Monthly Archives: October 2023

[AUDIO AND TEXT] This is the first talk given by Nona Strong Roshi at the August 2023 East-West meditation retreat at Mercy Center Burlingame. Most of you probably are familiar with the opening line of Charles Dickens’ classic novel A Tale of Two Cities. I knew that line – “It was the best of times,Continue reading “regarding life’s dualities”

[AUDIO AND TEXT] This is the second talk given by Nona Strong Roshi at the August 2023 East-West meditation retreat at Mercy Center Burlingame. Yesterday we talked about life’s dualities – the seemingly irreconcilable opposites that we encounter every day and everywhere. And last night, we read a selection from an early Christian mystic thatContinue reading “plenitude and emptiness”

[AUDIO AND TEXT] This is the third talk given by Nona Strong Roshi at the August 2023 East-West meditation retreat at Mercy Center Burlingame. We’ve seen that we have a broad field to play in when we come to any silent practice, whether it be Christian contemplation, Zen meditation, or some other tradition we haveContinue reading “divine consolations and divers gifts”

[AUDIO AND TEXT] This is the fourth talk given by Nona Strong Roshi at the August 2023 East-West meditation retreat at Mercy Center Burlingame. In his book Listen to the Desert: Secrets of Spiritual Maturity from the Desert Fathers and Mothers (© 1996, Liguori Publications, Liguori, MO), Fr. Greg Mayers cites this anecdote about aContinue reading “our fundamental inquiry”