History

Common Ground Meditation Center was founded in 1993 by Mark Nunberg and Wynn Fricke in Minneapolis, Minnesota. From the beginning, Mark and Wynn shared a deeply felt desire to create a local, dedicated center that would serve as a support for mindfulness practice and a reminder of the importance of cultivating compassion and wisdom in daily life.

Common Ground opened in a small storefront building, which also served as Mark and Wynn’s home. In collaboration with the Twin Cities Vipassana Collective (TCVC), the center offered daily open meditation sessions and yoga classes. In the first year, Mark began teaching a Wednesday night Weekly Practice Group, which continues to this day. He also began teaching an Introduction to Mindfulness Meditation class with Paul Norr. The Year-End Retreat also began that first year between Christmas and New Year’s Day.

Mark and Wynn teaching a retreat at Holy Spirit (now Metta Retreat Center) in 2005

(Mark and Wynn at an early retreat at Holy Spirit Retreat Center, now Metta Meditation Center, in Janesville, MN, in 2005.)

In response to the growing needs of the community, Mark left his part-time teaching job in 1999 to work full-time at the center. A few years later, in 2002, Wynn and Mark invited four longtime practitioners to join together and form a Board of Directors. Later that year, Common Ground received its official nonprofit status as a Theravada Buddhist Meditation Center. By that time, the Common Ground community had grown significantly and leaders were stepping forward to take on responsibilities for the running of the center.

A New City Center

In 2006, the Board of Directors, with tremendous input and support from the community, decided to purchase an old diner just a few blocks away from the center. The new building required a two-year renovation project managed by longtime community member David Asselstine and architect Rick Okada that also involved countless hours of volunteer labor. After raising over $900,000 for the purchase and renovation of the new building, in February 2009, Common Ground began operating at its new location at 2700 East 26th Street.

Purchase of the Retreat Property

Around this time, leaders began dreaming about the possibility of a retreat space for the community. In 2013, after many years of searching, and after one major gift and countless smaller ones, a 46-acre property was purchased without a mortgage outside the town of Prairie Farm, Wisconsin, about an hour and fifteen minutes from Minneapolis. The land came with a 5,000 square-foot farmhouse and a barn. For the first several years, the property was used to host small groups of community members. Despite having only five bedrooms and a living room as a makeshift meditation hall, over 300 people benefited from retreats during this initial period.

person sitting in beautiful meditation hall

In 2016, the Board of Directors approved initial renovation plans that would significantly increase the capacity of the retreat center and transform the pole barn into a beautiful, spacious meditation hall. The renovation was led by Cory Clemetson, a dedicated community member and leader who spent most of two years living and working at the retreat center.

The retreat center now has a capacity of 18 (more with tenting in the warm months) and hosts dozens of teacher-led residential retreats and peer-led practice periods a year. Retreatants cook and clean for each other, and volunteers tend to the building in between organized events; our retreat center is truly a community-run operation!

Leadership Development

As a small, grassroots organization, Common Ground has benefited from countless volunteer leaders and teachers’ efforts and wisdom. Leadership and teacher development at the center has followed both informal mentorship and formal training models over the years.

From 2017-2019, Common Ground held its first formal Dharma Leadership Training (DLT), in which seven community leaders developed their Dharma teaching and facilitating skills. Many of these leaders continue regularly leading programs at CG.

Back row (mentors) L to R: Kyoko Katayama, Wynn Fricke, Mark Nunberg, Gabe Keller Flores, Shelly Graf, Gail Iverson, Pamela Ayo Yetunde

Front row (DLT graduates) L to R: Femi Akinnagbe, Cecilia Ramon, Stacy McClendon, Meski Mebatsion, Sarah Wilson, and Roseanne Pereira.

In 2021, Shelly Graf was hired to join Mark Nunberg as a Co-Guiding Teacher, finalizing a long leadership development process Shelly had been in since first coming to Common Ground in 2003. We are grateful to both our Guiding Teachers for their dedication and generosity to our community. Watch the video recording of Shelly's celebration event!

Mark Nunberg and Shelly Graf, Common Ground's Co-Guiding Teachers

Dana: Freely Giving and Receiving

This 30-plus year history of Common Ground is a beautiful example of the Buddhist principle of dana, or generosity. We’ve never charged for our programs, choosing instead to operate the way Buddhist monasteries have since the time of the Buddha 2500 years ago, on donations and countless volunteer hours from the community! Read more about the practice of generosity and how you can support Common Ground to flourish for another 30 years.