by Steve Shealy
As I often get questions about how Flowing Dharma came into being and my role in it's establishment, I prepared the following brief history.
In early December 1997, after eight years or so of on-again-off-again meditation practice, I sat a weekend retreat with Matthew Flickstein (see www.forestway.org) at The Bodhi Tree Dhamma Center in Seminole. This encounter changed my life in a number of ways, not the least of which was being drawn into the wonderful world of teaching the Dharma.
After sitting a number of retreats with Matt and attending his first teacher training course, with his blessings, I moved into the community with a strong intention of sharing the Dharma. I cranked out some flyers, placed some ads in our local rags, began an email list of who I hoped were interested folks (drawing from my earlier EarthSave days) and began offering weekly mindfulness meditation classes both at The Tree House Yoga Center in Tampa and at The Integrative Medicine Healing Center in Clearwater. I continued offering these classes for about two years while also leading a number of one- to-five-day residential and non-residential retreats on both sides of the bay. I was also leading daylong organizing retreats for those interested in establishing a sangha or sitting group in their community.
At some point in late 2001, it became apparent to me that my life energy was becoming unbalanced. My psychotherapy practice was growing significantly as was the interest in my Dharma offerings. For me, there was a lot of energy moving out, lots of intensity with people and organizing but precious little recovery time. While I continued to sit 25 to 40 days a year in retreat, this was not a workable balance for me. It became clear that I needed more unstructured time, time and space free of intense demands. Besides, my kayak, hiking boots and off-road bike as well as my life partner in these activities were all complaining of feeling abandoned. A change was in order.
In the supportive synchronicity of the Dharma world, as I brought this issue to the two sanghas, people came forward to take over leadership of these established sitting groups. This freed me to shift directions and focus on development of support structure for the growth of our Dharma community.
At this point, my personal community outreach efforts are in bringing Dharma teachers with whom I have had personal contact, to share their energy and wisdom in residential and nonresidential retreats in our community. From my own and many others’ experiences, I am impressed by the shift that can occur in one’s practice through simple, direct exposure to someone whose life is grounded in the Dharma. From these intimate contacts which retreats make possible, it is my hope that some participants will be encouraged to deepen their practice through longer retreats and by establishing an on-going relationship with a committed teacher.
I am also working to establish suitable locations for retreats and space for sitting groups. The community space at the Lotus Room Yoga Studio is a first step in this direction.
I am the founder of Fllowing Dhamra, a 501.c.3 corporation, that is the vehicle for this work.
As for future goals of the organization, I would love to see the community space at the Lotus Room host Dharma events including everything from weekly sitting and studying gatherings to potlucks and children’s Dharma activities, from three-day retreats to half-day sittings.
Of course as we’ve all learned from the Buddha’s teachings, I try not to become attached to ideas of what should be or to the ego’s cravings. I trust the practice of insight meditation and am confident the leadership and the energy for these efforts will arise if and when the time is right. For the time being, I’ll focus my efforts on bringing gifted meditation teachers into our community for retreats, supporting area sangha-building, deepening my own practice and personal balance. I wish you well on your journey.