Tag Archives: applied buddhism

#WholyHappyHour [Sunday, 10/11]: “The Suchness of Sangha: Holding Space for Ourselves + One Another”

After a wonderful season of Walking The Labyrinth, I am excited to delve into the deep inquiry and rich discussions that follow our sitting practice.

This Sunday at Heartdance Studio, we’ll explore “The Suchness of Sangha: Holding Space for Ourselves + One Another” and share our curiosities, concerns and insights about cultivating community through spiritual practice. #GoodSpiritualFriends

We will also have in attendance a researcher from The Religious Soundmap Project at MSU who will record the practice as part of a collaborative effort “to demonstrate the diversity of religious beliefs and practices” in our region.

MORE THIS WEEK:

Oct 7th | 7 – 9 PM ~ I’ll lead the dharma discussion at Lansing Area Mindfulness Community on the Second Mindfulness Training – TRUE HAPPINESS.

ON THE HORIZON:

Oct 25th | 11 AM – 12:30 PM ~ #WholyHappyHour: 3 Jewels Yoga Sangha at Heartdance Studio.

Nov 1st | 11 AM – 1:00 PM ~ Inviting Mindfulness: Reconciling with the Body at Just B Yoga.

HEAR HERE [for deep listening]: Opening The Question of Race to the Question of Belonging | On Being with Krista Tippett

And I think being human is about being in the right kind of relationships. I think being human is a process. It’s not something that we just are born with. We actually learn to celebrate our connection, learn to celebrate our love. And the thing about it — if you suffer, it does not imply love. But if you love, it does imply suffering. So part of the thing that I think what being human means to love and to suffer, to suffer with, though, compassion, not to suffer against. So to have a space big enough to suffer with. And if we can hold that space big enough, we also have joy and fun even as we suffer. And suffering will no longer divide us. And to me, that’s sort of the human journey.
~ john a. powell

I was invited to facilitate a dharma discussion for my root sangha to address the wellspring of emotions and concerns members have expressed following the tragedy in Charleston last week. Drawing on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness, I entitled the talk “Good Spiritual Friends: Taking Care of Ourselves & One Another in the Face of Racism, Bias, & Injustice” and asked that we actively investigate our own perceptions, intentions and behaviors as we reflect on how to apply and cultivate the dharma in response to such devastation. We expressed our confusion, anger, shame, fear, helplessness, outrage. We cried. We breathed. We sat with our discomfort. 

I asked that we continue to find refuge in practices that help to nourish and ground us as well as those that illuminate unskilfulness, awaken clear comprehension, and inspire compassionate actions.

That sweet space of refuge is fleeting: Our hearts burst open with the victory of the Marriage Equality Act last Friday. Then they are crushed once more with every church that goes up in flames at the hands of racist terrorists. 

For sanity and nourishment, I am mindful about what I consume–attempting to combat this madness by sharing this dose of sustenance (clear, compassionate understanding) for the mind and soul.

Hear Here: john a powell ~ Opening the Question of Race to the Question of Belonging

KnowTheirNames
artist: sarah green

embodied practice: tonglen

I have to be real: even after a decade of practice, conjuring compassion or loving-kindness is not always my default response in the face of arising difficulty or suffering.

Anger, irritation, disappointment, fear — primal and deeply-programmed — seep to the surface when peace, stability, safety and simplicity are threatened. They are quelled with time and, most important, my faith, effort, concentration, mindfulness, and discernment (five spiritual faculties). To penetrate and dissolve those strong feelings first takes faith, or conviction, in practices that offer me a deep sense of refuge. I literally need to move through it by going for a walk or run. The effort of exertion generates a physical and energetic heat that helps me burn off tension and generate enough concentration and mindfulness to spark clear-seeing wisdom. As the body cools off, so too does the heart and mind. Emotions, though tempered by mindfulness, are not so easily released. I still have two hands to hold anger or frustration alongside this newly-stoked calm clarity.

The practice of tonglen speaks to me deeply because it allows space for the complexity of our human-ness, where both the suffering and the relief co-exist. It feels more accessible and authentic to me than the Metta Meditation, which seems to require superhuman leaps and bounds toward lovingkindness. Beautiful as it is, I find it reminiscent of the fake-it-til-you-make-it philosophy. It’s a worthy aspiration. Just not one that I can sustain in practice. Tonglen seems to honor the teeny-tiny baby steps and stumbles and the slow, tentative climb out of the pit back onto solid ground. Sometimes that’s all I can muster. I trust it to be enough.

 

More from Pema Chodron: The Practice of Tonglen [Shambala, 2007]

 

magic of the message: a sign of love

“aum + amen”

Buddhist-me can see the dharma in all things and appreciates skillful and compassion-centered wisdom from all faiths and philosophies. So when I spotted this sign on the way to Holt Farmers Market yesterday, I knew it was a message worthy to be spread!

Although I couldn’t find an affirming statement of inclusion on the church’s website, Q-Cross at MSU has created a list of affirming churches in East Lansing.

wpid-wp-1422194837920.jpeg

toward wholeness: nurturing interdependence {in honor of mlk jr}

We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality,

Tied in a single thread of destiny.

Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.

brown gurls healing circle [18 jan 2014]

Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial “outside agitator” idea.

Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds.

~Dr. Martin Luther King Jr
Letter from a Birmingham Jail
[April 16, 1963]

embodied practice: caring for ourselves + others

As sanghas around the globe are breathing deeply for our beloved Thây who is recovering from his recent hospitalization, I am remembering this beautiful practice that he teaches, which my dharma sister has shared with our community over the years: Second Body Practice.

“Our practice is not an individual practice.
We practice with other people, we practice with our Sangha.
The Sangha is also our body…
The practice of the second body is one way we take care of each other in the Sangha.”
— Thich Nhat Hanh

View/Download Thich Nhat Hanh’s article in The Mindfulness Bell Issue #24: Taking Care of Each Other.

 

[18 March 2020 | Content updated to include quote + link to the .pdf of the original article.]