By Melanie P. Moore, et al.
Each month, we publish a listing of upcoming contemplative and spiritual opportunities recommended by folks here at The Abbey. Many of us have floundered around in the past looking for community and deep engagement with other pilgrims on the spiritual path. Here we share a curated list of what we are finding, hoping you might find some of it helpful on your journey. We’ve included a Comments section with each listing detailing what we as participants have liked. If you know of something coming up in September or October and would like to have it listed here, please email the information as shown below to editor@theabbey.us by August 22 to be included in the post at the beginning of September. Please note that all times are listed in Central Time.
August
Metanoia Journey’s Sunday In-Person Contemplative Gathering
Dates and Times: Sunday, Aug. 4, 10 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.
Registration: Not required
Cost: Free
Frequency: Monthly
Duration: 1.5 hours
Format: In person at The Seminary of the Southwest’s Christ Chapel 501 E 32nd St., Austin, TX
Recording Available: N/A
Description: The format of this gathering will include 20 minutes of Centering Prayer, a scripture reading from the sacred texts, a “message” offered by the ministers or guest speakers, community communion, and contemplative music. We invite anyone who wants to participate in performing a role to let us know. Otherwise, just come, rest in God, and receive.
This is a “contemplative service,” with 20 minutes of silent, meditative prayer. For those that attend that have not practiced Centering Prayer before, we have a copy of the brief Guidelines to practice the prayer available at the entry to the Chapel for people to follow along.
At this time, we do not have an area for children to gather separately or have a children’s ministry. Older children are certainly welcome if they can rest in silence during that time.
Comments: This is an opportunity to connect with other contemplative practitioners in person in Austin. While these are primarily Christian contemplative services, all are welcome.
Becoming a Wisdom Elder: A Teaching on Conscious Aging with Cynthia Bourgeault
Dates and Times: Tuesday, Aug. 13, 1 p.m. – 4 p.m.
Registration: Open
Cost: $30
Frequency: One-time event
Duration: 3 hours
Format: Online
Recording Available: Yes
Description: With 73-million Baby Boomers increasing in years and creating what is being called a “gray tsunami,” what is our cultural roadmap for aging with grace and dignity, while also unlocking a position as a Wisdom Elder? How do we access something, as Cynthia writes: “purer and more primordial than even [our] deepest realization” as we make ourselves “malleable into the hands of the Mercy.”
Expanding on her newly published “10 Practical Guidelines for Conscious Aging,” Cynthia will share with us both the responsibilities and the deep spiritual possibilities coiled within this inescapable process. Drawing on two of her trusted spiritual classics, Helen Luke’s Old Age and Ladislaus Boros’ The Mystery of Death, Cynthia will also pull from her own experience of aging as “what once seemed far off now becomes the intimate landscape of my day-to-day life.”
As Cynthia recently wrote, “within the world’s Wisdom teachings, ‘conscious aging’ is not simply a polite euphemism but an active pathway of spiritual metamorphosis: in a sense, the capstone project of an entire life’s journey.” Join Cynthia as she engages this timely topic which arrived dramatically on our political stage, but continues to unfold each day, with more subtle implications, in our families and homes.
This online event will primarily feature Cynthia’s live presentation with time for community gathering and several grounding Wisdom practices. The event will also include a guest conversation with 90-year-old Wisdom Elder Mahan Siler, a retired Baptist Pastor, social justice activist, and writer whose recent blog invites dialogue around “Positional Power vs Relationship Power.” There will be space for questions and answers with both speakers after the conversation.
Comments: This timely event on the concept of conscious aging, led by one of our favorites, Cynthia Bourgeault who has been teaching on this topic for years, is a rare live event for her. She is also aging and brings personal wisdom in addition to the teachings she shares. Highly recommend; several of us from The Abbey are already registered.
Thriving in an Election Year, Eremos Interlude
Dates and Times: Wednesday, Aug. 14, Noon – 1 p.m.
Registration: Open
Cost: Free
Frequency: One-time event
Duration: 1 hour
Format: Online
Recording Available: Yes
Description: As an Austin based psychologist with expertise in mindfulness, Rev. Dr. Zuniga knows well how anxiety about the presidential election (and the aftermath) can either consume us or operate like a slow drain on our energy, impacting our ability to experience a sense of wellbeing. Join us to learn how to return to center and find peace in these months leading up to election day in November.
Rev. Dr. David Zuniga is a clinical psychologist in private practice in Austin, Texas. Previously, he was a faculty member at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. He also earned a master’s degree in comparative religion from Harvard, was ordained in South Korea as a Zen Buddhist priest, and worked as a hospice/hospital chaplain for over a decade. He is also a Vice Bishop in the Taego lineage of Korean Zen, he has a fellowship to write a book on Zen, mindfulness and end-of-life care, and he has published widely and spoken internationally at leading academic conferences on wellness and healthcare: www.drdavidzuniga.com .
Comments: The Eremos Interludes are interesting, accessible presentations that are convenient to watch during lunch. This one seems especially timely and we look forward to checking it out.
Thriving Today: Local Poetry Reading – Call for Submissions, presented by Eremos
Dates and Times: Application Deadline – Sunday, August 18
Registration/Entry: Open
Cost: $10 Entry fee
Frequency: One-time event
Duration: 10 Finalists and 4 Winners notified by September 30
Format: Electronic submissions (link to submit will be included in receipt for Entry fee)
Recording Available: N/A
Description: Four authors will be selected to share their poem about What It Means to Thrive. These four authors will join acclaimed poet and author Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer Saturday, October 26, 2024, in Austin, Texas, at the Thriving Today event. Selected authors must be able to be present to read their poem. Cash prize is $100 (4 winners). Submission Guidelines are here.
Comments: This is an opportunity for local poets to submit their work and participate in a local reading event, if selected. Whether you are selected or not, a contest can be a wonderful chance to experience submitting your work on a deadline.
Gathering Dharma Series – The Eight Realizations: The Path to Liberation for All with Roshi Joan Halifax
Dates and Times: Monthly on Sundays, Noon – 1:30 p.m.; August 18, September 15, October 13, November 3, December 22
Registration: Open
Cost: Donation suggested
Frequency: Monthly
Duration: 1.5 hours
Format: Online
Recording Available: Yes
Description: “Gathering Dharma” is about compassion, connection and collective action. It is a time to explore social and environmental engagement and to affirm our vows in a time of great challenge on our earth. During the morning, we will touch into practice, learn together, and open to inquiry.
For each morning program, there will be a Resource Page, and the Zoom video of the morning session will be posted on the Resource Page shortly after the session. We ask that you register for each Sunday you wish to attend, and you will be sent a Zoom link for the gathering and have access to the unique Resource Page. Recordings of the session will be accessible in perpetuity.
Comments: We like Roshi Joan Halifax as well as several of the other leaders who are participating, including Frank Ostaseski and think this series would be a great way to explore compassion, connection, and collective action.
The Missing Piece: How Lament Can Move Us from Surviving to Thriving with Terra McDaniel, presented by Eremos
Dates and Times: Saturday, August 24, 9:30 a.m. – Noon
Registration: Open
Cost: $50 (partial scholarships available)
Frequency: One-time even
Duration: 2.5 hours
Format: In person at Abiding Love Lutheran Church, Austin, TX
Recording Available: N/A
Description: In our rush to get back to normal, many of us ignore the need to express our sorrows. We don’t realize this missing step is often vital to healing and living with more wholeness.
In this workshop, Terra will share wisdom about the ancient practice of lament and the need to grieve our sorrows and losses, whether personal, professional, or global.
Guiding you into a few tried and true grief, gratitude, and hope practices from her work with clients, Terra will invite you to notice the space created within—a place for hope and even joy to enter—after you’ve given your griefs a way to be metabolized. Optional invitations to share with small groups and the larger group will occur throughout the morning.
Comments: We have consistently liked the offerings from Eremos and find their teachers/leaders to be effective and engaging. We want to note that this offering will be in-person in Austin, which is nice for this type of program.
Love and Death: Opening the Great Gifts, presented by Upaya Zen Center
Dates and Times: Friday, Aug. 23, 6:30 p.m. – Sunday, Aug. 25, at noon. (see link above for detailed session schedule)
Registration: Open
Cost: Donation requested
Frequency: One-time event
Duration: 2.5 days
Format: Online
Recording Available: Yes
Description: This program explores the powerful equation of love and death. This whole life is a place where we make real our dedication to awakening, in living and dying, in caring and being cared for, in loving and receiving love. Being completely and vividly present for the rich details of our lives and the lives of others is the means that we use to discover truth and come home to who we really are. Love and death then are experiences of discovery. This program, led by two pioneers in the end-of-life care field and long time Buddhist practitioners, is an exploration of how we bring depth and dedication into our whole life and the life of the world. Through teachings, exchanges, and unique practices and processes, we explore the profound relationship between love and death, engaged practice and the role of love and compassion in how we serve others, different forms of love, how art reveals the connection between love and death, and practices that relate to the power of impermanence and surrender. This program is open to all and is a special opportunity to work closely with Frank Ostaseski and Roshi Joan Halifax.
Comments: This is an annual event and these are two of our favorite presenters. Both of the presenters are pioneers in hospice and end-of-life care movement. We have enjoyed reading and hearing each of these presenters explore aspects of this topic in the past and they are terrific together. This presentation promises to be deeply meaningful for those who are in the space to receive it.
Summer Interlude – Conversation with Dianna Amorde, “Refreshing Your Spirit Through Pilgrimage”
Dates and Times: Wednesday, Aug. 28, Noon – 1 p.m.
Registration: Open
Cost: Free
Frequency: One-time event (part of Eremos Summer Interlude Series)
Duration: 1 hour
Format: Online
Recording Available: Yes, for 1 month
Description: Blessed to be joining a few Eremos friends on a pilgrimage to Inishmore (one of the Aran Islands off the west coast of Ireland) in mid-July, Dianna will share stories, pictures, and more about her experience and invite you to go on your own pilgrimage, even if only in your imagination.
Comments:This is one in a series of one-hour presentations based on the Summer Interlude series that Eremos is presenting. It’s a great opportunity to hear the speakers who are leading the various groups this summer.
September
Returning Religion to the Prophetic with Ilia Delio
Dates and Times: Friday, Sept. 6, 6 p.m. – 8 p.m.
Registration: Open
Cost: $30
Frequency: One-time event
Duration: 2 hours
Format: Online
Recording Available: Yes
Description: As we move into a presidential election in the US, we see the role of religion transformed into a powerful political tool. What happens when religion is emptied out of its primal meaning and becomes replacement therapy for anger, anxiety and existential fear? Teilhard de Chardin had a vision of deep hope, rooted in the dynamic process of religion and evolution. He returns religion to the place of the mystical, the dynamic in-breaking of new being. We will explore a renewed meaning of Teilhard’s vision of religion and evolution in a world that seems to be out of control, and our role in bringing about a more just and unified world.
Comments: Ilia Delio is a talented teacher and unique in her synthesizing of science and spirituality without watering down either; solid scholarship, solid spirituality. We always enjoy and are edified by her presentations. This is presented by her organization, the Center for Christogenesis
Intimate: The Art and Practice of Working from the Inside Out, Three Sundays Series with David Whyte
Dates and Times: Sundays, Sept. 8, 15, and 22; 8 a.m. – 9:15 a.m.
Registration: Open
Cost: $65
Frequency: Weekly
Duration: 3 weeks; each session is 1.25 hours
Format: Online
Recording Available: Yes, for 1 year
Description: We tend to think of intimacy in terms of physical and imaginative love for a single other, but intimacy is the key to almost all encounters in a human life. Getting close to and understanding things from the inside out is a key, not only to deepening bonds of human affection in relationships or marriage but also to becoming intimate with a work, an art form, a path we need to take but beyond that too, becoming intimate with the natural world and with our own hard-to-find sense of self in that world and most especially, what we desire in each, succeeding, transformative threshold of our lives. Join David Whyte for Three Sundays in September, looking at the way that the necessity for intimacy is the ultimate underlying invitation, in almost every path a human being can take
Comments: While we haven’t participated in one of these events, we have read much of David Whyte’s work and seen videos of his readings which are inspiring. This topic seems especially interesting given what we have experienced of his work.
Learning from the Mighty Oaks: A Day with the Trees with Gudjon Bergmann and Dianna Amorde, an Eremos Fall Day Retreat
Dates and Times: Saturday, Sept. 28, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Registration: Open
Cost: $100 (includes lunch, snacks, and all materials)
Frequency: One-time event
Duration: 6 hours/ all day
Format: In person at Five Oak Ranch Retreat Center, 14301 FM 1826, Austin, Texas
Recording Available: N/A
Description: At the close of September, we invite you to step back and rest among the trees. Sit quietly, listen for the wisdom they have to offer, walk the labyrinth, connect with one another, and then rest some more. This is a spacious timeout just for you. With plenty of time for solitary walks, journaling outdoors, rich conversations with like-hearted souls, or exploring the labyrinth, Gudjon and Dianna will offer reflections, poetry inspired by the wisdom of trees, especially the oaks.
Comments: Eremos has a history of offering meaningful in-person retreats in Austin for contemplative seekers and practitioners. This is a wonderful way to experience a convenient, one-day retreat for local Austin contemplatives.
October
Thriving Today with Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, presented by Eremos
Dates and Times: Saturday, Oct. 26, 9 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Registration: Open
Cost: $80 (scholarships available)
Frequency: One-time event
Duration: 6.5 hours including lunch; Or Session 1 (Writing for Thriving) 3 hours, 9 a.m. – noon; Session 2 (Poetry for Thriving) 2 hours, 1:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Format: In person at St. Matthews Episcopal Church, Austin, TX
Recording Available: N/A
Description: Writing down or listening to the words our soul longs to share can help us discern what our unique path to thriving today might be. Join us for an extraordinary day with acclaimed writer and poet Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer and local poets to write or hear the words meant for you.
Session 1: Join poet and writing coach Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer for a morning of inspiration, wisdom about why your writing practice is a gift to help you thrive, and immersion in the craft of writing through writing prompts and more. Whether you dabble at journaling or are a seasoned poet and author, this creative morning is sure to inspire you to cultivate a stronger writing practice and help you move past any writing blocks.
Session 2: Beginning with Rosemerry’s poetry, you’re invited to listen and respond to each poem with the words that resonate with you. Local poets will add their voice to what it means to thrive today. Sacred, silent pauses will be woven throughout to optimally experience and take in each poem offered. Leave nourished by poetic voices and inspired to craft your own path to thriving from the words, ideas, and wisdom shared.
Comments: We always find it interesting to work with and hear poets share their work, especially when their attention is focused on a particular theme, in this case, Thriving. Learning how poets approach their craft and how poetry can influence the ways we move through the world and relate to others can be fascinating.
Ongoing
Contemplative Chant
Dates and Times: Wednesdays at 4 p.m.
Registration: Open
Cost: Free
Frequency: Ongoing
Duration: 30 minutes
Format: Online
Recording Available: No
Description: 30 minutes of contemplative chant from Wisdom Waypoints, with chants led by Susan Latimer and Elizabeth Combs. Chanting is a wonderful practice for bringing both the Moving Center (body, breath, tone) and the Emotional Center (open heart) online. It is a spiritual practice that opens our hearts, nourishes our nervous systems, prepares us for prayer and meditation as a bridge into stillness, and connects us to our innate joy, courage, steadfastness, peace, beauty, truth and goodness. In times of great uncertainty and change, we find chant to be one of the things that most grounds us. These sessions draw chants from Wisdom Schools, various spiritual and religious traditions, sacred texts, old hymns and poetry. Because of the limitations of synching sound on Zoom, all participants are muted except for the one leading. This allows everyone to chant along in their own space. (Great if you are shy about sharing your voice! Fun if you like to try harmonies!)
Comments: Some of us join this contemplative chant weekly and enjoy it very much. We find it a wonderful contemplative practice. Wisdom Waypoints is the wisdom community started by Cynthia Bourgeault, one of our favorite wisdom teachers. Note that this is a small and warm group of regular participants. Therefore, it can be more difficult to participate anonymously.
The Abbey Tuesday Morning Meditation
Dates and Times: Tuesdays at 8 a.m. (Meditation at 8 a.m., optional discussion at 8:30 a.m.)
Registration: Open
Cost: Free
Frequency: Weekly
Duration: Ongoing
Format: Zoom
Recording Available: No
Description: A 20-minute sit, followed by a brief reading and discussion.
Comments: Of course we love this meditation group! It’s The Abbey, our own contemplative community.
Word of the Week
Dates and Times: Emails sent on Sundays, meets each Tuesday at 8 a.m. and Wednesday at 5 p.m.
Registration: Sign up for weekly emails here.
Cost: Free annual subscription (with recommended donation of $95/yr)
Frequency: Weekly, per above
Duration: One hour
Format: Zoom – link is sent weekly in the email on Sunday
Recording Available: No
Description: A beautiful email is sent on Sundays with the reading of Lectio Divina that will be done. There is a sit and then the Lectio Divina.
Comments: We like this because it’s a chance to revisit the reading for the week—and they always include beautiful artwork (it’s Lectio and Visio Divina!). We like the sense of community. It’s a pretty stable group and there’s a chance to share. We also like the balance of it—they are very mindful of the time, it’s just an hour. There’s a rhythm of it that we like. We read the emails each week and appreciate having the email in advance to sit with it a little before the group reading. There are also opportunities to interact online with the group during the week. We will note that it can be difficult to find the link for the Zoom in the weekly email; it is also spelled out here—the third bullet has link to the zoom with poorly brown highlighted “Click on this link,” but it also provides the zoom code and passcode in the email.
Wisdom Waypoints Daily Centering Prayer/Meditation
Dates and Times: Monday – Friday 9:30 a.m.; Monday/Wednesday/Sunday 6 p.m.; Saturday 10:30 a.m.
Registration: No registration required, join via website
Cost: Free
Frequency: Daily, per above
Duration: 30 minutes
Format: Zoom
Recording Available: No
Description: A collective wisdom pause for “Silence and Stillness.” Wisdom members lead each sit with a brief reading, chant, and meditation/stillness.
Comments: We like this because it is a way to maintain our personal practice alongside others with the degree of anonymity (or not) with which we are each comfortable. Wisdom Waypoints is a part of Cynthia Bourgeault’s network of teaching and practice resources.