Pine Street Sangha

Pine Street Sangha offers a variety of opportunities for learning an innovative approach to meditation which enables meditators to integrate the teachings of early Buddhism into their contemporary lives. In our community, relationships, and organization, we aspire to cultivate values that nuture a healthy, ethical sangha.

In order to honor each person's process in meditation, our meditation periods are silent rather than guided. Basic meditation instructions are given for newcomers. People who already have a meditation practice are invited to meditate in the way that they are accustomed to, or try this receptive and unstructured approach.

Reflective meditation is an open, unstructured way of meditating that invites your life into your meditation. Starting gently, and staying near to your experience during meditation, you develop a friendlier, more intimate relationship to your experience within meditation and in your life. You learn beneficial ways of meditating by seeing how your mind operates within meditation.

Working with a teacher is important. We usually look to a teacher to give us directions and tell us what is the right way, and by inference, what is the wrong way, to meditate. This approach is more individualized; we learn how to meditate from looking into our meditative experiences and seeing what actually is going on.

Learning the dharma (the teachings of Buddhism) and meditation are interdependent; they inform one another. Each is essential on the path. The fundamental question is how to study so that it stimulates wiser understanding? We need teachings which speak to us, in language we comprehend and about topics that resonate with our inner contemplations and concerns.