Sanctuary News

Caitlin’s 85-year-old mother, Jean Steitz, has moved into our guest room. We are all adjusting to our new life together. Jean is a delightful person and we are very happy to have her here.  She loves to play Bridge, and we are looking to set up a regular Bridge Club here. Please contact us if you are interested in joining.

Zumba!

Our neighbor Rachael Shaw is teaching Zumba classes here on Saturday mornings from 9 to 10!!! If you’d like to try, please come (best to call first). It is SO MUCH FUN!!!!

Lyme Disease Treatment at Sanctuary

Our long-time friend Eve DesJardins is coming down on Fridays to work with healing Lyme Disease using the Teasel Plant Flower Essences. Please call Caitlin for an appointment or to learn more. 802-387-5779.

Peter’s woodpile sculpture, 2006

Pema Chodron reminds me on Facebook (!) to practice gentleness with myself. I pass this gentle reminder along to you.

General Information:
Sanctuary is the home of Peter and Caitlin Adair, at 40 Gregg Road, Westminster West, Vermont. Built as an alternative community school in 1975, it has been a private home since 1980.
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Sanctuary is at 40 Gregg Road, Westminster West, Vermont, 05346. To enquire or to register for any of the above events, or to join our email list, contact info@sanctuaryvermont.com or call 802-387-5779. Please enquire about overnight accommodation or special diets.

Private sessions in The Work of Byron Katie are available with Caitlin Adair.

Events at Sanctuary:

Julia Jandrisits
Portraits & Florals in Oil

Friday, November 27, 2009
Saturday, November 28, 2009
11am – 6pm
Please join us for a 2-DAY-ONLY House Exhibit at Sanctuary, the home and B&B of Peter and Caitlin Adair, in Westminster West, Vermont. Julia will be celebrating being recently published in the book The Best of America, Oil Artists, Volume II. Come see her most recent work, share a glass of cider or vino, and plan to stick around the area long enough to visit the amazing local artists who will be showcasing their work during the annual Putney Craft Tour. Hope to see you!

Get directions below, or here: Google map

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For a preview of Julia’s amazing work, go to www.JuliaJandrisits.com
For more info, Call 802-387-5779.

Ongoing at Sanctuary, since May 2008:

Tong Ren Guinea Pig Class

Thursday nights, 7-8 pm (except the 3rd Thursday)
Tong Ren is a unique form of community supported healing, based on accessing Chi energy in the collective unconscious and channelling it to heal individuals. Once accessed, each individual body is able to activate its own remarkable self-healing capacities.

“People have had wonderful results from this type of healing, and at the very least it is extremely relaxing. We all just sit there and receive while Peter taps away on the doll. ”

Some conditions that have been improved or cured with the help of Tong Ren, in our personal experience:

-depression
-joint problems
-arthritis
-headaches
-scoliosis and other back problems
-eye tension
-multiple sclerosis
-addicitons
-digestive problems
-hot flashes

We know people who have been cured of several different kinds of cancer (liver,breast,colo-rectal) using this method. We have no reason to believe that it will not be effective for many other conditions. We invite you to give it a try!

What happens at a Guinea Pig Class? People sit quietly together in our living room. Peter asks each one in turn how they are doing and what they would like addressed tonight.Then he taps the points on the doll that correspond with the person’s condition, according to a book by the founder, Tom Tam of Quincy, Mass. The rhythmic tapping is very relaxing. Everyone feels relaxed and refreshed

Why is it called a Guinea Pig Class? Because when Tom Tam started the first one (primarily for cancer patients), he did not know if it would work. It was tremendously successful, and in China (where Tom is from) when a venture is a success, you keep the name!

There is no fee. Donations are gratefully accepted.New: Please call ahead.

Every Thursday EXCEPT the third Thursday of each month
7 to 8 PM
Practitioner: Peter Adair 802-387-5779
For information about Tong Ren Healing please visit:
www.Tomtam.com
www.tongrenworld.com

Past Events at Sanctuary:

Satsang and Silent Retreats
with Norman Scrimshaw
of White Mountain Sangha

“Enlightenment is knowing oneself
as the awakened presence of a
heart without boundaries
open to infinity.”

Norman Scrimshaw is grounded, gentle, kind and wise. He speaks to us from a place of deep knowing and great heart. He describes his experience as a ‘gradual awakening’ after being a student of Adyashanti for seven years, with many other teachers before Adya.

“Awakening to a deep contentment in the moment itself,
joy bubbles up, heart keeps expanding.
Seeing that identity is found not in mind but in the heart.
Knowing the world can only be seen clearly
through heart and not in mind.
This is awakening.
You know the heart that you are, is awake to itself
by the peace, contentment and love felt moment to moment.
In contentment you don’t care what it is called
and you don’t need anyone’s endorsement.”

Norman Scrimshaw

* You must register for the Silent Retreats. Please email us for details, or phone 802-387-5779.

Silence is a strong presence at Norman’s events. The day-long retreats include two talks (sat sangs) with opportunity for Q&A, walking outside in the gardens or the nearby woods, plus time for deepening into silence. Bring a bag lunch or something to share.

What is a satsang? A Satsang is a talk by an awakened teacher. It is a sanskrit word meaning “in the presence of truth”.

Norman lives in northern New Hampshire with his wife, Cynthia. Peter and I first attended satsang with him in the spring of 2007 at the home of Margaret and Bill Fletcher in Concord, NH. Margaret is now offering satsang herself at several locations.

Please visit the website of the White Mountain Sangha for more information about Norman and Margaret, as well as and a complete schedule teachings. www.whitemountainsangha.org

“If you are suffering, you are in The Dream”
- Norman Scrimshaw, Oct.4, 2008

Satsang with Margaret Fletcher
of White Mountain Sangha

Thursdays, 7 to 9pm followed by tea and snacks
We are very happy to welcome Margaret Fletcher of www.whitemountainsangha.org,.
Satsang is a sanskrit word meaning “together in the presence of truth”. It consists of some silence, a talk by Margaret about spiritual awakening, and Q&A. Peter and I find Margaret to be a joyous and down-to-earth spiritual teacher with much to offer.

Margaret is a student of Norman Scrimshaw of White Mountain Sangha who is a frequent teacher at Sanctuary, and his teacher, Adyashanti. She lives in Concord, New Hampshire with her husband Bill and three daughters. Margaret has recently been asked to teach by Norman Scrimshaw, and Sanctuary is thrilled to be hosting her.

SATSANG WITH JAN FRAZIER
Note: As of January 2009, Jan is taking a break from monthly satsangs. We’ll keep youposted here, and with email if you are on our e-list. join our e-list
p you posted!
More information about Jan Frazier below and at www.janfrazierteachings.com

“I have this impulse to climb up onto a rooftop and shout to the echoing hills, to all who will hear: It’s simple. Just do it. You have such power, such freedom. You little know how constantly and how deliberately you turn away from the very thing you most fundamentally want. It is so obvious to me now, that my present experience of the world is the deeper reality that was there right along, readily available, if only I knew. That the million ways I suffered were daily chosen by me, and that I might just as well have chosen otherwise.”

An exerpt from Jan’s website:

There is a place in every person that is not subject to harm of any sort. It is not subject to change or to death. It is actual.
It is possible to become aware of this place — fleetingly, and even continuously.
In the state of that awareness, all suffering ceases.
There is nothing inconsistent about that state and what we think of as regular life.

Tibetan Buddhist teachings

Saturday, November 1: “Seeing Through Anger”
*Saturday, Dec. 6th:”Removing Obstacles to Enlightenment”
10 to 3, potluck lunch
with Geshe Ngawang Singey

*Note: this will be the last teaching from Geshela ( at Sanctuary) until Spring, 2009. If you would like to accompany him on his Excellent Adventure Tour of Sacred Sites of India, beginning Dec. 26, 2008., contact gary@tgivt.com or phone 802-348-7160.
Fall Series at Sanctuary : Lessons from the Dalai Lama
Last July , nineteen friends from the Brattleboro area went on a pilgrimage to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania to hear a 6-day teaching by His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama. Six thousand people attended the twice-daily teaching from the only hand-written Tibetan book that His Holiness actually carried with him across the Himalayas when he fled Tibet in 1959, Stages on the Path to Enlightenment.

His Holiness made clear that because we have the great blessing of a human life, we can transform our minds and achieve lasting happiness. He said that if we work diligently to understand the true nature of reality and to understand how our minds work, then significant improvements in our everyday state of mind is inevitable. He said that every bit of true learning that we do to transform our suffering affects all sentient beings, and that qualities of mind such as peacefulness, compassion and equanimity, that develop from these transformations are the only things that we carry with us throughout our lives, no matter what the outer conditions.
Remarkably, Tibetan monks and nuns who have experienced years of imprisonment and torture at the hands of the Chinese, harbor no ill will toward their captors and exhibit no signs of psychological disorder. They are living examples of the power of Tibetan Buddhist teachings and mind training. Please join us at Sanctuary, 40 Gregg Road in Westminster West, for a series of teachings from the 2500-years-old ‘Science of Mind’ that is Buddhism, brought to us by a wonderful teacher who was born in Tibet, walked to Lhasa, the capitol of Tibet, only to be turned away from the monastery by Chinese quotas. A teenager, Ngawang and three friends then walked out of Tibet and into India to be able to study the dharma. He was ordained a monk by the Dalai Lama at Sera Je Monastery in southern India. After 20 years of study, he received his Geshe degree (equivalent to a doctorate) and came to live and teach in Southern Vermont, thanks to Tenzin Gary Keiser of Thosum Gephelling Institute in Williamsburg. www.tgivt.com Translator Ed Softky met Geshe Ngawang at Sera Je in India,and moved to Brattleboro in 2007 in order to translate for his friend.

We invite you to take full advantage of these opportunities to study and learn how to transform your suffering, and move forward on the path to the clear mind and heart that is enlightenment, for the benefit of all beings.

This series of teachings will include a dharma talk from 10 to 12 noon, followed by a pot luck or bag lunch. After lunch there will be instruction in Buddhist analytical meditation, discussion and questions. People may attend one, two or all three talks. By Donation. (Suggested donation: $20-40) To register for these programs, call 802, 387-5779 or emailinfo@sanctuaryvermont.com

Geshe Ngawang Singey was born in Tibet in 1965 and escaped to India in 1982. He was ordained as a Buddhist monk at the age of 16 by His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama. After 20 years of study he attained the Geshe Degree (the highest degree obtainable in Buddhism). For many years he was a much loved teacher at Sera Je Monastery in India. He moved to Vermont in 2003. Geshela is a teacher of great clarity and his warm and loving presence is apparent to all who meet him. He is the spiritual director of Thosum Gephelling Institute in Williamsville, VT. www.TGIVT.com

Our beloved translator and friend, Ed Softky, died suddenly on October 9, 2008. We love him and miss his joyous presence. Can’t wait for his next incarnation!

Hooray, Ed!!!

“Opening to Presence”
a new workshop with
Jan Frazier

Sunday, November 23rd, 2008
10 am to 4 pm
Join us for a whole day with Jan Frazier, including sat sang teachings, meditation and writing.Bring a bag lunch or food to share.
Tuition: Sliding scale $50 – $80.
No one turned away for lack of funds.
Please register early, as workshops with Jan always fill up.
Contact: info@sanctuaryvermont.com
or phone 802-387-5779

Flash!!! Alice will be visiting Sanctuary in late December, 2008.
Alice Gardner

Talk and Book Signing at Sanctuary, April 6th, 2008 2pm
Reception to follow.

Former Guilford resident Alice Gardner is returning to the area to introduce her new book, Life Beyond Belief, Everyday Living as Spiritual Practice. Alice will be giving a talk on Sunday, April 6th at 2pm at Sanctuary, 40 Gregg Road, Westminster West, the home of Caitlin and Peter Adair. A Vermonter for close to twenty years, Alice raised two children, had a dried flower business and then earned her master’s degree at S.I.T. where she then worked with graduate students. In 2003 Alice left for California to pursue a deep interest in the spiritual life. Her book is about what she has found.

Life Beyond Belief, Everyday Living as Spiritual Practice, by Alice Gardner brings an earthbound common-sense to the challenges of fully living the teachings of whatever our religion or spiritual path might be while in the midst of daily life. This is a core issue in today’s world, where we see religious belief causing of so much of the violence in our world, and yet our spiritual and religious yearnings are for peace, love and forgiveness. This book shows how addressing this issue in ourselves is actually addressing the most critical issues of the twenty-first century.

Whether you are a member of one of the great religious traditions or go your own way spiritually, the challenges to living the teachings that inspire us are the same. Through the inspired writing of this first-time author, this book crosses the boundaries between all the various faith communities and unites us in the poignant experience of applying our spiritual realizations in the midst of everyday life, no matter what may be occurring, no matter whose side of any conflict we might be on.

Following in the footsteps of Eckhart Tolle’s book The Power of Now, this book is one woman’s account of life beyond the veil of “spiritual awakening”. It gives an honest, personal, sincere, and accessible account of her experience of awakening, and of the process of learning to live again from the new vantage point that awakening provides. The book offers important guidance and inspiration for people who are on the way to realizing their spiritual nature while living active productive lives and confronting twenty-first century issues. It is a journey of penetrating significance for all those who seek to heal the divide between the inspiring teachings that support us and the everyday experiences in our families and workplaces that so often can seem to undermine our good intentions.

Gardner shows us through using her own life challenges as examples, just how we can use our everyday life experiences, no matter what they are, as the high road to spiritual awakening.

ALICE GARDNER lives very much in the mainstream of modern life. She holds a Master of Management degree from Cambridge College, Massachusetts, and has worked as an academic administrator at educational institutions in Brattleboro, Vermont and Palo Alto, California. She also mentors an international group of people online and by telephone.

After the Christianity she grew up with, Alice’s journey continued as a young adult when she lived seven years at the Findhorn Foundation in Scotland. Since then she has been particularly influenced by the teachings of Eckhart Tolle, Adyashanti and Richard Moss.

Since 2003, Alice has maintained a website at www.wideawakeliving.com where she posts poetry, photography and writings, and provides a free monthly newsletter of support and inspiration for the process of spiritual awakening.

For directions to Sanctuary or more information, call 802-387-5779, or visit www.sanctuaryvermont.com.

DEEP CALLS TO DEEP:
THE SOUL OF THE WHALE
A Contemplative Retreat
9:00 – 4:00pm, Saturday, October 20, 2007
Ocean Alliance with John Crockett

For many people, their first encounter with a whale is life-changing. What is it about whales that speaks to us so deeply, and what is it in us that responds? During this day-longretreat, explore the world of the great whales through audio and video recordings and through the experience of Naturalist, John Crockett.
We will take time for silent meditation (no experience necessary!), and time to listen to whale song, to view video footage of whales at home in their own environment, and to learn about these magnificent creatures who have lived in balance with their ocean world for tens of millions of years.

John L. Crockett is an educator and musician who has worked with the Whale Conservation Institute/Ocean Alliance, The Blue Ocean Society for Marine Conservation, Massachusetts Audubon, and Newburyport Whale Watch. He has been practicing and writing about meditation for more than 25 years.

“Working with Destructive Emotions to End Suffering”

Destructive emotions may be thought of as autoimmune diseases of the mind. Tibetan Buddhists call them ‘obscuring emotions’ because they cloud the healthy, luminous quality of the natural mind. The intensity of these emotions arises as if in response to a survival threat, but is actually an addiction to a thought pattern. Through the use of ‘antidotes’ it is possible to train the mind out of suffering.

Peter and Caitlin Adair have been studying the true nature of the mind and body for nearly three decades. Recently they have been set alight by the Tibetan Buddhist teachings of the Dalai Lama and Geshe Ngawang Singey. This workshop will present a synthesis of Tibetan Buddhist teachings, neuroscience, the Work of Byron Katie, and Marshall Rosenberg’s Nonviolent Communication.