Introduction to Meditation

Hello, I’m Neil McKinlay I have always suspected meditation has something to offer this world. When I find myself struck by the aching beauty or the weighty difficulties of this time we share, a deep-body knowing inevitably affirms that the practice has something important to give this moment. And, again, this has always been the case for me.

My Story

When I first learned to meditate as a teenager, in the still hours after a swim coach guided a small group of us through the practice, I remember laying awake feeling some indescribable thing had changed. I remember feeling some kind of possibility or potentiality or fundamental promise had opened up.This feeling followed me as I started to study and practice in a more formal way. For three decades, I trained within two successive Buddhist communities. Both of these provided opportunities to engage formal curriculum and long retreats. Both were permeated by this continuing sense that all we were doing – everything – was in some way meant to bring benefit to all.

The same was true after my own career as a swim coach ended and I started to teach meditation myself. For more than fifteen years now, I have enjoyed the privilege of leading short- and long-term events online and in-person. I have been able to explore the teachings and practices with small groups in the Pacific Northwest and larger groups around the globe. Through it all, the impression persists: this work offers something of value.This longstanding sense started to clarify in early 2020, after my involvement with the second group noted above came to a difficult conclusion.