Book Deal with Sounds True and MNDFL Certification and Training

Book Deal with Sounds True!

Dear friends,

I’m humbled and honored to announce that I’m officially in contract with Sounds True! I’ve envisioned writing a book for adults for years—well over a decade in fact.

I’ll never forget, five years ago after speaking at a mindfulness conference, the warm person who approached me with their business card. They said they worked for a publishing company and that they were from acquisitions. I wasn’t clear what that meant at the time! (Thank you Barnaby Willett for spelling it out after they walked away.)

For years I flirted with this offer. Something always seemed to get in the way. Peace in Schools required a tremendous amount from me during those years and the book was never begun. (Although I see now that this book has been unfolding ever since the original vision, I simply never wrote anything down until now!)

Several years ago, after being on a panel with Rev. angel Kyodo Williams at the Mind and Life Institute, I was approached again. A different person, a different publishing company. The knock on the door was clear. I could not ignore it. I could no longer justify any excuses. I began working on a book proposal.

The process has been a bit sporadic and the learning curve has been huge. Thank goodness for the great coaching from Michelle Cassandra Johnson. The cherished support of Barry Boyce. Rebecca Jamieson’s help in the proposal process. Tips from Mirabai and Loch. Rupert Spira’s love.

The biggest game changer came from a conversation with Justin Michael Williams. He told me about his original mentor. I was in my little meditation room. As he spoke, I realized my leg was resting on a book by his teacher—which I had just read a passage from in the gathering I facilitated that morning!

Justin pointed me in a new direction which leads me to now: A book deal with Sounds True! Working title: Collective Liberation.

I look forward to sharing more with you as this process continues to unfold. It’s been an exciting blend of daunting and exciting. The contract is signed. This is happening. Wanted to share the good news and thank you all for your support. This project cannot and will not happen alone. Feeling grateful for community.

Thank you for being part of mine.

MNDFL Certification and Training

I’m delighted to be one of the facilitators for the newest offering from MNDFL - Certification and Training.

We’ve just launched!

My dear friends and colleagues David Perrin and Rev. angel Kyodo Williams are the architects. This certification is designed for those seeking to deepen their experience of mindfulness, or facilitate it as part of work, family, and community life. At the heart of this program is a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion that supercedes trends and buzzwords. Already the training is magnetizing the most diverse and representative gathering of mindfulness practitioners I’ve ever witnessed.

David Perrin (who also teaches through Presence Collective) said it best:
"To say that these are tumultuous times is only cliché if you don’t have a reflective, contemplative, spiritual or some such approach. Those of you interested in deepening this approach, in opening yourself rather than shutting down, choosing to feel rather than numb, and acting on behalf of love and service will discover the courage and strength needed to move forward. I’m sure of it.”

We’d love to have you join us!

Because of my role in the program, I'm happy to be able to offer you a discount. If you use the "Learn More" link below and enter the coupon code "CAVERLY10" upon checkout, you’ll get a 10% discount off both the Practicum and Full Certification tracks.

How to Find Equanimity Amidst Upheaval

We are deeply habituated to seek equanimity as if it’s a state to be found. In times of crisis, stakes are high. We try harder. The more desperate we feel, the more effort we put in.

In this striving, we forget to ask: “Who is it that’s striving?” This question isn’t about finding the right answer. It’s intended to invite inquiry. 

What is it in us that longs for peace, well-being, equanimity, and happiness? Are these experiences found through striving, or are they known through a different route? And what is that route?

Join Caverly for a guided direct experience through Sangha Live on May 3rd at 11am PST/2pm EST. Allow your direct experience to be your test of reality. 

Caverly is a long term friend of Sangha Live. She has been offering teachings and meditations every day to the community, along with Martin. Though the offerings began as a response to COVID, they’ve been such a success that she plans to continue. You can find out more about those sessions here.

One of her students has been pulling quotes from her daily sessions (her offerings there are always unscripted and arise in the moment they are offered). As her teaching on Sunday, May 3rd, approaches, she wanted to offer some of these quotes to you as an opportunity for reflection. 

These aren’t meant to be read as an essay, but rather as an invitation to pause, to listen, to settle into the stillness of inquiry. Each phrase is an opportunity to pay attention to your direct experience. 

Enjoy. 

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Our experience of equanimity is stabilized by the repetition of recognizing and knowing ourselves as presence.

What is it that rejects? 

What is it that withholds? 

Recognize yourself 

as that which doesn’t reject 

and doesn’t withhold.

What you long for is here. 

Abandon the attachment to the objects of experience. 

Empty, open. Shining with the luminosity of being. 

Your true nature is ever-present. 

Take a stand as presence, 

welcoming everything in you. 

Embracing everything in you.

Knowing everything as you.

Like a drop of water landing in the ocean, 

simply allow the attention to return to source.

Settle in the stillness and the silence of the heart.

The firmness, the story of identity, 

falls away in the experience of love. 

Whose experience is this? 

Is this the experience of unlimited, conscious awareness? 

Or is this the experience that belongs to, and arises on behalf of, a separate self? See the difference. 

Rather than being a person who is trying to be more accepting, 

know yourself as the unlimited consciousness that is inherently accepting.

As a child, it seems that the sun is always disappearing with the weather patterns. At some point in your life, you understand that the sun is ever-present, no matter the weather. You don’t get confused that clouds mean that the sun has vanished.

If you meditate 

to be a better person, 

you’ll always be busy, 

trying to be a better person. 

If you meditate 

because you are in love 

with resting in your own 

luminous infinite being, 

you’ll always be in love. 

Caverly shares such thoughts on Instagram as well. She invites you follow along there. 

Why Go On Retreat?

When Dr. Dan Siegel was in Portland for our recent panel on Mindfulness, Trauma, and Interpersonal Healing in Education he asked me how I navigate being a contemplative that simultaneously does so much work “in the world.”

As we chatted, I heard myself underlining my love of retreats. Being on them, as well as leading them. As a someone who has facilitated retreats for the last 20 years, I can attest that it’s in the immersion of retreat that I see the greatest transformation occur. With individuals, with groups.

Retreat allows us to set other aspects of our lives aside and focus exclusively on Truth. On knowing who we really are. In grounding into direct experience of our true nature. And, to do this in the context of a collective isn’t an accident.

In this age of meditation apps and more and more opportunities to practice on your own from home, I’m passionate about also providing experiences that revolve around community and collective liberation. 

Registration is now live for the next four retreats that I am offering. Below, you'll find a little more information about each one. I hope it supports you in determining whether you’d like to support your practice by getting one of these retreats on your calendar now—and if so, which one. 

But first, here some images and words from those who joined our recent New Year Retreat:

“This was my first retreat with Caverly, and first introduction to her work, and I have to say it was truly transformative. I received more than I expected. I’ve been on many retreats and practiced with many different teachers, but there is something unique within the collective that allows for great healing and transformation to take place. I’m deeply grateful for this experience.”

— Kali, Business Executive and Life Coach

“This was one of the most beautiful experiences I have been a part of and I will cherish the memory and lessons learned. Caverly brings such warmth and wisdom and has a way of making every participant feel valued and welcome. This retreat was so much more than I expected! I feel incredibly grateful to have been a part of it. Also I had no idea we would laugh so much!”

— Retreat Participant

“This has become a precious ritual for me. The space to come and be exactly as I am, to feel so held and supported, to remember who I authentically am, it is the greatest gift. There is something I get from retreat, a depth of experience, that is invaluable.”

— Sarah

“Here, I am able to find my own voice again. I am given the language to express what I know to be inherently true- that we are not separate, that we are naturally love. Caverly skillfully guides us to our own knowing of truth by embodying compassionate presence and guiding as a friend and mentor.”

— Kendall, Barista at Starbucks

“Opportunities like this are very rare.”

— Geoffrey, Retired Attorney

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Upcoming Retreats with Caverly

This retreat is based on the recent day long retreat I did at the Portland Insight Meditation Community. If you haven't seen the Sunday morning talk that followed that retreat, you can watch it here.

This retreat has a fun twist: we’ll be making our own simple journals to use during it! The backdrop of this retreat will be silent. It takes place in a monastic setting…and a lovely one at that!

This retreat's curriculum is a condensed version of the contemplative technologies taught in the Peace in Schools' semester-long curriculum for teens. It’s perfect for those who would like a deeper personal experience around specific tools like:

• Seeing, naming, releasing negative self-talk

• Recognizing the conditioned mind and learning to let go our habitual thinking

• Learning more about the relationship between personal and collective conditioning

• Cultivating a relationship with the compassionate mentor within

• Understanding projection and the mind of duality

• Getting in touch with, and living with the recognition of, who we authentically are

This retreat does NOT have a backdrop of silence, which makes it a great fit for those who wish to attend the lovely 1440 center with friends or family. From eating gourmet food to hiking in the redwoods, this retreat is for those who are looking to combine vacation with transformative workshop sessions. 

This retreat is co-led with the incredible Martin Aylward. Caverly has been friends and colleagues with Martin for years and is delighted to have the opportunity to co-facilitate with him. 

Dharma practice invites us into a spacious and gracious relationship with life; challenging us to love what is, whether we like it or not. This retreat will be orientated around loving awareness and non-clinging wisdom. We will explore the various demands, defenses and distractions that easily grip our inner life, and learn to open to the genuine inner liberation that allows us to live fully and die freely.

Martin and Caverly will lead teachings and practices that explore the depth of meditation while also focusing on the integration into our wider personal, social and interconnected life.

This retreat is special in that it is a collaboration of four teachers who are all part of the Presence Collective community. Suniti Dernovsek is a movement educator, meditation teacher, somatic intuitive, artist and craniosacral therapist. David Perrin is a meditation teacher and mentor in the Shambhala tradition. Latifa Till is a lifetime student of the human heart, and leads Sufi and meditation retreats internationally.

It takes place at the magical Land of Medicine Buddha—a beautiful and environmentally conscious meditation and retreat center, located on 108 acres of coastal foothills in the Santa Cruz mountains. 

This retreat has a backdrop of silence and is designed for those who are ready to have a deep immersion in practice.

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We are really looking forward to practicing with you soon! For any follow up questions about our upcoming retreats, please contact our Presence Collective Coordinator Alyssa.

In peace, 

— Caverly