Jeff Warren

The Begending

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How do we begin again?

According to Therese, we have no choice. We just do, because that’s where the cycle takes us, again and again, a part of nature. Take the breath, she said. Every inhale a creation, an entire life. And every exhale a destruction, a little death. And between … something unknowable.

Could I welcome my lows the way I welcomed the out-breath? Could I experience them as nourishment for the next upward movement, the seed of something new inside each ending?

Could I get better at dying?

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How to Save the World (ish)

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“The next Buddha is community” – Thich Nhat Hahn Can the world be saved? I’m split. One half of me is a realist and thus agnostic. This part sees God and the Devil, neck-to-neck. The Devil surges ahead – DT rolls back environmental regulations, mental illness spikes among teens, wildfires blaze across the West coast – … Continued

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Community Practice Activation Kit

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We just finished version 2.0 of our CEC Community Practice Activation Kit available for free here. The idea of this kit is to inspire people around the world to start up their own community practice groups, in a way that’s unique to them and uniquely responsive to their local needs and context.

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What is “Practice,” Anyway?

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Suddenly, we exist. Existing is complicated. We turn to practice. As we love to say at the CEC, being human takes practice. But what is a practice? The simplest definition of practice is some action – mental, emotional, physical, social – that you choose and repeat, so that it can become a habit. It is the deliberate cultivation of habits. Contemplative practices are practices that rehearse how you want to exist and relate to yourself and others.

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