moment.  I do not use language or terminology reported to be from the Buddha, or any other teacher, because this only adds more abstraction and offers the conceptual mind another avenue of control.  We do not need to learn a special language or translate foreign concepts to become awake.  These tend to only become a new religion or belief system which once again overrides the mind’s capacity for direct awareness or knowing. 

                In my journey to completion I have been influenced by
many teachers and teachings.   It has been essential for me to find the
underlying truth and reality out of which all genuine spiritual teachings
arise.  I realized that the root source of these variety of teachings that have
attracted me is a personal experience that cannot be translated through
language or concepts.   All words can do is point the conceptual mind
toward this experience.   

            In our culture we have unprecedented access to most of the
spiritual teachings that have arisen throughout human history.   We tend to
place high value on our capacity for choice and strive continually to expand
the variety of options available to us, thinking this will increase our chances
for happiness.    While this emphasis on personal choice allows for a highly
individualized and personalized experience, it also suggests that the solution
to our human dilemma lies in actively shaping our world through our
individual choices, to be exactly the way we want it to be.

                A common way we try to shape the world around us is to formulate a
seamless ideology that appears to explain the many unknown aspects of life. 
Because of the way our rational mind is programmed, we look for reality in
a universal ideology or conceptual language.   This search inevitably fails us
and creates enormous human conflict as we find ourselves competing with
each other for a claim on truth.  It also generates internal confusion as we
attempt to sort out which ideas are right and which ones are wrong.

            I have found that while the path to awakening is highly individualized,
the experience of realization is universal and completely beyond our ability
to predict or control.   There is no one correct formula or recipe for spiritual
realization.   Each one of us has to find our own unique way home.   Yet, the
home we are seeking is the same one for all of us.   Confusion about this
distinction often leads us to seek a universal ideology, belief system, or
religion.   We mistakenly assume that if the goal is the same for all of us, the
path must be as well.

            In my teaching I focus on what can be known in this present moment,
without filtering experience through conceptual mind.   This often begins
with tuning in to very simple and immediate physical sensations, and
gradually progresses to a neutral awareness of emotions and thoughts.   It is
by standing apart from the thinking process that we can witness it and begin
to develop some wisdom about what is actually happening in conceptual
mind.

            This is the primary aim of meditation.  It does not require any belief or
value system or specific language.   There is no right way to meditate, no
correct form or system.  I teach the simplest form I know which comes
directly from the recorded teachings of the Buddha to his followers 2,500
years ago.   There are no complex formulas or techniques to learn or memorize.   It relies solely on cultivating the mind’s capacity for direct awareness in this present moment, and expands from there.
         
     Developing the Capacity for Honest Communication

            I noticed as a young person that the adults around me rarely seemed to
speak about what was really going on within them, and have since realized
that few of us know how to do this.    I developed a strong yearning for
direct and honest communication which is healing and connecting, instead of
damaging and dividing.  I discovered that there are skills which enable us to
be honest with each other, while enhancing rather than hurting our
connections.   This new language of the heart is foreign to many of us and
needs to be demonstrated, practiced, and supported for it to become natural
and fluid.
  
            Part of my work here, and in the world, is to facilitate the learning of
these essential human relation skills.  The skills I teach represent a natural
outward expression of present time awareness.  Our learned habits of
communicating with each other demonstrate our dependency on abstract
concepts to translate our experience of reality.   The source of most human
conflict is this unconscious translation of our immediate experience that focuses on the past and future, and overlooks our present moment experience.

        The first stage of learning new skills is to bring the old habits into the light of conscious awareness, which is a process similar to meditation.   From there we can evaluate these patterns of communication and see if they are serving our best interests.   If we see that they are not, we can choose new communication habits that will have a better chance of achieving our intentions.  

         These skills, that I call Conscious Communication, are based on the honest expression of our present moment experience.   They occur naturally when we are aware of what is actually happening within us in each moment, instead of what we think about what is happening.   Practicing these skills is another way to bring ourselves present to our direct experience, and that of other people.   By focusing on present emotions and basic needs, rather than ideas or concepts, we increase the feeling of connection with others and diminish the sense of isolation we so often feel in this world.

 Sky Meadow is a place where we can slow down, connect with the earth in a practical way, and bring presence into our lives and relationships with others.  This sanctuary is intended to foster awareness and healing by emphasizing our own presence as the most valuable asset we have.  It takes many hands to create and support a place like this.  Please come join us, as part of a group retreat, solo, working guest, or long time resident. 

                   Miles                       miles@skymeadowretreat.com