End of Summer, Early Fall Offerings

We can find cause and effect relations between what’s going on now and what’s happened in the past. All of us, all humanity is a result of the past. Of the whole past. In one way or another as we sit right here now, listening, attending or dreaming we are the result of everything that’s ever happened throughout the history of life and further back, the history of the universe…

[Will] we continue to act as results, which is mechanical, automatic? Or can there be a fresh action which is not dominated by the past? Albeit that our whole organism…is result of the past and to function properly cannot forget about the past…

Am I really acting responsibly right now or is the past responding? Or is there a responding right now to what is seen clearly in each other. Can there be a fresh new action which is not dominated by the past—all memory of what happened in relationship with each other; all our imagery which influences our… feeling about ourselves and therefore fragmentation, dividing ourselves up into categories according to how we think about ourselves and each other…

Am I really acting responsibly right now or is the past responding? Or is there a responding right now to what is seen clearly in each other? To act responsibly we have to open our eyes and look and listen. Is one afraid of that?

—Toni Packer

From a retreat talk given in 1988

Click here the listen to the talk in its entirety

September 19-26, 7 Day Online Retreat with Richard Witteman

Richard is a long time retreat leader at the Center and will be available during this retreat for talks, group dialogues and individual meetings. In an article titled, Exploring the Nature of Thought, he says:

“… thought is powerful.

To be unconscious of imagination’s activity is to be taken for a wild ride. To be hard and judgmental to thought’s presence is to create an enemy — and a new story of conflict and suffering.

In the grace of loving spaciousness, it is possible to explore the moment to moment nature of this energy. With awareness and patience, the movement of imagination can become transparent, its influence discerned. We can become wise about the ways of thought, wise about its quicksilver power.”

Adapting to Continue to Offer the Meditative Work

Grateful thanks to all friends and members who have made donations and taken part in online offerings. Your help is deeply appreciated and is sustaining the Center during this difficult time.

Staff are maintaining an extensive schedule of online Zoom sittings and events. We’re happy to see your faces, however small they appear on our screens. Access both the retreat and daily schedules from the homepage, www.springwatercenter.org.

The many Zoom events and meetings helped impel us to upgrade the Center’s internet connection, including connecting the guest cabin. Thanks to Susan Schepp, Erica Finch and Mark Bruno for their help in this area.

We are also looking into making the Guest Cabin available for guests seeking a quiet, somewhat remote place to land for a few days, perhaps even weeks. As stated above, the cabin now has an internet connection. It still has no running water but we would provide bottled water as well as food. Check the website for updates regarding availability.

Work continues to maintain the facility, including keeping the trails open and work days spent on gardens and removing brush along the driveway. Work on the garage project is described below. We aim to be ready to welcome guests and participants back when it is safe to do so.

Center Closed for Staff Break September 27-October 5

Staff will be taking a well-earned break and there will be no online sittings or dialogues offered during this time. We will be up and running again and resuming the regularly scheduled events Tuesday October 6.

October 9-13, 4 Day Retreat with Stew Glick

Stew has been leading retreats at the Center since the mid ’90s and will be present for group dialogues and individual meetings, and to give talks at this retreat. He entertained a number of questions during a previous retreat, noting that a question is not mine or yours but can be looked at together. He asks:

“If we look honestly, what is our relationship with each other? Is it wanting something from the other? Wanting some kind of support? I don’t mean just materially, but inwardly. To support how I am, give reassurance that I’m okay? Do we want to be loved by the other? Appreciated, treated with respect? Do we want to be listened to and understood? Do we hold onto past hurts, memories of what you said, what you did to me? Do we carry that around, maybe in the background, but still sort of simmering there? Do we ever see each other freshly? In looking at this question of relationship and discovering the expectations and wants and hurts which we may carry around, does the thought come up that this me needs to be annihilated? Wiped out? Or does something happen when these inner movements are seen? Is the awaring enough? Honest awaring of what relationship is; not the word, but the actuality of how we are together […]“

If interested in attending Stew’s retreat click the button below to register…

Center Closed for Staff Retreat October 25-27

A quiet time of sitting and dialoguing together is of great benefit to staff who live and work so closely together as ours do. We will take this time to reflect, to build relationships and to work on communicating with each other. We will be back online Wednesday October 28 to resume the regular schedule.

October 31, All Day Sitting

8:30 am-4:00 pm EDT

All are welcome to attend this virtual All Day Sitting event beginning at 8:30 a.m. and ending at 4:00 p.m. EDT. The day includes timed and un-timed sittings, a talk, afternoon dialogue group, and social time from 3:30 to 4:00. We will meet via the Zoom platform. For those who would like to participate and who need a Zoom invitation and more information, please contact us at info@springwatercenter.org.

New Staff

The Center welcomes Tom Beall Schwab to the staff. He is working in the Financial Office and busily learning the ropes from Susan McCallum.Tom is investigating the option for people to make contributions through Paypal.

Prior to joining staff Tom worked as an English as a Second Language teacher at SUNY Buffalo and continues to offer classes for them online. He is an avid musician and singer/songwriter. He attended his first retreat at Springwater in August of 2018 with Bob Dattola and has been a member since then.

The Garage

Work continues on the garage, which is taking the shape of a traditional barn, with a large open space on the upper level. The goal is to roof and enclose the structure before cold weather sets in. To make a donation to the garage/barn project, please use the “Donate” button below, and choose the “Development” option.

The Garden

Many thanks to Erica Finch who has worked tirelessly throughout the growing season in the garden. As a result we have enjoyed a wealth of beautiful produce, masterfully prepared by Deb Lewis and Maggy Alleyne.

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September October News