I belong to a local meditation group of about 16 people. We meet once a week for a couple of hours to sit for two meditation periods, a hot drink, snacks and general chat.
The group is non-denominational and open to all. We rarely speak about meditation or so called spiritual matters unless someone feels moved to. Occasionally someone might read a poem or a text for contemplation or discussion. Now and again people share their experience of a recent retreat they attended.
I’ve been attending for about 10 months now and it is the only time that I formally meditate these days. When I joined, the group was smaller, perhaps only half a dozen.
These days my practice has become far more ambivalent about formal meditation and I’m not entirely clear whether that’s just the way it’s changed over time due to myriad causes and conditions or whether it has something to do with now meditating only among a growing group of people.
This only makes sense in the context of me being a highly solitary person. I may be completely wrong however.
I was slightly alarmed in the group chat yesterday when one member asked another how they spell their Sanskrit name.