Amazing afternoon with Mike Snider

As a special birthday weekend treat, I got to hear Mike Snider speak yesterday. Earlier this year, I was lucky enough to get to do a weekend intensive and hang out with the lovely, funny, deeply compassionate Jon Bernie. When I got back to Tennessee, I was browsing the Resources page on Adyashanti's website, and was blown away to see someone listed in Tennessee. I contacted Mike to see if he had any kind of regular Satsang and he sent a kind reply that he tended to work one-on-one with folks, that there was a group in Nashville that had invited him to come speak and he would let me know if anything came of it, and that I was welcome to email him with anything that was going on for me that he might be able to help with -- a really generous offer.

He kindly followed up a couple of weeks ago saying that he was coming to town after all and I was surprised and delighted to see that he'd be speaking at the 12South Dharma Center, where the Shambhala group I used to sit with met, so it was a venue I was familiar and comfortable with and sort of meaningful, since I'd been having feelings of being flakey and always looking for something new in my practice. Nice to have it confirmed, if only in my mind, that this wasn't something entirely different.

When I walked into the center, I immediately recognized Mike. There were those same kind, beautiful eyes Jon has! And he has that same huge heart and sweetness. And great sense of humor! You can listen to a bit of one of his talks here (scroll down to "Mike Snider in Palo Alto") and get a feeling for his sense of humor here:



He played the banjo to open up (he had just played the Opry the night before, that morning, and was headed back that evening), gave a short talk, and then opened it up for dialogue. Oh, I was in heaven! The room was packed, which surprised him. He expressed interest in coming back and I think we all are hoping he does. What a great day!