New Life Foundation

How did you find out about New Life? I heard about the foundation initially because my friend John Morecock had been coming here for years as a meditation teacher. He was working here six months on six off, for three or four years at least. He's in the same community as me in Boulder and we knew each other from 20 years before when we lived in the same area in the Rocky Mountains. I was in Bangkok teaching a Shambhala training level last year and someone taking the course came up here after I'd left Thailand and he'd told John about the course. John emailed me and asked whether I'd be interested in taking his place. How has the status of New Life as a recovery community affected your teaching practice? Concerning the one-on-one meditation interviews: first I suss out whether the person is really brand new to mindfulness, have they read much, and that will affect how I approach the discussion with them. Many people at the foundation have a deep interest in Buddhism - I had no idea that was the case and because of that we are forming a Buddhist group here - we will study a text of some kind, discuss it and sit together once a week, which is wonderful. For people with a more secular interest in meditation (which is to say non-denominational, non-religious, not presenting it as part of Buddhism) - I've taught that for years at Naropa, so I'm accustomed to that.