Common Ground Meditation Center

The conditions of life are naturally and appropriately uncertain. We just don’t get permanent security in life. Does this have to be a problem?

Half-Day Retreat with Mark Nunberg this Saturday, in person and on Zoom!

https://mailchi.mp/commongroundmeditation/april172024-2550867

Intro to Mindfulness Workshop with Stacy McClendon this Saturday! - https://mailchi.mp/commongroundmedita.../april172024-2550851

Guest Teacher Tuere Sala This Weekend! - https://mailchi.mp/commongroundmeditation/april172024-2550847

Upcoming: Buddhist Studies, Masculinity Convo, Work Practice Period!

Guest Teacher Ayya Niyyānika this Week! - https://mailchi.mp/commongroundmeditation/april172024-2550835

Kamala Masters on Saturday, plus Volunteer Day! -

Kamala Masters on Saturday, plus Volunteer Day! Dear Friends, Already in the first week of June we've had more rain here in central Minnesota that is typically forecasted for the entire month, and my new garden is thriving. I am reminded of my own capacity to attend to what is blossoming in the heartmind, and be less entwined with something that....

Half-Day Retreat on Saturday, Spring Volunteer Day Next Saturday! -

Half-Day Retreat on Saturday, Spring Volunteer Day Next Saturday! Dear Friends, Although we may not have fully realized the unshakeable release of the heart that the Buddha’s teachings point to, we can become more skillful at abandoning what regularly obstructs the experience of freedom. The Buddha points to conceit as one of the most subtle and tenacious fixati...

Daylong Retreat with Mark Saturday + Practice Intensive Begins June 3! -

Community Practice Intensive Begins Monday! + Upcoming Guest Teachers Dear Friends, The Buddha came to understand the conditional nature of all things–this is the essential law of our lives. Seeing this clearly uproots the tendency to grasp and struggle with experience. Both wisdom and ignorance arise due to causes and conditions. In a conventional sense, it is impo...

BIPOC Daylong this Saturday, Daylong with Mark Next Saturday! -

BIPOC Daylong this Saturday, Daylong with Mark Next Saturday! Dear Common Ground Friends, The Buddha taught a basic lawfulness that we can count on and base our practice on. The supporting conditions for the arising of present-moment awareness is a non-remorse that arises when we value non-harming & living ethically. The supporting conditions for the arising o...

Guest Teacher nakawe cuebas This Weekend! -

Guest Teacher nakawe cuebas This Weekend! Dear Common Ground Friends, This time of global complexity has exposed once again how limited our ideas of safety and security can be. It can break the heart to feel into this both individually and collectively and yet bring us closer to the truth of how it actually is. Once again, I am so grateful....

Guest Teacher nakawe cuebas Next Weekend! -

Guest Teacher nakawe cuebas Next Weekend! Dear Common Ground Friends, Is it possible for us to be fully engaged in our ordinary world of routines, responsibilities, and relationships and at the same time be free from attachment and identification? This seems like an impossible task. The practice taught by the Buddha is to develop a continui...

We are excited for Tuere Sala's visit in July! She'll be leading a BIPOC retreat at our retreat center as well as a public talk and daylong retreat at our city center. Especially for the residential retreat, we hope to get the word out so that as many people can attend her retreat as possible. Feel free to spread the word!

Details:

Residential Retreat is July 7-12 at our retreat center in Prairie Farm, WI (about 75 min from Mpls).

Public talk and daylong will be Friday evening, July 12 and Sat. July 13, respectively (at our city center).

Let us know if you have any questions about her visit!

More info and registration at https://commongroundmeditation.org/retreats-at-cgrc/

Registration Open for Spring/Summer Residential Retreats! -

Common Ground Labor Day 2018 Residential Retreat Common Ground's Labor Day 2018 Residential Retreat registration is now open.

BIPOC Daylong on Saturday + New Community Groups! -

BIPOC Daylong on Saturday + New Community Groups! Dear Common Ground Friends, It has been a beautiful sunny day here in the twin cities. Even with chilly temperatures, the sun is strong and melting evidence of the winter storm earlier this week. One thing I noticed about the winter storm was that it was alive with generosity...the generosity of n...

Daylong Retreat with Shelly on Saturday, Daylong BIPOC Retreat with Stacy McClendon next Saturday! -

Daylong Retreat with Shelly on Saturday, Daylong BIPOC Retreat with Stacy McClendon next Saturday! Dear Common Ground Friends, I find it useful to define spiritual ignorance or delusion as the tendency to think that I already know. When I think that I already know, my heart no longer opens and receives the moment in a clear and fresh way. Instead, it goes about protecting my view of things. Our p...

Buddhist Studies Starts Monday + Upcoming Retreat Opportunities! -

Buddhist Studies Starts Monday + Upcoming Retreat Opportunities! Dear Common Ground Friends, One of the beautiful things about faith as a functional force in our lives as spiritual beings is that it moves us ever closer to what matters most. Faith leads us to a wise participation with life, learning to nurture what aligns with our deepest values and both wisely ...

Lovingkindness Friday, Half-Day Retreat Saturday, Next Intro Class Begins Tuesday! -

Lovingkindness Tonight, Half-Day Retreat Saturday, Next Intro Class Begins Tuesday! Greetings Friends, If you have ever been on a retreat of any length, you know this particular form can be a powerful way of deepening intimacy with the way it is. What if we expanded the definition of retreat to include every moment of sincerity or wholeheartedness? Perhaps our whole lives become ...

Registration is open for our next Intro to Mindfulness Meditation course! More info and registration here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfmVNPZyapi4Se5Wym-qhEbvrcnx7Q0QKorWEuhnap8ciLsFQ/viewform?usp=sf_link

Daylong Retreat this Saturday, Guest Teacher Chas DiCapua on Feb 25th! -

Daylong Retreat this Saturday, Guest Teacher Chas DiCapua on Feb 25th! Greetings Friends, With all of the insistent demands on our time, it is easy for the to do list to get the best of us. We create a reality out of our thoughts, what we should do, what we haven't done, what we need to do and so on. We can be grateful for those moments in which we can feel the inten...

Registration Open for Residential Intro Retreat with Stacy McClendon & Gail Iverson! -

Common Ground Labor Day 2018 Residential Retreat Common Ground's Labor Day 2018 Residential Retreat registration is now open.

Daylong Retreat with Shelly Graf this Saturday! -

Daylong Retreat with Shelly Graf this Saturday! Greetings Friends, The Buddha taught us to train our minds to relate to subjective experience in a naturalistic way by skillfully uprooting habits of self-centeredness. We are taught that these practices are the catalyst for awakening–greater freedom, wisdom, and compassion in our lives. It may so...

BIPOC Retreat with Stacy McClendon & Jen Racho Tomorrow! -

BIPOC Retreat with Stacy McClendon & Jen Racho Tomorrow! Greetings Common Ground! I’m back, if I ever left. I confess to having read close to every one of these weekly emails even while I was no longer working in the office. What can I say, Dharma administration is close to my heart. It’s good to be back; in some ways it feels like I never left, and i...

Monday Evening Online: Community Dharma Evening with Mark Nunberg & Shelly Graf! -

Monday Evening Online: Community Dharma Evening with Mark Nunberg & Shelly Graf! We are entangled humans, living in our entangled world, desiring some relief from what often appears to us to be too much. Being human isn't easy for any of us. And, even when conditions are pleasant, deep down our heart knows those conditions are subject to change. As the Buddha was asked a long ti...

Registration Open for President's Day Retreat with Shelly Graf and Gabe Keller Flores! -

Common Ground Labor Day 2018 Residential Retreat Common Ground's Labor Day 2018 Residential Retreat registration is now open.

Lovingkindness Meditation Tonight, Half-Day Retreat Tomorrow! -

Lovingkindness Meditation Tonight, Half-Day Retreat Tomorrow! On behalf of Co-Guiding Teacher Shelly Graf and myself, Common Ground paid staff, the Board of Directors, and all our leadership we want to offer our good wishes for the deepest healing and awakening for 2024 – in all directions, no one left out! It may seem radical or even inappropriate to ask ou...

New Year's Celebration and Potluck! -

New Year's Celebration and Potluck! I have finally been released from my long hospital stay and am back at home with my beloved partner Wynn, and immediately joined Common Ground’s 31st Annual Year End Retreat! Shelly Graf and Wynn Fricke are teaching the retreat, and I am helping a bit around the edges. Depending on our duties and ...

Upcoming: New Year's Celebration and Potluck! -

Upcoming: New Year's Celebration and Potluck! I will be leading our Sunday morning and evening Weekly Practice Groups on Christmas Eve as well as our Sunday morning group on New Year's Eve, December 31st. Please join in!

Spots Open for the Year End Retreat -

Spots Open for the Year End Retreat Dear Common Ground Friends, As many of you know, my personal practice over the last few months has involved the dharma teachers of pain, uncertainty, vulnerability, and a more and more radical submission to the support and expertise of those around me. (See Mark’s CaringBridge for more information...

2023 Gratitude Reflection and Important Information -

2023 Gratitude Reflection and Important Information Dear Friends, Warm winter greeting to you all! I hope you receive this winter gratitude reflection with all the love in my heart. Mark and I have been away teaching at IMS for the month. He will likely return home today and I will return home on Thursday. We are both looking forward to being back ho...

Community Practice Intensive Begins Monday! -

Community Practice Intensive Begins Monday! Dear Common Ground Friends, The Noble Eightfold Path was such a generous offering of the Buddha's practice. A pure gift of immense depth...so deep that it covers every aspect of our humanness, no aspect of body, mind, or human life left out. The Buddha was indeed a good friend to generations of be...