Events At Meetingbrook

Monday, September 26, 2016

Autumn 2016, meetingbrook hermitage ongoing events

NOTES:

      Prelude:
    • Despite what the website says, we no longer have the intown bookshop/bakery. (It ran for 13 years at the harbor and folded back into hermitage at Ragged and Bald Mountains in 2009). We haven’t figured out how to get into that original site to change the text. 
    • ILU COTO, (i.e Individual Learning Understanding Conversation Together) are soul-friend conversations held both at the hermitage and at Maine State Prison. Upon request, an hour’s length, conversing about anything the individual wishes to converse about.
    • See website, Today at Meetingbrook, http://meetingbrook.blogspot.com/  for any change/elaboration of schedule 


      Prologue, A word about Meetingbrook Hermitage Events:
    • All are welcome. All events at meetingbrook are free, open, and informal. 
    • Each conversation, each practice stands by itself. You’ve missed nothing. Just stop by and join the sitting practice or the conversation. 
    • Each silent sitting is just that, nothing more. Each event and conversation begins with a space of silence.  
    • Residents of meetingbrook include a Border Collie (Rokpa) and two cats (Panta and Chitta). 

EVENTS:
0. Anytime: ILU COTO
individual learning    understanding    conversation together
(ilu coto translates as: the illusion of barrier, opening beyond preserve)
1x1 conversation, contemplative & meditative, corresponding   
                  

                         

                          Call to schedule a 1x1 ILU COTO time.
1. Friday: 
    • Maine State Prison: (8am- 2:30pm) (only open to prison volunteers)
      • Buddhist Meditation Group; 
      • Meetingbrook Conversation; 
      • ILU COTO (individual learning understanding, conversations together) sessions for individuals from general prison population.
    • Quarry Hill (Extended Care Facility): Poetry, Tea, and Thee, (1st and 3rd Fridays, 3pm-4pm) open to all visitor poetry lovers. Bring one of your own, or from a book.
    • Hermitage, Friday Evening Conversation: 5:30pm-7:00pm    Topic or theme chosen each week by those attending.                                       
     
          2.  Saturday
    • Saturday Morning Meditation Practice, 7:30am--8:45am, Buddhist/Meditative Focus. Format: 30min silent sitting, chant, reading, circle reflection, metta, (Coffee, tea, toast after available).
         3.  Sunday:
    • Sunday Morning Collation,  9:00am - 10:00am. An Interreligious Centering Prayer/Lectio Divina (focusing on contemplation, conversation, correspondence),  Format: A silent period (15mins), followed by reading from particular scriptures of two traditions, then reflective conversation, round-table.
    • Morning Hospitality 10:30am-12:30pm, brunch and conversation 
    • Sunday Evening Practice, (Practicing Between Contemplative/Meditative Traditions), 6:00pm--8:00pm. Format: 40min silent sitting; 5min mindful walking; Heart Sutra chant; 15min table reading; 10min silent eating; 15min open conversation; final circle.

Epilogue:  
Meetingbrook Hermitage is a place of collation and recollection between 
Ragged and Bald Mountains. 
We practice, with simplicity, between traditions. 
As Buddhists we are in the tradition of Dogen Zenji. As Christians we are in the tradition of Francis of Assisi. The Dalai Lama and Thomas Merton inspire us.
We cultivate our promises of contemplation, conversation, and correspondence
This is attempted in the spirit of deep listening and loving speech. 
Stop by any time to visit meditation cabin or bookshed.
The yurt is used for solitary retreats. Inquire.
Hiking trails of both mountains abound.




 Meetingbrook Dogen & Francis Hermitage, is a Schola Gratiae et Contemplationis, i.e., a School of Gratefulness and Contemplation. Begun in 1994, it was formed as a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization in 1998 for the purpose of serving as a place of collation and recollection for the side-by-side practice and study of Buddhist Zen Meditation,  Christian Contemplative Prayer, and the Engaged Service flowing from each.


Central to Meetingbrook is its Schola dedicated to Interreligious Dialogue—Unveiling and Practicing Peace Between Ways. Donations are always gratefully accepted for the continuance and deepening of Meetingbrook. 

 m.o.n.o. (monastics of no other).

We are grateful for any efforts that encourage
an ongoing creation rooted in prayer, meditation, study, and service.