There’s a lovely Pali word, sampiyena, which could be translated as “by means of mutual kindness.”

A beautiful expression of mutual kindness is taking place at Wildmind and transforming what we do here.

For a long time we’ve sustained ourselves by offering online courses by donation. Since there were always good months and bad months, that turned out to be a precarious way to keep the site going. As a result, a lot of energy has been diverted into figuring out how to survive, rather than just getting on with the job of teaching meditation.

So we’re moving to a different model. We’re becoming a community-supported meditation initiative, where people who feel moved …

I used to have great difficulty getting to sleep at night. Sometimes my mind would be racing, usually about something that was troubling me. Sometimes there was nothing much going on in my mind at all, but sleep would simply refuse to arrive. The worst times were when I craved sleep, but as I began to drift and dream imagery started to arise, I’d get excited and wake up again.

But that was then. Nowadays I’m usually asleep within minutes—even seconds—of my head hitting the pillow.

Along the way I built up a toolkit of techniques to help me disengage from the kind of mental activity that gets in the way of sleep and that …

You might have heard of community-supported agriculture, where people buy a share of the farm’s output, which is delivered to them as the crops become ready.

Wildmind is doing something similar, and is in the process of becoming a Community-Supported Meditation Initiative.

I’m pleased to announce that thanks to over 370 supporters we’re now over half-way to our goal of having 1,500 shares sponsored. And you are warmly invited to join this very special initiative.

By supporting us, which you can do for as little as $6 a month, you’ll have access to:

• All of my existing meditation courses at no extra charge
• Access to all new meditation courses that I run through Wildmind.
• An

We’re making excellent progress toward the goal of Wildmind becoming a Community-Supported Meditation Initiative. In this new model Wildmind’s teaching will be supported by sponsors contributing as little as $6 each month.

Sponsors will of course gain a number of benefits. All of the new courses I develop will be available only for them. They’ll also have exclusive access to a monthly article and meditation download, as well as an online forum.

There are 1,500 shares available. Right now almost 40% of them have been sponsored. It’s taken only three weeks to get to that point, which is wonderful! Initially I thought it might take up to a year to reach our goal. Now it …

We’re making one of our introductory meditation courses, Sit Breathe Love, available free of charge. The course starts on May 7 and runs for 28 days.

This is indirectly connected to our move toward being a Community-Supported Meditation Initiative, where Wildmind will be entirely sustained through small donations given by sponsors. We’re 35% of the way to our goal in just two weeks, thanks to 200 kind sponsors, who will be getting exclusive access to new meditation courses, articles, meditation downloads, and an online discussion forum. If you’re curious about participating in this initiative, click here.

And to enroll in the meditation course, click here. But be quick! Places are limited and it’s …

The past

I started Wildmind in 2000 as a website where anyone could come to learn to meditate. It’s been a stunning success; we’ve had roughly 15 million unique visitors during that time! At first the sale of CDs supported my meditation teaching. Later, donations from participants on our meditation courses played a larger role.

That’s the past, and it’s no longer what’s needed. It’s proved to be financially unstable so that too much of my time and energy goes into trying to stay afloat. And it has too narrow an impact on the world. We need to go big.

The future

So we’re moving toward having Wildmind 100% supported by a large number of …