Jason Kniola, NCC, LMHC, LCAC

02/11/2026

One of my most impactful teachers in conscious living is Richard Moss. In his book, The Mandala of Being, he outlines the territory of mandalas. Traditional Buddhist mandalas are mostly oriented towards a center with four main directions moving away from that center point. The center represents the root of our consciousness, inherently at-one with the present moment. Our consciousness, at center, is in the NOW...part of all that is. The four directions represent the categories of thought that move away from this unified present moment awareness. Our consciousness first splits into subject (ME) and object (YOU -person, place, or thing) and then into time (PAST and FUTURE).

As consciousness moves away from the NOW it identifies with the categories of thought. The stronger the identification with thought, the more separate and removed from NOW. This separation can be identified as ignorance. Buddhism points that this ignorance is the origin of suffering. Simply put, it is a case of mistaken identity. At its core, consciousness is present, judgmentally (Radically Accepting), and not separated into subject/object.

Practices that intentionally focus attention on non-judgemental present moment awareness allow the practitioner to move away from identification with subject-object and past-future thought and re-unification with the NOW.

I have found this teaching to be most intensely apparent in times of great difficulty and deep pain. During crisis it is acutely clear that stories create deeply unsettling emotional storms. Mind rapidly spins stories of future-oriented, “what ifs", past-oriented, "if onlys", me-oriented, "guilt, shame, etc.", and you-oriented, "anger, blame, etc." If we look closely, it can be seen that these stories are NOT real and NOT in the present moment. However, this is what the thinking mind naturally does. The thoughts in themselves are not the problem - the complete identification with them is the cause of suffering. Simply put, the mandala is a model asking if we are identified with thought, with little or no awareness of the present-moment, or identified with the present moment with awareness of thoughts. Experientially, the difference can move from:

“I am terrified that I or my loved one will be harmed in the
near future.”

To:

“Here am I – aware of a terrifying story about harm coming
to myself or a loved one.”

This is a simple but powerful shift in awareness. The model of mandala teaches that we have agency. Our consciousness may be habituated to identify towards the categories of thought, with a drift toward ignorance of our core connection to the NOW, at one with existence. However, moment by moment – we can, through deliberate practice – orient back to the center.

The mandala is simple. Simple does NOT mean easy – especially in deep pain and crisis. This is not about doing it “right” or doing it “wrong”. It is completely human to fall into stories of suffering. Instead, the mandala is a symbol of hope. It is possible to reclaim our awareness and ease suffering. It doesn’t seem possible some moments. However, it is true, nonetheless. Like a deep layer of clouds may obstruct the sunshine for days or the Earth turns to night – the sun never stops shining.

(Below is my most recent mandala drawing – a present moment -orienting practice)

01/28/2026

IMPORTANT UPDATE: ❄️ Our Deep Winter Renewal Retreat had to be moved due to inclement weather - what are the odds?!
☃️ NEW DATE: February 27th, 2026

Run by Jason Kniola, NCC, LMHC, LCAC and Kelly Nusbaum Johnson, LMHC this retreat is sure to leave you feeling refreshed for the new year and renewed during this crisp-cold season. Be sure you get signed up round!❄️

See flyer for details. Register at the link below. We hope to see you there.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1981826981852?aff=oddtdtcreator

01/21/2026

We still have openings!

Winter’s quiet gifts - crisp air, hushed landscapes, and soft candlelight offer a rare invitation to slow down and breathe again.
Jason Kniola, LMHC, LCAC, NCC and Kelly Johnson, LMHC and for a deep winter mindfulness retreat designed to restore your nervous system and reconnect you to a sense of ease.❄️

Register Now: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/deep-winter-renewal-retreat-tickets-1978625439954?utm-campaign=social&utm-content=attendeeshare&utm-medium=discovery&utm-term=listing&utm-source=cp&aff=ebdsshcopyurl

01/18/2026

Tonight I attended my friend and mentor’s 75th birthday party celebration. It was a surprise party. She was delightfully shocked at the presence of family and friends. People shared songs and written tributes. Below is my sharing. I am grateful. We need the transmission of knowledge, skills, wisdom, and inspiration from generation to generation. This requires that as we age we authentically and vulnerably pass on what we have learned. It requires that we learn with curiosity and humility from elders. We need this now more than ever. This is NOT something that can be given by electronics and AI. We need each other.

My sharing:

"If you are fortunate, you will meet people who change the course of your life. They are living fearlessly and are unafraid to be themselves and share who they are.

That example changes you. Your ego craves that courageousness. And it makes things become unsettled within you because you know deep down that you are still afraid and you are hiding your true self from others.

If I have one great wish for you, it is that you become that person.

Truly be yourself and do not hide your flaws out of a sense of shame.

Put yourself out there with radical honesty, and be a living example of a Fully Realized Human Being!

Change all your Life-challenges into Art.

Your Grief into poetry.

Your Heartbreak into song.

Your longing for freedom into a Dance.

Stand without shame!

And always always forgive yourself as fast as possible.

Live a Life worthy of your Soul - unafraid of what others may think!

Aloha!"

--Pahka Dave

I was 23 years old when I met Dave and was introduced to his eclectic way of life…just graduated with my bachelor’s degree in psychology, newly married. Until that time I lived a conventional life – nothing creative or very explorative – other than reading a few books on Eastern Mysticism. I met Dave through the healing work he was doing. His work, his philosophy, and his WAY shook me to my core…I was hooked. As I spent more time with Dave I also met Patti more and more often. I was blown away by this wonderfully strange and exciting this couple was. I remember actually being scared when I would visit because I had no idea what would happen when I got there. Would Dave be juggling? Would Patti be singing? Would there be a cast practicing a play? Would they be creating a piece of art or dancing in the living room? What would they ask me? What if they made ME juggle, sing, balance on a bongo board, and play a digeridoo while doing holotropic breathwork!? (All things I did with them, btw)

Not to mention their home! Walls painted cool and strange colors. Guitars, drums, a harp, weird shamanic totems, buddha statues, altars with crystals, singing bowls, art, and always music. WHAT WERE THESE PEOPLE? Not the humans I knew of. It made me wonderfully, confusingly, terrifyingly, beautifully unsettled. AND…just ask my wife…she was nervous too…What would Jason obsess over after visiting with Dave and Patti? Energy work? Qigong? Chanting? Or some dude named Richard Moss that talks about radical aliveness?

These vibrantly alive people shared what they learned with me…and many more people. They opened their authentic selves to me…and many others. And Patti still does. Patti is one of the most influential people in my life as a model for being radically alive. I am deeply grateful to have met you and known you now for 29 years. AND astonishingly…I would never have guessed it as that nervous 23 year old…she tells ME that I impact HER just as deeply…and that is because of their influence. Meeting Dave, meeting Patti…opened a path for living a life worthy of my SOUL. Thank you Patti. I love you. Happy Birthday.

12/20/2025

Winter’s quiet gifts - crisp air, hushed landscapes, and soft candlelight offer a rare invitation to slow down and breathe again.
Jason Kniola, LMHC, LCAC, NCC and Kelly Johnson, LMHC and for a deep winter mindfulness retreat designed to restore your nervous system and reconnect you to a sense of ease.❄️

Register Now: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/deep-winter-renewal-retreat-tickets-1978625439954?utm-campaign=social&utm-content=attendeeshare&utm-medium=discovery&utm-term=listing&utm-source=cp&aff=ebdsshcopyurl

12/02/2025

Sometimes life brings unpredictable curve balls that can’t be easily solved, fixed, or addressed…sometimes not at all. These times can be unsettling as what we assume to be predictable and reliable is shaken or swept away. The truth is we are always one moment away from this vulnerability. Permanence is the illusion.

These moments induce fear and doubt. Survival instincts are triggered. Mind casts forward in time with horror stories, with blame or victim stories, or back with regret or shame. We can grapple for ground and certainty with unskillful means, often making our situation worse, or at the very least, lose our ability to act mindfully, effectively and with compassion in the moment.

Once, years ago, in a moment like this I was shaken, anxious, and reactive. Mind raced with fear, doubt, regret, defensiveness, reactivity, and endless rumination. I went to visit my friend and mentor. He didn’t address any of the issues he knew I was going through on this visit. Instead, he invited me to watch at he worked on a bone carving. We sat for hours as I watched the technique quietly. Each minute detail. Focusing on this creative process I noticed my reactive and fearful mind calm, my body relax. I regained equilibrium and was able to face my life more calmly…at least for a short time. I learned to carve myself and practiced for hours, days, months, years. It didn’t matter that I was not skilled. It didn’t matter how good or bad the carvings were at first. That wasn’t the point. The process of learning, focusing, and being creative was, itself, the practice of regaining a calm center.

These are times to be humble, start something new, and be willing to be a beginner once again. These moments can be an opportunity for renewal.

Recently I picked up learning the creation of mandalas. Beginning this new creative, mindful practice. Embracing beginners mind. Imperfection. Learning. Focus. One line at a time. Maybe my skill will improve…but, again…that’s not the point at all.

10/28/2025

🌿 Grief touches everyone — but how we understand it can change everything.
Join Rev Patti Shaffner and Jason Kniola, MA, LMHC, LCAC for Navigating the Landscape of Grief, an online CEU course exploring the myths, impact, and cultural language of grief.

💻 Earn 4 CEUs · 💰 Just $40 (Free for Pillars employees!)
✨ Learn practical tools and self-care strategies for supporting grieving clients.

👉 Register now: pillarsu.com/courses/navigating-the-landscape-of-grief-4-ceus

09/27/2025

Last chance! Next Friday!

We are hosting a mini mindfulness retreat at our Hobart location. Things are so overstimulating and stressful in the world right now. We need time for reset and restoration. Come join us. No experience needed, all are welcome. We are ending this session with a treat...a sound meditation using gongs and singing bowls.

✨ Feeling stretched thin by the constant noise of daily life? ✨
Take a step back, slow your breath, and come join us in discovering the power of the present moment. This retreat will guide you toward peace, grounding, and clarity — right here, right now. 🌿💫

👉 Reserve your spot today and give yourself the gift of presence.
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-power-of-presence-reclaiming-peace-in-chaotic-times-tickets-1672193749519?aff=oddtdtcreator

09/22/2025

We are hosting a mini mindfulness retreat at our Hobart location. Things are so overstimulating and stressful in the world right now. We need time for reset and restoration. Come join us. No experience needed, all are welcome. We are ending this session with a treat...a sound meditation using gongs and singing bowls.

✨ Feeling stretched thin by the constant noise of daily life? ✨
Take a step back, slow your breath, and come join us in discovering the power of the present moment. This retreat will guide you toward peace, grounding, and clarity — right here, right now. 🌿💫

👉 Reserve your spot today and give yourself the gift of presence.
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-power-of-presence-reclaiming-peace-in-chaotic-times-tickets-1672193749519?aff=oddtdtcreator

09/22/2025

I often share personal experiences here as offerings. This one is both a tribute to a dear friend and an honest reflection on the deeper questions and movements of grief that we all encounter.

My dear friend, Heather, left her body a few short weeks ago. Even as I write those words, I am drawn deeper into mystery. Do I say she “died,” “passed on,” “transitioned,” or “returned to the ocean of being, like a droplet merging back into the sea”? None of these words feel sufficient. What is this ending? What really happens at the close of a life?

For some, faith provides answers. For others, the absence of faith answers with certainty: “nothing happens; it just ends.” For all of us, being self-conscious creatures, the question remains. For me, in this moment of my story, I stay with: I don’t know.

Heather’s dying and death have touched me deeply. On one level, I grieve the loss of my friend and the countless ways we connected. On another, death itself now sits closer to home - my own death, the death of loved ones, the impermanence of all life.

Heather and I met twenty years ago at a training in Hakomi Body-Centered Psychotherapy, the foundation of our friendship. Hakomi, a contemplative, experiential, somatic healing practice, asks: How do I stand in relation to these many realms? Who am I?

As companions in this training, we lived that question together. Hakomi invites us to notice how we relate - to people, sensations, emotions, beliefs, patterns - and to bring unconscious habits into awareness. With awareness comes choice, and with choice, the possibility of new responses. This is my humble attempt to describe Hakomi; for a fuller understanding, I encourage you to read The Hakomi Method by its founder, Ron Kurtz.

Our friendship, born in that context, was always contemplative. We spoke often about how we related to life: to our emotions, relationships, families, political tensions, traumas, marriages, the births of our children - and, ultimately, Heather’s illness, dying, and death. Her passing has stirred the deepest parts of me.
In its wake, I find myself in mystery. Why do things unfold as they do? Why did Heather suffer and die at a relatively young age? What happens after life? Again, my answer remains: I don’t know. Yet within that not-knowing, something shines more clearly than ever: the way we live, and the way we die, matters. How we stand in relation to these many realms matters.

Life itself is a mystery. We enter this world from the unknown, and we return to the unknown when we die. These are not choices within our grasp - at least not from the vantage point of our limited human experience. Perhaps our souls did choose these bodies and these lives. Perhaps not. That is not ours to know - until, if ever, it is. What does seem true is that while we are here, we have agency. We have some measure of freedom in how we live. We can become aware of the ways we organize our consciousness around life’s circumstances, and we can change them. As Viktor Frankl wrote:

“Between stimulus and response there is a space.
In that space is our power to choose our response.
In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”

A few weeks after her passing, a memorial service was held for Heather. It was beautiful. Family and friends shared the impact she had on their lives, telling both moving and humorous stories (she was wonderfully funny). In their sharing, Heather’s spirit filled the room. Her essence, her way of being, was palpable - she lived well.

What became clear to me that day is this: the way we live our lives ripples outward, touching others, echoing beyond our departure.

Heather’s life continues to ripple in me.

(Artwork by Heather)

09/17/2025

We are hosting a mini mindfulness retreat at our Hobart location. Things are so overstimulating and stressful in the world right now. We need time for reset and restoration. Come join us. No experience needed, all are welcome.

✨ Feeling stretched thin by the constant noise of daily life? ✨
Take a step back, slow your breath, and come join us in discovering the power of the present moment. This retreat will guide you toward peace, grounding, and clarity — right here, right now. 🌿💫

👉 Reserve your spot today and give yourself the gift of presence.
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-power-of-presence-reclaiming-peace-in-chaotic-times-tickets-1672193749519?aff=oddtdtcreator

07/10/2025

Come check out our Mindful Wellness training: a guided 8-week program that brings evidence-based mindfulness into the therapy room. Hosted by Kelly Johnson, LMHC and Jason Kniola LMHC, LCAC, this training is sure to fill up quickly, so be sure to secure your spot today. This is structured, sustainab...