The Buddha’s teaching identified several characteristics associated with everything we experience. Those characteristics include impermanence and our sense of self. When we don’t see those clearly, we often experience stress and dissatisfaction. Sean Oakes, a teacher at Spirit Rock, describes the three characteristics of conditioned experience. He also offers some suggestions for practicing with them,… Continue reading
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Quote for the Week
The only thing lost when we understand that nothing can be held onto is the suffering we experience by grasping. Joy and appreciation of beauty can even increase when anxiety around loss diminishes. Seeing impermanence and understanding that suffering is simply the “rope burn” that comes when we cling to that which is inevitably slipping… Continue reading
Tri-Cities Cancer Center Meditation Support Group Meets Nov. 20th
We’ll continue our monthly mindfulness meditation support group meeting at the Tri-Cities Cancer Center in May. The Cancer Center is located at 7350 West Deschutes Avenue, Kennewick and the next meeting will be Thursday,11/20/2025. The sessions, which are held on the third Thursday of each month, are meant for cancer patients, cancer survivors, and their caregivers. The session will begin at 12:00 pm at… Continue reading
Sangha News 11/5/25
Thursday Evening Meditation & Talk: Over the next month or so we’ll explore the Buddha’s teachings on four qualities of the heart that support us in our lives and practice, and can help us to cultivate an open heart. These four qualities, lovingkindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity, are usually known as the Brahmaviharas or the… Continue reading
Updated Resources for Meditation and Support
One area of the Buddha’s teaching describes the set of processes that we often identify with as the self. Known as the aggregates or skandhas, these five processes include the physical processes of the body as well as several mental processes. Gaylon Ferguson unpacks each of these processes and attempts to show why identifying with… Continue reading
Quote for the Week
I repeat to myself over and over again—and to whoever is willing to listen—old stories of who I am, who I was, and who I am becoming (as well as who you are and why you’re that way). We leave the spacious, open humility of not-knowing far behind and take shelter in a thicket of… Continue reading
Sangha News 10/21/25
Thursday Evening Meditation & Talk: Over the next month or so we’ll explore the Buddha’s teachings on four qualities of the heart that support us in our lives and practice, and can help us to cultivate an open heart. These four qualities, lovingkindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity, are usually known as the Brahmaviharas or the… Continue reading
Updated Resources for Meditation and Support
The Buddha’s teachings on non-self are considered to be some of the most important for finding liberation from the distress we can experience in life, but also some of the most difficult to understand. Gil Fronsdal provides a brief introduction to the teachings on non-self and their connection to freedom from suffering. You can find… Continue reading
Quote for the Week
People often become confused about selflessness because they sense a continuity in their experience. But selflessness does not imply a lack of continuity. When we think of a seed becoming a sapling and then becoming a tree which bears fruit, we find a continuity in that process even though there is no single element which… Continue reading
Cancer Center Meditation Support Group Meets October 16
Our monthly mindfulness meditation support group meeting at the Tri-Cities Cancer Center will be held on Thursday, October 16, 2025. The Cancer Center is located at 7350 West Deschutes Avenue, Kennewick. The sessions, which are held on the third Thursday of each month, are meant for cancer patients, cancer survivors, and their caregivers. The session this month will begin at 12:00 pm at the Cancer Center in… Continue reading