Mindfulness group offers community meditation

It’s the middle of the afternoon and Gina Garlie is barefoot and seated atop a bright red cushion.

She reaches forward for a small mallet and gently strikes the side of meditation bell. It’s calming gong reverberates throughout the window lit room once, twice and finally a third time. She and fellow practitioner, Roger Sullivan, close their eyes and turn their focus inward, quieting their minds and dwelling on the simple act of breathing.

In and out. In and out.

Together the pair lead Open Sky Sangha, a meditation and mindfulness group that operates out of Two Rivers Aikido in downtown Kalispell. There are no membership fees or RSVPs required — anyone who’s interested can simply show up for either their Monday noon-hour meditation from 12:05 to 12:55 p.m. or Thursday evening sessions. Thursday nights begin with a guided meditation at 6:30 p.m., followed by dharma sharing — a group discussion — from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. If they feel so inclined, participants may offer a free-will donation as a thanks for the gathering.

Garlie got the sangha off the ground in 2010 after her own desire for a calmer mind led her to the teachings of Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh.

“I would read a little bit and wanted to understand mindfulness, but by the time I got to the bottom of the stairs it was gone,” Garlie said. “It changed my life because so much of the business and self importance of being attached to my list and getting all these things done just dropped away. It was about connecting and finding peace in myself.”

In 2009, she partnered with Open Way Sangha in Missoula to offer a day of mindfulness on Flathead Lake. But a one-time gathering wasn’t enough and a weekly meditation group was born. Early on, they convened in a yoga studio and later in various church basements before landing in their home of the past three years at Two Rivers Aikido in the historic KM Building. What started out with four to six people has grown to an average of 20 for the Sangha’s Thursday evening gatherings.

“We tend to be distracted and easily pulled in the past, in the future, to all the things that are going on,” she said. “By meditating and practicing mindfulness, we create more pauses in our life so we have more opportunities to come back to our breath and realize that we’re in the present moment.”

Living in the moment has helped Garlie, a teacher at Kalispell Middle School, treat each class with fresh eyes and has aided Sullivan, a lawyer, in keeping a level head, no matter the situation.

“Instead of my reacting to a situation with some old patterned energy, I think it allows me to bring a certain freshness to it,” Sullivan added.

While the Monday noon meeting is just for meditation, the Thursday evening is divided in two parts. The first hour begins with 20 minutes of guided meditation focused on helping attendees come “back to our breath,” Garlie said, followed by a 10 minute walking meditation.

“We walk very, very slowly and part of the reason we walk slowly is this practice of engaged Buddhism,” she explained. “We want to bring this to our lives and to everything we do — it’s not just about sitting on the cushion.”

The walking portion is rounded out by another 20 minutes of seated meditation, for which both chairs and cushions are available. The second hour is dedicated to dharma sharing, which often centers on a specific topic, like impermanence, and how it factors into their daily lives.

“We really learn to and are supported in speaking from our heart,” Sullivan said. “We’re encouraged not to be critical …. or to try to fix it, so much as to witness it.”

He also noted the sangha’s gatherings are open to people of all faiths. For some, the practice can be a welcome addition to their current traditions.

“It’s not as if there’s some sort of dogma that says you can’t be a participant in some other religious tradition,” Sullivan said. “We have people who are practicing in other Christian denominations … they find it adds to their spiritual religious tradition. It’s not by any means exclusionary.”

For more information about the sangha’s gatherings, visit their website at www.openway.org and select the Open Sky tab.

Reporter Mackenzie Reiss may be reached at 758-4433 or mreiss@dailyinterlake.com.