FLORIDA COMMUNITY OF MINDFULNESS, INC.
TAMPA, FLORIDA

The Florida Community of Mindfulness provides a "home" where people can come to learn and practice the art of meditation and mindful living. As a nurturing and supportive practice community taking inspiration from Thich Nhat Hanh, FCM offers a variety of practice opportunities to support practitioners in their aspiration to cultivate mindfulness and compassion and lead awakened lives. Our community meets at our Practice Center in Tampa, Florida, as well as in Fort Myers, Marco Island, Naples, and St. Petersburg. Please visit our Our community was founded by our teacher, Fred Eppsteiner, who received Dharma Transmission (authorization to teach in an authentic lineage descended from the Buddha) from Thich Nhat Hanh after more than four decades of deep study and practice with Buddhist masters in multiple lineages. Fred began his Zen practice in the late 1960s at the Rochester Zen Center in upstate New York with Roshi Philip Kapleau, the first Japanese-trained Westerner to establish a Zen center in the United States and the author of “The Three Pillars of Zen.” In the mid-1970s, Fred developed a close relationship with Thich Nhat Hanh, who has become one of the most widely known, beloved and respected meditation teachers and authors in the West today. Fred became a member of Thich Nhat Hanh’s Order of Interbeing in 1983 and received Dharma Transmission and permission to teach from Thich Nhat Hanh in 1994. Before moving to the Tampa Bay area in 2005, Fred lived in Naples, Florida, where he practiced psychotherapy and where he founded the Naples Community of Mindfulness in 1998.  Fred’s experience as a psychotherapist helps him to understand how to apply Buddhist psychology, mindfulness teachings, and meditation practices to the everyday lives of American practitioners. Fred lives happily with Angie Parrish in Tampa, Florida. He has two grown children, Ty and Karuna, and two young grandchildren. Fred’s 97-year old mother, Ruth, is a Dharma practitioner and an active member of the FCM community.  The FCM community practices in the tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh, a living Vietnamese Zen master, Buddhist scholar, peace and human rights activist, and poet. One of the most tireless and beloved Buddhist teachers in the world, Thich Nhat Hanh's teachings and practices appeal to people from wide-ranging religious, spiritual, and cultural backgrounds. Known for the power and clarity of his teachings, and beloved for his personal serenity and his quiet, compelling presence, Thich Nhat Hanh teaches a practice of mindfulness and “engaged Buddhism” that helps us to become fully aware and alive within the present moment. The Florida Community of Mindfulness (FCM) welcomes you to visit its physical centers in Tampa, Naples, and St. Petersburg, Florida. A sitting group with strong connections to FCM is also active in Fort Myers. And “virtual” communities support members from areas such as Canada, Alaska, North Carolina and beyond. CM’s main Practice Center is in Tampa. Initially founded in a member’s home in 1997 by four people who had attended a Thich Nhat Hanh retreat in Key West, it grew organically and moved to rented space in a yoga studio for a number of years. In 2012, FCM acquired its own Practice Center on Nebraska Avenue, in northern Seminole Heights, Tampa. We have worked as a community to transform what had been a deteriorating and underutilized church property into a thriving Practice Center and educational facility that has become the home for the entire FCM community. We are currently beginning construction of a residential hall, Great Cloud Refuge, that will be completed in late 2018 and which will give us the capacity to offer frequent residential retreats. It is our intention that FCM’s Tampa Practice Center will be an oasis of beauty, serenity and inspiration for all. FCM is a member-driven organization, although non-members are invited and very welcome to attend our weekly sanghas and other programs. We have a volunteer Board of Directors and a volunteer staff. In addition, FCM’s mission and programs are supported by a number of committees that help with the care of our sanghas, our Practice Center, and our other activities and offerings. The Florida Community of Mindfulness is a Florida not-for-profit corporation recognized as a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization by the Internal Revenue Service. Contributions to FCM are tax-deductible. FCM's "staff" is primarily volunteer, and includes the following Leaders, who work with many dedicated "selfless service" members to support our mission:  We are happy to report the current progress on our community’s endeavor to build Great Cloud refuge. The Florida Community of Mindfulness provides a "home" where people can come to learn and practice the art of meditation and mindful living. As a nurturing and supportive practice community taking inspiration from Thich Nhat Hanh, FCM offers a variety of practice opportunities to support practitioners in their aspiration to cultivate mindfulness and compassion and lead awakened lives. Our community meets at our Practice Center in Tampa, Florida, as well as in Fort Myers, Marco Island, Naples, and St. Petersburg. Please visit our Our community was founded by our teacher, Fred Eppsteiner, who received Dharma Transmission (authorization to teach in an authentic lineage descended from the Buddha) from Thich Nhat Hanh after more than four decades of deep study and practice with Buddhist masters in multiple lineages. We are happy to report the current progress on our community’s endeavor to build Great Cloud refuge. The Florida Community of Mindfulness (FCM) provides a "home" where people can learn and practice the art of meditation and mindful living. As a Buddhist community taking inspiration from Thich Nhat Hanh, FCM supports practitioners in their aspiration to cultivate mindfulness and compassion and lead awakened lives.