Newcomers Night
The first Monday of each month is Newcomers Night. The evening’s facilitator will be there to greet you online at 6:15pm if you would like an introduction to our sitting meditation practice and logistics of the evening.
What have we learned from stopping?
This week Mary will facilitate.
Dear friends,
Tonight we will follow on the theme that Susie so beautifully offered last week. We will continue to use our breath to bring us calm, to bring us stability. Breath is the link that brings our body and mind together. By calming the mind, we calm the body and by calming the body, we calm the mind. As Thay often reminds us, breathing is our anchor. I’m reminded that breathing is an object of meditation that I can use on and off the cushion. It only takes me a minute to stop and do one or two slow, deep breaths. So simple, yet so calming, grounding. Too beneficial to only use on the cushion!
We will start the evening with a guided meditation from Plum Village that uses our breath as a support to deepen our connection to Mother Earth. I enjoyed it very much and hope you will too!
Our 20 year old daughter who’s studying in London was the first In our family to shelter in place. Her concern for us, as well as the lessons learned in Europe, led my ‘cluster’ here in DC to begin staying home earlier than locally mandated. I am grateful that we are all working hard to follow the guidance to stay home and to stay safe as being the best practices to protect ourselves, our families and our larger community. At the same time, I am deeply aware of those working in essential services who are helping others, at risk to themselves. Deep gratitude.
All of our lives have changed dramatically in recent weeks. Our routines, our pleasure in meeting with friends and colleagues face-to-face have suddenly been disrupted. We are learning to create new routines to keep us grounded. Yet, with all the pain and fear we are witnessing, we have also been given a vast amount of quiet with time to reflect, look inward. Can we take this time to deepen our relationship with ourselves? Now that your consumption is more limited, how has it affected you? What is it that truly makes you happy, contented and satisfied?
Personally, I have found a lot of peace in stopping. When I can keep my mind on the present moment and be with the flowering trees outside, I am full of gratitude. In that moment, that is all there is. I have more time now to do everything more slowly. I am more grateful for everything, for everyone. I am reminded how precious much of what I can often take for granted truly is.
I am working to be more present to my spouse, my sheltering partner. To really listen and not get caught in my thinking, my projects. Can I take the long 300 year view that Thay speaks of? The view that puts things into perspective: “What difference will this small misunderstanding or mis-communication mean in 300 years?” When I can keep this view in mind, it helps me to not sweat the small things.
I’m better able now to keep present to the task at hand, rather than reaching into the future. Planning has been put on hold. Limiting live news and choosing to read only enough to keep informed has helped lessen anxiety. Keeping connected with loved ones and friends has been key. A daily practice of yoga, meditation, walking the dog, gardening, cooking, and watching a movie or listening to music has been my bedrock to see me through. A woman in my dharma sharing group last Monday read this poem [insert link here: http://www.lynnungar.com/poems/pandemic/] She said it gave her “a taste of stopping” . These words resonated in my mind all week as a kind of mantra. May you also find joy in your stopping.
Tonight in our sharing, I look forward to hearing what you have been experiencing. Until then, thank you to please reflect on these questions:
What have you noticed from stopping?
What new experiences or routines have helped you now that you would like to incorporate into your life when sheltering in place is over?
I look forward to being with you on Monday night.
Much love,
Mary
Pandemic
What if you thought of it
as the Jews consider the Sabbath—
the most sacred of times?
Cease from travel.
Cease from buying and selling.
Give up, just for now,
on trying to make the world
different than it is.
Sing. Pray. Touch only those
to whom you commit your life.
Center down.
And when your body has become still,
reach out with your heart.
Know that we are connected
in ways that are terrifying and beautiful.
(You could hardly deny it now.)
Know that our lives
are in one another’s hands.
(Surely, that has come clear.)
Do not reach out your hands.
Reach out your heart.
Reach out your words.
Reach out all the tendrils
of compassion that move, invisibly,
where we cannot touch.
Promise this world your love–
for better or for worse,
in sickness and in health,
so long as we all shall live.
–Lynn Ungar 3/11/20