Awareness cannot be taught, and when it is present it has no context. All contexts are created by thought and are therefore corruptible by thought. Awareness simply throws light on what is, without any separation whatsoever.
-- Toni Packer

Richmond Meditative Inquiry Group

For those interested in meditation, the Richmond Meditative Inquiry Group provides an environment of openness, quiet, and shared inquiry into the present moment.

The group takes its inspiration from the teachings of Toni Packer and her practice center in New York State, Springwater Center, as well as from other sources that she draws upon, particularly Zen Buddhism and the teaching of J. Krishnamurti and Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj.

The group strives for a spirit of inclusiveness and all, including beginners, are welcome to join us for meditation regardless of their meditation experience or the tradition they practice in.

Toni Packer

Toni Packer is involved in exploring how thought constructs images of self and other, how authority is created, how separation and conflict come into being, and what happens when there is awareness and insight.

Born in Germany, Toni has lived most of her adult life in western New York State. She has led retreats since 1976 and regularly meets with others in both individual and group dialogue.

Toni had been a student of Roshi Philip Kapleau of the Rochester Zen Center and had become a teacher there before leaving. As a teacher, Toni’s concern with the problems of tradition and authority led her to question her affiliation with formal Buddhist Zen.

Toni no longer calls herself a teacher and makes no special claim to authority. Her approach is at once simple, radical, and ordinary.

Springwater Center

Springwater Center is located in western New York State on over 200 acres of beautiful country land with open fields and woods on soft rolling hills. The Center holds retreats with Toni Packer and also with several people she has asked to carry on the work of the Center. Retreats take place in silence, providing an opportunity to sit, walk, eat, rest, listen and just be in an atmosphere of quiet awareness, in direct contact with the beauty of the natural world, as free as possible from pressures and diversions.

Newcomers are encouraged to call beforehand to arrange for an orientation and/or meditation instruction.

7:40 pm Recorded Talk by Toni Packer or related teacher

“…meditation is the wonder of coming upon that which is not conditioned, that which is beyond fantasy and remembrance. Sitting quietly, without desire and fear, beyond the sense of time, is vast, boundless being, not belonging to me or you. It is free and unattached, shedding light on conditioned being, beholding it and yet not meddling with it. The seeing is the doing. Seeing is change. It is not what is seen that matters, but that there is seeing, revealing what is as it is, in the light of wisdom and compassion too marvelous to comprehend.”

-- Toni Packer

Springwater Center
www.springwatercenter.org