7-Day Meditation Retreat in Finger Lakes NY

Sandra Gonzalez has led retreats in both English and Spanish for several years. She began working with Toni in 1988. Previously, she studied for seven years at Zen centers in New York and California. Sandra spends much of the year in Springwater Center. She also leads or participates in several retreats away from Springwater each year. She writes: "Presence invites presence when there is no resistance, no ownership of ideas, experiences or things, no worrying, no hurrying, no judging, no defending–just the ease of life when we meet without wanting things to be otherwise. Certainly we all can participate; presence is free and available to all of us. There is a true beauty in this. Looking deeply right now into the question, “What is it that truly touches us?” The truth of it all is that I don’t know. Presence/tenderness/love cannot be known but can be felt and touched very palpably. Whatever I have named or described, is not it. One can describe what took place the best one can, but the description is not the actual thing. Words cannot reach it, nor define it. Definitions and descriptions are merely attempts by the mind to describe the indescribable just for the sake of sharing. So be it."