Category Archives: sangha

bearing witness | new moon meditation

In Sangha last Sunday, I shared this beloved quote that I have carried close to my heart and have called up frequently during times of transition and transformation for over 20 years. It reverberates far, deep and wide in a season of bearing witness to our journey through challenge, change, growth, loss and renewal.

So powerful, in fact, that my dear friend called that very same evening to tell me she had recited those exact words (which she could specifically remember first hearing from me seven years ago) for a circle of her friends earlier in the day! With hundreds of miles between us, she wanted me to know how far they had traveled through space and time.

Our mutual conjuring of this affirmation was nothing short of magical!

Not only had we both synchronously chanted these hallowed words for those who felt moved by them. But also, in her giving them back to me, I saw clearly that the Universe was asking me to rest in and be transformed by them once more. For in that week alone, the energy of remembrance had engulfed me as I excavated hidden talents and paid tribute to my late grandfather and his grandfather for their military service. I continue to look back, beneath and beyond to see how very necessary these 11 words are for me in undoing ill-fitting and inaccurate perceptions, reclaiming the wholeness of my forgotten selves, and becoming even more of me.

Look Deeply

This quote appears as an affirmation under The Tower card in The Tarot Handbook. May be derived from the statement “what you think you are is a belief to be undone” from Lesson 91 in A Course in Miracles.

friends on the path | zen happenings

 

zen mom tings × flat stanley
4 bodhisattva vows / avatamsaka sutta
day of mindfulness

Top photos from Lansing Area Mindfulness Community’s Day of Mindfulness; b+w photos from the screening of Walk With Me.

° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° °

all beings without number, liberate.
endless blind passion, uproot.
dharma gates without measure, penetrate.
the great way of buddha, manifest.

° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° °

A variation on the Bodhisattva Vows from Jack Lawlor’s dharma talk.

Look Deeply:

I have not (yet) found the original text and source of this vow though it has been attributed to the Avatamsaka Sutra (which may also be known as the Bodhisattva Pitaka). So I’ve share other readings to help expand our understanding of the vows.

 

bearing witness | full moon meditation

How Spirit answers when you’re contemplating this coming Sunday’s dharma circle on Bearing Witness — looking back, beneath and beyond!

artist: barbara kruger via performa 17

° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° °

“untitled”

who is healed?

who is housed?

who is silent?

who speaks?

whose hopes?

whose fears?

whose values

whose justice?

— the art of barbara kruger,

on nyc metrocards《via performa 17: http://17.performa-arts.org/events/barbara-kruger21》

° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° °

Sangha will reflect upon:

what we have turned away from and what we have turned toward following last year’s election and its devastating impact on the well-being of our bodies, hearts, minds, spirits and relationships.

We’ll look deeply into:

what is

arising × dissolving

compelling × challenging

enduring × transforming

in our relationship to justice, liberation and healing?

when + where we enter | weekend intensive

I had the great honor and joy to spend a beautiful weekend holding space for my Quaker friends to discern how we skillfully engage in practices of justice, liberation, and healing.

Leading with Spirit + Faith, practitioners were guided to focus on “discernment over data” in order to:

GET GROUNDED — Cutting through the noise in order to get clear about one’s intentions and to honestly assess what one feels compelled and equipped to do.

BUILD CAPACITY — Cultivating an intimate understanding of one’s self and one’s values; examining the ways we each embody privilege and risk as well as each individual’s unique relationship to injustice, power and oppression; fortifying one’s self through transformative practices of deep listening and skillful communication. Discerning how each of us shows up, lends our presence and privilege, and can learn to apply our skills without creating more harm.

CENTER OUR WELLNESS + PRACTICE ACCOUNTABILITY — Using sacred tools and skillful strategies to restore, nourish and sustain healing, well-being, and wholeness; and establishing the circles of trust to support our learning and growing toward compassion, connection, and reconciliation.

t scott-miller's avatarradical bodhicitta

if there is no silence, there is no stillness.
if there is no stillness, there is no insight.
if there is no insight, there is no clarity.
— tenzin priyadarshi

— red cedar friends | 21 – 22 october 2017 —

View original post

on the dharma shelf | october 2017

Pedagogy of Hope: Reliving Pedagogy of the Oppressed — Paulo Freire

“No, my hope is necessary. But it is not enough. Alone it does not win but without it my struggle will be weak and wobbly. We need critical hope like a fish needs unpolluted water.”

The Sovereignty of Quiet: Beyond Resistance in Black Culture — Kevin Quashie

“Resistance may be deeply resonant with black culture and history, but it is not sufficient for describing the totality of black humanity.

In humanity, quiet is our dignity. This quiet is represented by our interior…In its magnificence, quiet is an invitation to consider black cultural identity from somewhere other than the conceptual places that we have come to accept as definitive of and singular to black culture—not the “hip personality” exposed to and performed for the world, but the interior aliveness, the reservoir of human complexity that is deep inside…

It is this exploration, this reach toward the inner life, that an aesthetic of quiet makes possible; and it is this that is the path to a sweet freedom: a black expressiveness without publicness as its forbearer, a black subject in the undisputed dignity of its humanity.”

As a contemplative and empath who has a heart for justice, liberation and healing, this excerpt from Kevin Quashie’s book rings loud and true for me!

Don’t mistake someone’s deep-soul need (or preference or disposition) for quiet/silence as passivity or inaction. In my practice, the opposite of active is not passive. It is receptive.

Some of us need to time to cut through the noise in order to thoroughly digest and reflect on the energy and information we receive. So I value and facilitate processes of discernment and self-inquiry that help us transform “silence into language and action” (in the words of the powerhouse Audre Lorde). From this place of quiet introspection, we can cull insight, clarity and resilience to move from personal healing and transformation toward skillful action.

woman horizontal | done + been done

done and been done
still they appear in dreams
unsummoned

cords cut
but roots regrow

when memory whispers my name
new work to be done and done again

unhook and untether
call back my energy
reclaim my soul

i am not yours
to harbor in distorted reverie

no longer known to you
no longer held by you
no longer the light
by which you warm hands and heart
or take shelter from your own shadow

in my place, i seed
grace, gratitude
and the tenderness of mercy

then raze the tomb where you encased me
and seal the crack you slipped into.

15 sept 2017

new moon meditation | for reclamation + healing

Last month a highly-intuitive friend sent me this video for releasing ourselves from the karma and burdens of others, and it was a pure revelation!

First and foremost, this meditation arrived divinely-timed at the end of a season when I had discerned a need to reclaim pieces of my soul from those who were incapable of bearing witness to my growth and my wholeness. In that process of reclamation, I had also recognized the importance of leaving the blessing of grace and mercy to stand in for those old impressions/memories of me. And because healing is not one-time event, I was prepared for something more to eventually show up and support this new level of growth.

Second, with one simple metaphor — likening cutting cords to cutting weeds: they’ll grow back if you don’t pull them out — it shifted the paradigm of teachings I’d previously encountered on cutting energetic cords! In the past, I’d used cord-cutting visualizations to unfetter myself from people and situations whenever lingering unresolved issues were unlikely to be fully addressed and transformed, and reconciliation was not possible. I truly found it helpful. Still, as we get equipped with new tools and new understanding, we can go back and dive deeper in order to rectify, amend, clear out and transform the seeds of suffering.

Between the two full and new moon cycles since then, I have pulled it out of my medicine bag nearly a dozen times for myself and in prayer on behalf of others who asked for support with transforming conditions and circumstances that are a source of discord in their lives. And it has indeed been good medicine! So now, under the auspices of the new moon, I offer it to you. Make it your own (as you’ll see below the video that I have done).

May it open the gates to new possibilities for compassion, generosity, skillful understanding, and authentic connection.

May it release you from the exhaustion, worry, guilt and resentment of over-giving.

May it help you discern the difference between duty and obligation so that you are empowered to make skillful choices from a sense of honor instead of acting out of habit and expectation.

May you trust that by centering your wellness and unhooking yourself from those who lack the capacity to offer mutual care, opportunities for healing will deepen and expand.

May you trust that they will be guided to grow into skills, tap into resources, and call upon a larger circle of wise council for support.

May it restore you and fill you up with abundance. 

 

Unhooking Meditation (with my expansions in italics):

I unhook myself from the ancestral burdens and adverse karma of all people, places and things that no longer serve me — sending them into the light with love, grace, and mercy to be healed and resolved as I am/ have been healed and resolved from them — and restore, reconcile, and redeem myself with the Divine Light nourishing me with love, peace, strength, grace, mercy, good health, free will and the optimum balanced flow of Divine energy. This wound is healed.

from “How to Remove the Cords, Karma & Burdens of Others”
— Rhonda Harris Choudry

special event | “walk with me” film screening

​Shining the light on and supporting practitioners of Lansing Area Mindfulness Community in the effort to bring this documentary about our root teacher Thich Nhat Hanh to the Regal Cinema on November 6 at 7:30 PM.

Help us boost awareness and reach the minimum ticket quota needed to screen Walk With Me: A Journey into Mindfulness.

INVITE YOUR FRIENDS! SHARE THIS POST! RESERVE TICKETS via: https://gathr.us/screening/21193