A dear friend sent this song to me the other day and, given all that we are holding in this week of mourning, remembrance and appreciation, it feels like timely medicine.
May it help ground, center and fortify you
in the face of any static you may encounter.
Join Sangha for “Post-Holiday” Refuge + Relief,
this Sunday, 11 AM – 1 PM, at Heartdance Studio.
Grateful for the collective imagination and wisdom of Sangha!
Last Sunday, our contemplation on Mutual Care inspired new queries to support us in identifying our current needs along with practices for honoring those needs.
How do we assess when our needs are being met — by asking what fuels, inspires and restores our body, heart, mind and spirit?
This Sunday, Sangha will open our season of contemplation and discernment with an inquiry into Mutual Care — with a specific focus on how we collectively respond to the new and/or changing accessibility needs of fellow practitioners.
Some of the queries that will guide our discernment:
Read here about Mutual Care related to accessibility practices: Sharing Sacred Space.
i am lungs springing back oxgenated, fueled and aflamed to burn off toxins and tensions.
the softening fist, fingers extending in a mudra of receptivity.
emerging grace, wobbly-kneed and raw-skinned soles finding its footing, rebounding from stumbles, rising from falls.
the heart willing (sometimes wavering), nevertheless ready to face the tenderness of being alive.
“The Sangha is an island of peace. The Sangha is a community of resistance against violence, hate and despair.”
— Thich Nhat Hanh
These words of my root teacher Thây live at the core of our sangha’s suchness. They have shaped our evolution into a community of spiritual friends who find sanctuary in journeying together through challenge and change; being stretched and sharpened by wisdom teachings, shared insights and loving (re)assurances; shedding skin, healing, transforming, blooming wholy into our radiant bodhisattva-ness!
We are called together to revive, reclaim and fortify ourselves with liberating contemplative spiritual practices. We take refuge in the full embrace of sangha to “remember to remember” that we have all we need — breath, willingness, enough time, connection to wise companions with gifts, skills and rich life experiences — to (re)connect with our true selves and nourish our wholeness.
“Retreating” from the madness of the world around us is not a viable option for everyone. For me, access to organized retreats set in bucolic off-the-grid environs invites us to interrogate spiritual elitism and the socioeconomic realities and other disparities and inequities among practitioners in all spiritual traditions. It points us back to the question of how we practice and cultivate justice, liberation and healing as people of faith and wonder.
So we take refuge in “the wisdom of no escape” each time we come back to ourselves wherever we are in a given moment, when conditions are not optimal, when our lives aren’t set up for leaving.
Each time we spring back from our worst moments, we strengthen our resilience, self-trust and capacity to resist being swept away by the toxicity of systemic degradation, violence and oppression that spreads like contagion.
It is my deepest hope and prayer that we know the freedom of trusting ourselves, of embodying the spirit of refuge that feeds our radical being-ness.
Who are we when we cultivate and embody refuge?
Who are we when we cultivate and embody resistance?
Who are we when we cultivate and embody resilience?
Who are we when we cultivate, embody and celebrate radical self-expression?
Last week, we opened the new season of contemplation by diving into the study and practice of Transformative Love.
Sangha is fueled by the cultivation of spiritual friendship where we support one another in developing spiritual faculties such as trust, discernment, skillfulness, compassion, and diligence. These qualities facilitate transformation and healing, and root us in our wholeness and authenticity. With spiritual friendship as the model for skillful relationships, we’ll explore how to bridge gaps existing in our connections outside of sacred space.
Queries for Collective Musing
How do we nourish and sustain authentic and liberating relationships in all areas of our lives?
What are the qualities that constitute “transformative love” and how do we embody and model it?
Related Reading — Good Spiritual Friends: Walking the Path Together
Doors open just before 11 am. Centering starts at 11:10-ish.
Doors are locked at 11:30 am.
for Weekly Contemplations + Practice Updates, click the dates below:
Week 2 — January 14
Week 3 — January 21
Week 4 — February 11
Week 5 — February 18
Week 6 — February 25
sun + breath + good spiritual friends + scratch-made yummies = harvest!
Thank you, loves, for sharing your gifts — hugs, hearts, laughter, presence, silence, curiosities, discoveries, baking/gardening/pickling talents…and so much more!
We’ll take refuge in the full embrace of Sangha on October 8th when our fall series Bearing Witness begins.
I usually tune out during commercials, but when I heard Iyanla drop this gem in a teaser for her new season of Fix My Life, I woke the hell up!
I know what resistance looks, sounds, and feels like (thank the goddess I’ve learned to own mine). And, as an empath, I’ve been admittedly agitated by recent encounters with folks harboring energies of delusion, denial, dissatisfaction and the inability to practice accountability about things that are within their sphere of influence. all of these qualities are manifestations of our resistance to spiritual growth.
If we are truly willing to do the work, then we can develop, expand and strengthen our capacity to change our perceptions — even though we may not have the power to (immediately) change our conditions or circumstances.
Spiritual accounting calls for an honest and loving look inward to:
I’m blessed with a circle of beloveds who hold each other down, lift each other up, and trust each other to lovingly say, “Hey, sis, your shadow is showing!“
What we won’t do is co-sign one another’s craziness!
It’s okay to not be ready, to have doubts ans fears. Where I’ve learned to draw firm boundaries is with those who wear the armor of unwillingness and who are committed to their stuckness. With them, I call on the tough-love wisdom I grew up hearing: “I can’t want [your wellness/healing/wholeness] more for you than you want it for yourself.”
Uninitiated healers often spend way too much time trying to minister to wounds that aren’t theirs to heal and guide those who aren’t theirs to teach. On this, I speak from hard-won experience.
So I’ll conserve my energy, guard my intuitive spirit, filter out the lesson from the agitation, and step waaay the hell back before the connection becomes toxic.
Fact: Many of us don’t carry cash.
Funny: The hilariously-creative alternative that was offered instead, with affection and sincerity I must add, by a friend wanted to honor the practice of generosity.
So, henceforth, let it be known that scratch-offs and books of stamps will gleefully be accepted as donations…psst, along with gift cards, sushi, and craft beer! Love my peeps for so many reasons, not the least of which is our sense of humor, subversiveness, and sacred irreverence.
I seriously roared with buddha-belly laughter and am still tickled by it!
Harnessing the energy and light of the Women’s March in Washington as well our very own March on #LoveLansing, Sangha will draw closer together to shine our beacon of refuge, resistance, and restoration.
We gather at Heartdance Studio – 1806 E. Michigan Avenue. Doors open just before 11 am. Centering begins at 11:10-ish.
RSVP/UPDATES: 3 Jewels Yoga Sangha
Other Community Events:
14 January – National Day of Action for Flint | Capitol Building
17 January – Our Dream: Lansing United | Lansing Center
19 January – Ghostlight Project | Peppermint Creek Theatre
21 January – Children’s Social Justice Reading Group | East Lansing Public Library
21 January – Women Organize Michigan Summit
tscottmiller 