A free weekly meditation sit with instruction in Shamatha‑Vipashyana — a simple, time-tested practice of settling the mind and seeing clearly. Everyone is welcome. Nothing is asked.
You can arrive as a complete beginner. Individual meditation instruction is offered before or after the sit for anyone who wants it — just ask. And you can also simply come, sit, and leave without talking to anyone at all. Both are fine.
No. The instruction is given fresh each week, and it takes about two minutes to learn the basic technique. Many people who come have never meditated before.
People arrive, find a seat, and settle in. There's a brief welcome and simple instruction, then we sit together in silence. A chime marks the beginning and end. Afterward there's tea for anyone who'd like to stay and talk — or not.
No. Cushions are available if you want one, and chairs are available if you don't. Meditation works fine in a chair. Wear whatever is comfortable.
No. There are no introductions, no sharing circle, and no one will call on you. You are welcome to be entirely anonymous for as long as you like.
The practice taught here comes from the Buddhist tradition, and we say so plainly — you can read more below. But the sit itself is just sitting. There is no chanting required, no beliefs to adopt, nothing to join, and no follow-up. People of any faith or none practice this technique. The door swings freely in both directions.
Come talk to us — most obstacles are more workable than they look. A restless mind, in particular, is not a barrier to meditation. It's the reason for it.
Shamatha is a Sanskrit word meaning peaceful abiding — the mind settling, the way water clears when you stop stirring it. Vipashyana means clear seeing — what naturally becomes possible once the water is still. Together they are among the oldest and most widely practiced forms of meditation in the world: not a technique for making the mind blank, but for making friends with it.
If you'd like to try before you visit, here is the basic instruction. It is the same one offered on Sundays.
Take your seat. Sit on a chair or cushion with your back upright but not rigid — dignified, like a mountain, without straining. Rest your hands on your thighs. Let your gaze fall softly downward a few feet in front of you, eyes open.
Find the breath. Bring light attention to the simple fact of breathing — the breath going out, dissolving, and the next one arriving on its own. You don't need to breathe in any special way. The breath is just a place for attention to rest.
Notice, and return. Within a few breaths, the mind will wander into thought. This is not a mistake; it's what minds do. When you notice you've been thinking, you can silently note "thinking," and gently return attention to the breath. That return — done a thousand times, without scolding yourself — is the whole practice.
Start with ten minutes. What seems at first like nothing much happening turns out, over weeks and months, to change your relationship to your own mind. But there's no need to take anyone's word for that. The practice is the evidence.
Draft — Michael, edit freely: October Mountain Meditation is hosted by Michael Trainor, a meditation instructor with over a decade of practice and training in the Shambhala Buddhist tradition, a lineage that has taught meditation openly in the West for fifty years. He lives in Pittsfield with his family and two golden retrievers, and walks most weeks in the woods below October Mountain — which is where the name comes from.
This is not a business and not a branch of any organization. It is one practitioner keeping a room open, in the belief that a town is better off with a free, quiet, reliable place to sit — and that meditation is best offered the way the hills are: simply there, for whoever wants to walk in.
In the tradition this practice comes from, a space like this is dedicated to Manjushri, a figure who embodies the wisdom that cuts through confusion. We mention this not because you need to know it, but because you deserve to know exactly what you're walking into: a practice with deep roots, offered freely, with nothing hidden and nothing sold.
Questions are welcome: [email protected] (placeholder)