About Us
It is not all happening to you!
Someone is not making you angry. Events are not depressing you. Another person is not causing you to resent them. Someone has not cheated you and made you feel abused. Someone may, in fact, have done a disservice towards you, defrauded you, but the feelings that subsequently plague you are all self-generated. You are creating most of the discomfort you experience. More precisely, it's a portion of your brain I'm going to call the Self that creates it.
Your Self evolved to protect and replicate your genes. Your Self looks out at every thing, person and situation in the world and decides whether it is good for you or bad for you. We call these dualistic judgments, and they come in a number of flavors: Yes/No, Good/Bad, Love/Hate, Stay/Leave, Right/Wrong, Fair/Unfair. Every perception your eyes and brain makes gets a dualistic judgment associated with it. Most of the time, you are in a situation that your Self has seen before, so it is dredging up old judgments from the past. However, your brain is good at making judgments off-the-cuff as necessary. Every emotion, every feeling you have, has a dualistic judgment as its source. That feeling is how your Self pushes you to execute the judgment it has made.
Your Self pushes you so much that, if things are not going as it has prescribed (you do not have the things it is pushing you towards, or avoiding the things it says are "bad") it makes you feel dissatisfied. Sometimes this dissatisfaction is so strong you feel a real anguish. Buddha called this feeling, Dukkha. Our practice calls this Anguished Dissatisfaction. This feeling is uncomfortable for us, and we find ourselves viewing others and relating to them in a way that is outdated or unthinking. We could have made a better choice but we were driven to execute a whole warehouse of premade judgments, mindlessly.
So, how do we get around this? The answer is Insight. We practice to adopt a clear nonjudgmental awareness that allows us to see our Self's judgmental driving as it happens! Your Self is pushing so hard that you tend to just grab the judgmental feeling and go with it, so seeing it as it is happening is very difficult. It takes practice, practice in achieving insight. This is what we do. The grasp your Self has upon you can be likened to a form of servitude; when you free yourself from that grasp you suffer much less anguished dissatisfaction and you see others much more clearly. You live life mindfully and you see that others are being driven by their Selves just as you are. The barriers between you and others weaken. And this all happens when you liberate yourself from your own Self.
With a deep bow,
Ken
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​Oct 31 2PM - "Focusing" - Eugene Gendlin/Kathy McGuire
Nov 7 7PM - meditation sharing & discussion
Nov 14 2PM - "Focusing" - Eugene Gendlin
Nov 21 7PM - meditation sharing & discussion
​Nov 28 2PM - Thanksgiving Day - Gratitude!
Dec 5 7PM - meditation sharing & discussion
Dec 12 2PM - Dharma by Clear Bell member
Past online practices:
- 2020 -
Dec 30 - Holiday Liberation
- 2021 -
Jan 7 Awakening by Eckhart Tolle
Jan 14 - Attachment with Noah Levine
Jan 21 - Calming Anger - Joanne Friday
Jan 28 - Hardwiring Happiness, Rick Hansen
Feb 4 - Becoming More than "ME"
Feb 11 - Loving KindnessSharon Salzberg
Feb 17 - Loving Kindness in everyday life
Feb 24 - Mindfulness with the 5 Senses
Mar 4 - Tara Brach, Respond, not React
Mar 11 - Tara Brach - Part 2
Mar 18 - Tara Brach - Part 3
Mar 25 - The nature of Love & other topics
Apr 1 - Topics from Jason Siff
Apr 8 - Gay Watson on emptiness
Apr 15 - 1) Seeking Insight 2) Sympathy vs Compassion talk
Apr 22 - Radical Self-Honesty -Tara Brach
Apr 29 - Ken McLeod on Aversion
May 6 - Joanne Friday,Reconciliation Part I
May 13 - Joanne Friday - Recon Part II
May 20 - Mark Knickelbine, Guided Meditation, Visiting the Sick
May 27 - Andrew Olendzki, Unlimiting Mind,
Jun 3 - Andrew Olendzki ,Unlimiting Mind,
Jun 10 - daily barriers to mindfulness
Jun 17 - Control in everyday life
Jun 24 - intro to Clear Bell
Jul 1 - Attachment to Ideas with Thubten Semkye
Jul 8 - Attachment to Ideas Part 2
Jul 29 - "Greeting Fear" with Joanne Friday
Aug 5 - "Greeting Fear" - Part 2
Aug 12 - Carrying liberation with you
Aug 19 - "Resilience", Brother Dave Kenneally
Aug 26 - Experiencing enough,Tara Brach
Sep 2 - Experiencing enough, Tara part II
Sep 9 - Keeping your balance everyday life
Sep 16 - Experiencing enough, part III
Sep 23 -"Our Own Humanity"-Pema Chodron
Sep 30 -"Neuro-dharma" with Rick Hansen
Oct 7 - ** no practice this evening **
Oct 14 - ** no practice this evening **
Oct 21 - about Interbeing
Oct 28 - Rick Hanson- Hardwiring Happines
Nov 04 - Rick Hanson - Hard Happ Part II
Nov 11 - Rick Hanson Hard Happ Part III.
Nov 18 - Joanne Friday - Greeting Fear
Nov 25 - NO PRACTICE - THANKSGIVING
Fri Nov 26 - Meeting Mara in Everyday Life
Dec 02 - NO PRACTICE - vacation
Dec 09 - Joanne Friday - Being Peace
Dec 16 - Brother Dave - the Judge
Dec 23 - Brother Dave - can I help?
Dec 30 -Joan Halifax-sympathy/compassion
-2022-
Jan 6 - Dave Kenneally - Interbeing
Jan 13 - Rick Hanson - Hardwiring happiness
Jan 20 - Joanne Friday - Handling Fear
Jan 27 - Sam Harris - Why we do this
Feb 3 * No practice this evening *
Feb 10 - Jack Kornfield - Patience
Feb 17 - "Stroke of Insight" by Jill Taylor
Feb 24 - Thich Nhat Hanh - hard feelings
Mar 3 - From the mouths of the buddhas
Mar 10 - Joan Halifax - radical compassion
Mar 17 - *No practice this evening*
Mar 24 - Anger Part I. Joanne Friday
Mar 31 - Anger Part II. Joanne Friday
Apr 14 - Sam Harris - words of wisdom
Apr 21 - John Kabat-Zinn - Listening is an Act of Love
Apr 28 - Mind Tamer's sangha part I
May 12 - from the mouths of the buddhas
May 19 - Mind Tamer's sangha part II
May 26 - discuss Brother Dave's dharma
Jun 2 - Rick Hanson - Peace & Presence
Jun 9 - John Bell - the challenge of Predicament
Jun 16 - From the mouths of the buddhas
Jun 23 - dharma and sharing
Jun 30 - wisdom from Joanne Friday
Jul 07 - Alan Watts on Emptiness
Jul 14 - sharing and video review
Jul 21 - From the mouths of the buddhas
Jul 28 - J Goldstein - Arising and Passing
Aug 4 - Tara Brach - 3 Steps of Letting Go
Aug 11 - ** no practice this evening **
Aug 25 - sitting and sharing
Sep 1 - Jack Kornfield, steps of forgiveness
Sep8 - Dr. David Vago - Self-Transform
Sep 15 - Joanne Friday - Taming Fear
Sep 22 - Sam Harris - Mindfulness
Sep 29 - Meditation on gratitude
Oct 6 - no practice this evening
Oct 13 - Eckhart Tolle - the most important practice
Nov 3 - Joan Halifax on Compassion
Nov 10 - Science of mindfulness by Dr. David Vago
Nov 17 - Gen Kelsang Nyema on self-created joy
Dec 1 - Wisdom from John Kabat Zinn
Dec 8 - Wisdom from Joanne Friday
Dec 15 - Introduction to CBM
Dec 22 - Jon Kabat-Zinn - Why we Practice
Dec 29 - Tara Brach - Awakening through Difficult Emotions
-2023-
Feb 16 - Stephen Batchelor - Future of Buddhism
Feb 23 - Wisdom from Brother Dave Kenneally
Mar 02 - Source of Anger, Thich Nhat Hanh
Mar 09 - Wisdom from Rick Hanson
Mar 16 - Wisdom from Pema Chodron
Mar 23 - Wisdom from Jon Kabat-Zinn
April 6 - Ngo Khong - Interbeing letting go
April 20 - Diana Clarke - Clinging to Views
April 27 - Wisdom from Sam Harris
May 4 - Clinging to Views - Brother Dave
May 15 - Wisdom from Jon Kabat-Zinn
May 22 - Quiet meditation & sharing
May 29 - Wisdom from Tara Brach
Jun 5 - Wisdom from Insight Med Soc
Jun 12 - First noble truth - Joanne Friday
Jun 19 - guided meditation Michael Sealey
Jun 26 - 2nd, 3rd, 4th truths Joanne
Jul 3 - guided meditation
Jul 10- to be announced
Jul 17- Joanne Friday - the fundamentals
Jul 24-Tara Brach - Intimacy with All
Jul 31- Jon Kabat-Zinn Mindf. & Compassion
Aug 14- Mark Williams - Foundations of Mindfulness Part 1
Aug 21- Mark Williams - Foundations of Mindfulness Part 2
Aug 28 - Dave Kenneally - Trust the Way
Sep 4 - Guided meditation with Sam Harris
Sep 11 - Sara Brach - Release from Habits
Sep 18 - Daniel Kahneman - Experience vs Memory
Oct 2 - Sara Brach - Release Pt 2
Oct 16 - Sara Brach - Release Pt 3
Oct 16 - Sara Brach - Release Pt 3
Oct 23 - meditation & sharing
Oct 30 - Brother Dave Kenneally - Maximum Fun
Nov 6 - meditation & sharing
Nov 13 - Reconciliation - Joanne Friday
Nov 20 - meditation & sharing
Nov 27 - Rick Hansen video
-2024-
Jan 8 - Jon Kabat Zinn - Attitudes 1-5
Jan 15 - meditation & sharing
Jan 22 - Tara Brach Guided Meditation
Jan 29 - Jon Kabat Zinn - Attitudes 6-9
Feb 5 - meditation & sharing
Feb 12 - Mark Williams - deep practice
Feb 19 - meditation & sharing
Feb 26 - Pema Chodron - handling Pain
April 4 - The Basics from Dr. Tracey Marks
April 11 - meditation & sharing
April 18 - Joanne Friday on Stillness & Acceptance
April 25 - Thich Nhat Hanh - being peace
May 2 - Three-legged stool of Buddhist practice
May 9 - Tara Brach - 2 Wings of Awareness
May 16 - Pema Chodron "from fear to fearlessness" Pt 1
May 23 - *** no sangha today ***
May 30 2PM - Will Kabat-Zinn "Being and Doing"
June 6 7PM - Pema Chodron "from fear to fearlessness" Pt 2
June 13 2PM - Rick Hanson
June 20 7PM - Will Kabat-Zinn
June 27 2PM - Ken on Transcending Anger
July 4 7PM - Dave Kenneally & Joanne Friday
July 11 2PM - John Kabat-Zinn
July 18 7PM - Goldstein - Stability of Mind
July 25 2PM - Tara Brach
Aug 1 7PM - Kristin Neff - Self-Compassion
Aug 8 2PM - Dave Kenneally - Interbeing
Aug 15 - 7PM - to be announced
Aug 22 - 2PM - to be announced
Aug 29 - 7PM - Private sitting
Sep 5 - 2PM - private sitting
About Our Name
In the same way that the sound of a small percussion instrument cuts through the sonority of a large symphony orchestra, Clear Bell meditators cut through the noise generated by their judgmental minds.