An active period is about to unfold here at Springwater Center, beginning with next week’s All Day Sitting, an open meditative dialogue, retreat with Wayne Coger and Sandra Gonzalez, the annual meeting, and then retreat with Stephan Bielfeldt. See the Calendar for a complete listing of in-person and online events this year. 

Volunteer help is most welcome to help prepare for all these events as well as the extra work warm weather brings for the garden and grounds. Volunteers who make arrangements to stay a few days or longer receive room and food in return, But volunteering doesn’t necessarily mean having to stay overnight. It’s great if you live locally and would like to volunteer on a more informal basis when it works with your schedule. See Volunteering and please contact the Center at info@springwatercenter.org for more information. 

For newcomers, All Day Sittings are a wonderful introduction to the Center and its work. For old-timers, they are a way to reconnect and refresh. Please apply soon if you wish to attend this popular event.

Stephan Bielfeldt, in advance of the June retreat he will hold at the Center, (see below), will give the morning talk online from his home in Germany. There will be a group dialogue in the afternoon where you can go into questions you may have about the Center’s meditative work. Staff will serve a delicious vegetarian lunch and refreshments at the end of the day. The schedule allows ample time to explore the Center’s walking trails through woods and by the stream’s ravine.  See more information about All-Days, including the schedule. Use the button below to register. 

If you wish to stay as a guest the night before or after the All Day, please email reception at info@springwatercenter.org  for availability, as guest space is limited, then fill in this Guest Stay Request. 

Center members, please note that a day before this program begins, the online coordinator will email you with links to listen to the talk live and online or listen to the recorded talk at a later time. This is a new benefit of membership. 

 The OMD takes place from 1:30 pm – 3:45 pm (Eastern Daylight Time).

Kirk Warren Brown is on the faculty in the Department of Psychology at Carnegie Mellon University, where he teaches and conducts research on the impacts of meditation on people’s lives. He has been retreating and working with teachers at Springwater Center since 1999 and has facilitated meditation groups in the spirit of the Center’s work since 2005.

The OMD begins with 25 minutes of sitting, followed by a short break. Kirk will then give a talk, which will be followed by a dialogue among the online participants. 

Zoom Access for this event:
DIRECT LINK or
Zoom.us Meeting ID: 289 037 6188, Passcode: 7179 
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kdsftvqRwr

Online Open Meditative Dialogues are donation-based events. To contribute in support, a donation of $10 per attendance is suggested. Please use the button below to donate, and choose the “Online Sittings/Programs” option. Your generosity helps keep online programs available for all to attend.
Thank you.

The beautiful month of May will see Sandra returning from her other home in Nicaragua to join Wayne for this springtime retreat. 

The retreat is beginning to fill, so please apply soon if you wish to attend. Sandra and Wayne will alternate in giving talks. Both will be available for private meetings and they will take part in the daily group dialogues. 

The retreat is for in person attendees, but members may hear the daily talks online or listen to the retreat’s recorded talks. The online coordinator will send members a link ahead of the retreat that may be used to access the talks. 

In the most recent talk added to his website page, Wayne spoke about thinking, the division it can create and the effect of awareness. Here is an edited excerpt from the talk:

Thought says pay attention to this, don’t pay attention to that . . . it kind of wants to neaten things up, divide things. In awareness  there is no doing, there is no choosing between this and that. Awareness doesn’t exclude the thoughts and emotions, the tensions in the body, or the lack of same, it’s discovery, without the picking and choosing.  Awareness takes in  thinking—I may notice that I’ve built up a story about someone . . . about myself and my relationship to someone . . . and my relationship to what I’m calling the world, the frustration and stupidity of the way people treat each other, people in power. Watching all of that, just seeing it, and maybe not becoming, in that seeing, part of it—not adding to the fire of hatred, prejudice and division. 

An excerpt from an article titled “A Reflection on Meditative Inquiry” written by Sandra goes into the effect of awareness:

When awareness, that is in itself whole, all inclusive, dawns upon the human heart then there is a seeing of the relationship between each other, the interconnectedness. Amazingly there is no longer the possibility, or at least not the probability, that we will latch onto a fragment and get stuck there. 

The possibility arises that all our actions may be whole, total, natural and without effort; these actions can address the situation at hand, what is in front of us, from this depth of understanding. Every action or non-action will have the perfume of wholeness, compassion and a more creative living will pour out spontaneously and effortlessly.

Please use the button below to register. 

In the sunny photo above, Sandra sits with the group that gathered for a Day of Silence with sittings, talk and dialogue in Mombacho Nicaragua. 

Notice of the Annual Meeting and proxy ballot was sent to members in April by US post. Please contact the Center if you have not yet received your mailing. Please return your proxy ballot before the meeting, and note that this year it is possible to email your ballot if you opt not to send it by post. Zoom links to attend the meeting were included in the mailing. We hope to see you online on June 1. Information about membership. 

This will be a hybrid retreat, open to both in-person and online attendees. Stephan will give a daily talk and offer in-person and online private meetings. As well, he will attend the hybrid in-person/online afternoon group dialogues. 

Stephan visits Springwater just once each year to hold retreat. In 2024, he published a book, “Seven Days in Silence: How to find oneself in quiet meditation,” which is an excellent introduction to meditation and the retreat experience.

In the book, in response to the question “What is meditation?” Stephan replies: 

As we sit here in this quiet circle, just listening to the sounds around us, what is here? There is the sunlight streaming in through the windows onto the floorboards. Through the open window we can hear the chirping of a sparrow. But already that is saying too much. I said “floorboards” and “sparrow,” and these words are language and present mental concepts, do they not? How can I go about describing what I see and what I am aware of in the moment? That which is being described is there, but there are no concepts. And what is it that cannot be expressed, when we  don’t think it through or put it into words? Can we ask the question and wonder in stillness? What is there right in front of us, from one moment to the next if we do not give it a name? And who are we when we are just aware? This is where concepts cannot help us. The simple awareness of what is there in the moment, beyond all concepts, is, I am convinced, the very essence of meditation.

Please use the button below to register. 

info@springwatercenter.org   www.springwatercenter.org