FTWMI: A Quick Note & EXCERPT: “Fourth Step: Once More, With Feeling” (the post-practice Monday post) October 27, 2025

Many blessings to everyone and especially to anyone cultivating friendship, peace, freedom, understanding, and wisdom.

May everyone be healthy and strong; may everyone be peaceful and happy; and may everyone recognize their whole self.

For Those Who Missed It: The following was originally posted on October 27, 2024. One embedded link and a quote have been updated/added. The 2025 prompt question was, “What is giving you hope (even if it’s just a little bit of hope)?” You can request an audio recording of this practice or a previous practice via a comment below or (for a slightly faster reply) you can email myra      (at) ajoyfulpractice.com.

In the spirit of generosity (“dana”), the Zoom classes, recordings, and blog posts are freely given and freely received. If you are able to support these teachings, please do so as your heart moves you. (NOTE: You can donate even if you are “attending” a practice that is not designated as a “Common Ground Meditation Center” practice, or you can purchase class(es).

Donations are tax deductible; class purchases are not necessarily deductible.

Check out the “Class Schedules” calendar for upcoming classes.

“Do not go gentle into that good night,

Old age should burn and rave at close of day;

Rage, rage against the dying of the light”

— quoted from the poem “Do not go gentle into that good night” by Dylan Thomas (b. 1914)

There are a lot of noteworthy things related to this date in history — including the fact that Laura Inter founded Brújula Intersexual (Intersex Compass), “a Mexican organization that works with intersex people, activists, and communities in Mexico, Latin America, and Spain”, today in 2013. All of the things, even the ones not mentioned in the practice and/or the excerpt below, are related to how we live our lives (i.e., how we spend our time) and how we interact with each other during the limited time that we have together.

The hope is that we can respect each other, be kind, and hold space for what each of us experiences on any given day.

CLICK ON THE EXCERPT TITLE BELORE FOR MORE.

Fourth Step: Once More, With Feeling

“I took a deep breath and listened to the old bray of my heart: I am, I am, I am.”

or

“I took a deep breath and listened to the old brag of my heart: I am, I am, I am.”

— quoted from two different editions of The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath (b. 1932)

There is no playlist for the Common Ground Meditation Center practices. 

NOTE: Over the last few years, we have used four (4) different playlists on this date. The playlist we used in 2024 is available on YouTube and Spotify. [Look for “10272021 Another Appointment”]

“You and I are told increasingly we have to choose between a left or right. Well I’d like to suggest there is no such thing as a left or right. There’s only an up or down: [up] man’s old –  old-aged dream, the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with law and order, or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism. And regardless of their sincerity, their humanitarian motives, those who would trade our freedom for security have embarked on this downward course.”

— quoted from the 1964 “A Time for Choosing” speech by Ronald Reagan

If you are thinking about suicide, worried about a friend or loved one, or would like emotional support, you can dial 988 (in the US) or call 1-800-273-TALK (8255) for the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. You can also call this TALK line if you are struggling with addiction or involved in an abusive relationship. The Lifeline network is free, confidential, and available to all 24/7. YOU CAN TALK ABOUT ANYTHING.

White Flag is an app, which I have not yet researched, but which may be helpful if you need peer-to-peer (non-professional) support.

If you are a young person in crisis, feeling suicidal, or in need of a safe and judgement-free place to talk, you can also click here to contact the TrevorLifeline (which is staffed 24/7 with trained counselors).

“And further, monks, as if a monk sees a body dead…, he then applies this perception to his own body thus: ‘Verily, also my own body is of the same nature; such it will become and will not escape it.’

Thus he lives contemplating the body in the body internally, or he lives contemplating the body in the body externally, or he lives contemplating the body in the body internally and externally. He lives contemplating origination-factors in the body, or he lives contemplating dissolution factors in the body, or he lives contemplating origination-and-dissolution-factors in the body. Or his mindfulness is established with the thought: ‘The body exists,’ to the extent necessary just for knowledge and mindfulness, and he lives detached, and clings to nothing in the world. Thus also, monks, a monk lives contemplating the body in the body.”

— quoted from Satipatthana Sutta (The Foundations of Mindfulness) translated by Nyanasatta Thera

### CONTINUE TO BREATHE ###