Author: Ashley Berry

Dear Common Ground Friends, Ajahn Chah, an influential Thai Buddhist monk, encouraged us to contemplate the formless nature of mind. When we investigate, we feel there is force to mental activity, but that activity lacks a center or edges. When …

Weekly Email 6-28-23 Read More »

Dear Common Ground Friends, Today is Juneteenth, a Federal Holiday celebrating the emancipation of Black Americans from slavery at the end of the Civil War. For those of you who live in our neighborhood here in South Minneapolis, you might be …

Weekly Email 6-19-23 Read More »

Dear Common Ground Friends, Over Memorial Day weekend a group of us gathered for a Work Retreat to plant over 200 trees at the retreat center. Amid the heat and physical demand of digging holes, I was struck by how …

Weekly Email 6-15-23 Read More »

Dear Common Ground Friends, When the mind is distracted and superficial, only what is exciting and provocative gets our attention. Part of our Buddhist awareness training is to attune, in a balanced way, to both the subtle and the gross …

Weekly Email 6-7-23 Read More »

Dear Common Ground Friends, We are fortunate to have a number of wonderful visiting teachers this month.  We hope to see you at one or more of these programs! Warmly, Shelly Graf Co-Guiding Teacher Tim Burkett: A reading from his …

Weekly Email 6-1-23 Read More »

Dear Common Ground Friends, We are sometimes confused by the emphasis Buddhism places on daily meditation and retreat practice given our intuition that running from the messiness in our lives is not a lasting answer to either our global or …

Weekly Email 5-24-23 Read More »

Dear Common Ground Friends, In her book, Faith: Trusting Your Own Deepest Experience, Sharon Salzberg describes faith as “The willing suspension of disbelief.” So, rather than thinking of faith as taking up a belief, in Buddhist terms, faith is a willingness …

Weekly Email 5-18-23 Read More »

Dear Common Ground Friends, Dear Common Ground Friends, After spending much of April teaching at Common Ground’s Retreat Center, I am newly inspired by what we as a community have been able to do together over these past ten years …

Weekly Email 5-11-23 Read More »

Registration Open for Upcoming Residential Retreats Dear Common Ground Friends, We might think of intentions as a powerful force that guides and shapes our lives. Reflecting on our values or intentions can keep our lives moving in the direction we want them …

Weekly Email 5-4-23 Read More »

Dear Common Ground Friends, Although we can probably agree that compassion is good, there is often confusion about what compassion actually is. Buddhist practice emphasizes a clear and intimate connection with our internal and external conditions, moment by moment. This …

Weekly Email 4-26-23 Read More »