The Surrender Experiment: My Journey into Life's Perfection

by Mickey A. Singer

With these intrusions from the outside world starting to steal small chunks of my time, I all the more cherished being alone on my land. Nevertheless, people had a way of finding me, despite my best efforts to protect my solitude. So it was with Sandy Boone, a woman who was into Buddhist meditation and spending time outdoors. I don’t recall where she came from, but one day she showed up and started taking walks on my property. She was careful to respect my privacy; she just wanted to be in nature and meditate outdoors. That was okay until she asked if she could pitch her tent at the far end of the property to do some meditation. I didn’t want to allow that, but who was I to stop someone from meditating? Eventually she got bold enough to ask if she could join me for meditation on Sunday mornings, just for an hour. I clearly remember granting her request solely because the voice in my head was so resistant to it. In time, Sandy began to bring a few friends with her for the Sunday morning meditations. At first it was three, then six, then ten. I didn’t like that at all, but I had no right to stop it. I often just stayed in meditation upstairs while my guests met downstairs. Thus the notion of Sunday morning services at Mickey’s started in the spring of 1972—a tradition that has continued every Sunday for over forty years.