Tag Archives: schedule

Weekly Meditation Continues Through April

Some of you are on our meditation mailing list. Some of you may have seen campus flyers corrected a thick Sharpie pen. And some of you may have visited this web page last week and wondered how it was possible that we had a meditation session last Wednesday, April 2.

Whatever path brought you here, rest assured, there has been a schedule change. The January-March in-person + Zoom online meditation series has been extended through all of the Wednesdays in April: 2, 9, 16, 23, 30. After that we will take an extended break from our weekly meetings, perhaps resuming them next Fall or Winter?

A final thought. Our signs say, “Reed meditation”, but please don’t let the word “meditation” be a barrier to showing up. You are welcome to sit quietly in the Chapel for any reason, even just to pause from the rush and tumble of your College life. Drop in whenever you want during our scheduled session (12:10-12:40). Take your seat whenever you have a chance. Get up and leave whenever you feel it is time to go. You be the guide to your life.

In my case, I come to the Chapel to just sit. You can find “just sit” as in instruction in a lot of Zen books, but I don’t know if I’m following Zen instructions or not. All I know is that I don’t bring any special expectations or goals to my sitting. Even if I try to set up an intention, such as “try to feel my breath”, my experience always follows its own road, sometimes aligning with the intention, sometimes doing its own thing. Which is fine. I’m not sitting in order to get anywhere or accomplish anything. I’m just trying to make a little space in my day during which I might open myself to the world around me without always being in the world I think up.

If you have a chance, join me.

Weekly Meditation Returns January-March ’25

The last 6 months of 2024 were a very busy time for me. Many family events and trips between Portland and the Oregon coast. As we enter Winter 2025, I am expecting a lull in “events and trips”, and I have arranged for a resumption of weekly meditation sessions in the Chapel* and online via zoom. Our sessions will be held on Wednesdays, and run from January 8 to March 26.

If you are a member of the Reed community, or just a visitor to the Reed campus, who is looking for some peace and quiet this winter, please show up at Reed’s Eliot Chapel or connect online anytime between 12:00 and 12:40.

For more details about our schedule and practice, please visit Our Practice and/or Our Schedule. If you can’t attend a Wednesday session, check out our Resources and Sit Now pages for helpful support in establishing a meditation practice.

* Although I don’t have any conflicting events/travel plans on my calendar at this time, things can always change. I attempt to post last-minute changes here, but I often find it more convenient to rely on email. Here’s how you can join our mailing list.

Welcome to Reed College meditation

“Reed College meditation” probably suggests more than it should. There are many meditation opportunities on campus (see listings of PE classes if you are curious). This webpage provides information about a weekly, lunchtime silent meditation session that began operating in 2012 and has been available to all-comers.

The basic features of our sessions are that they are:

  1. silent
  2. not affiliated with any religious group or particular style of meditation (what we provide is a period of silence that you can use pretty much as you wish)
  3. offered during the noon lunch hour with an “official” silent period from 12:10-12:40 pm
  4. open to everyone in the campus community (staff, faculty, students), and to all campus visitors, and to online participants. No prior experience with silent meditation is necessary.
  5. available on a “drop in” basis, meaning that you can choose when to arrive and when to leave. You don’t need to contact us in advance – just come through the door and sit down!

The overarching idea is to make it as convenient as possible for you to fit some meditation into your weekly schedule.

If all this sounds very simple and flexible, that’s because it is meant to be so. We offer a time and a place on campus (and online) for you to pause, tune in, and refresh.

Come join us.

Continue reading →

Online Meditation Goes Global

Reed meditation went online just over a month ago. We were far from alone. Tricycle magazine has compiled a list of online meditation sessions that span the continent and even the globe. So whatever time zone you are in, there’s a chance to join together with others in silent and/or guided meditation, paying attention to what is, what connects, noticing the thoughts that sometimes seem to say we are separate, and coming back what is.

The Tricycle online meditation list is super-easy to use. It’s basically a rolling calendar with times, time zones (pay attention, y’all), sponsors, and web links. I just read through the upcoming sessions for today (Sunday, May 3) and tomorrow and I found dozens of opportunities. Here’s a very small sample…

Prefer to meditate with other Oregonians? Check out the Zen Community of Oregon and the Portland Insight Meditation Community. Want to share your attention to the present moment with practitioners at well-known western centers of Buddhist practice? Check out the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies, Bodhi College, and Nyingma Institute. How about centers of higher education? Mindfulness Center at Brown. Or, skip the Buddhism altogether and lower your stress level with the founder of MBSR (Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction), Jon Kabat-Zinn. See all this and more at the Tricycle online meditation list (I’ve also added a link to this list on our Sit Now page).

So why are you doing something? Just sit! We are in this together.

Early March 2020 practice – Still early days

The news is filled with stories about The Virus. It is truly no laughing matter, and the most appropriate response will vary from one day to the next, and even from one person to the next (fyi – I’m a male over 60 and which places me in a higher risk group).

For now, however, the risk of infection for nearly all Oregonians is still estimated to be quite low. But now’s the time to prepare. Practice your hygiene. Wash your hands. Familiarize yourself with the experts’ recommendations and learn where to go for more information.

As it happens, the opportunity for close contact with anyone during our meditation period is extremely low. The Reed Chapel is extremely large and we are very few in number (space yourselves as you think best). Until the College tells me otherwise, we will continue to host our weekly meditation periods.

But why meditate at a time like this? Because maybe there is no better time than this. Meditation provides an opportunity to spot our knee-jerk reactions, whatever they might be, and see them for what they are. A habitual grasping after, or a turning away from, the things that we hope will keep life the way we want it.

So I encourage you to make some time to sit. Sit, notice, pause, and then see. Aha! That is what is going on! A thought. A mind bubble that might pop as fast as it forms. Once we see our knee-jerk reaction, we have already expanded our horizon, already loosened the hold (at least a little) of whatever had grabbed us. We can, if we choose to, anchor our awareness once again in whatever we had originally intended: the breath, a touch, the sound of the world, ….

This is something we must repeat over and over again. Recognizing habitual reactions before we get swept away by them is a practice, a cultivation. The act of recognition can make itself felt immediately, but that recognition and the freedom it provides, can vanish just as quickly with the next thought, the next jerk of the knee.

This season’s emergency is a virus. What emergency will the next season bring? We are always vulnerable to the emergency of the moment. (Notice that “emergency” contains the word “emerge”?) New things are always emerging to grab our attention. The importance of mindfulness practice never disappears. Nor does the beauty of those practice moments when we find ourselves sitting in peace, undisturbed, and realize that there is a choice in the paths our lives can take.

All thoughts are thoughts, but all thoughts are not equal.

Wishing all of you happiness and good health, and especially, peace. – Alan, 8 Mar 2020

Health-O-Ween Meditation Returns Next Tuesday

Did you know that Reed College celebrates a special once-a-year holiday called Health-O-Ween? H-O-Ween is sponsored by Reed’s Wellness Committee, a Reed community group that highlights a spectrum of wellness activities for the Reed community.

Health-O-Ween activities announced by the Wellness Committee for next week include:

Continue reading →

Tuesday Meditation Continues for Fall ’18

Weekly silent meditation sessions will continue each Tuesday, noon-1 pm, this Fall-Winter in the Reed chapel. See Our Schedule for dates and alternative rooms.

Our sessions are open to everyone in the Reed community and to all campus visitors. The sessions are marked formally by bells rung periodically from 12:10 (start) to 12:40 pm (end). However, you are welcome to drop-in/leave anytime as your schedule requires.

January Meditation News

Weekly silent meditation will continue on Tuesdays throughout January. Meditation on January 16 will be held in Eliot 419 (below), and on January 23 & 30 in Eliot chapel. 

Sessions run from 12:10-12:40 pm and are open to all members of the Reed community and campus visitors. Drop-ins are welcome! Learn more at Our Schedule and Our Practice. (“Drop-in” means you can arrive and leave whenever it is convenient for you. Late arrivals and early departures are both fine. We do not call roll or take attendance.)

Fall 2017 Schedule

Weekly silent meditation will continue on Tuesdays this semester from August through December 2017 in the Eliot chapel. Sessions run from 12:10-12:40 pm and are open to all members of the Reed community and campus visitors. Drop-ins* are welcome! Learn more at Our Schedule and Our Practice.

* “Drop-in” means you can arrive and leave whenever it is convenient for you. Late arrivals and early departures are both fine. We do not take attendance.

Schedule Change TODAY Only (Jan 31)

Apologies for the last-minute change, but the College is sponsoring a Support & Solidarity Rally today, 12-1, in the Library foyer. Because that event begins almost at the same time as ours, I’m delaying the start (and end) of sitting meditation by 5 minutes. So our first three bells will ring at 12:15 and final bells at 12:45.

Go to the Rally if you wish. Drop in at meditation when you can. There’s time for both (maybe).