This week Annie and Camile will facilitate.
We will begin by enjoying a relaxing guided meditation to unwind our bodies and prepare us to read the Five Mindfulness Trainings together.
After reading the trainings, we will focus our attention on the Fifth Mindfulness Training. Below you will find both trainings. The highlighted text will be most relevant to our discussion about how to find the middle way of consumption of media.
The ARISE version of the Fifth Mindfulness Training reminds us that most of us have had inadequate education in the history of racial inequalities, and we need to learn the true history and then be aware of how this inequity shows up in many websites, TV shows, films, conversations, etc.
How might we blend the traditional training's suggestions not to consume toxins along with the ARISE suggestion to become more aware of the inequities built in to so much of the communication we consume?
How do we show up fully for the challenging present moment without falling into despair and without burying our heads in the sand?
We look forward to being with you on Monday.
The traditional Fifth Mindfulness Training:
Nourishment and Healing
Aware of the suffering caused by unmindful consumption, I am committed to cultivating good health, both physical and mental, for myself, my family, and my society by practicing mindful eating, drinking, and consuming. I will practice looking deeply into how I consume the Four Kinds of Nutriments, namely edible foods, sense impressions, volition, and consciousness. I am determined not to gamble, or to use alcohol, drugs, or any other products which contain toxins, such as certain websites, electronic games, TV programs, films, magazines, books, and conversations. I will practice coming back to the present moment to be in touch with the refreshing, healing and nourishing elements in me and around me, not letting regrets and sorrow drag me back into the past nor letting anxieties, fear, or craving pull me out of the present moment. I am determined not to try to cover up loneliness, anxiety, or other suffering by losing myself in consumption. I will contemplate interbeing and consume in a way that preserves peace, joy, and well-being in my body and consciousness, and in the collective body and consciousness of my family, my society and the Earth.
---- The ARISE (Awakening Through Racial, Intersectional and Social Equity) plus Plum Village version of the Fifth Mindfulness Trianing:
Welcoming as Nourishment and Healing
Aware of the suffering caused by the consumption of an inadequate history of racial and ethnic forms of social segregation, I am committed to healing myself and the world by welcoming and practicing with this awareness.
I will notice how my thoughts, perceptions, feelings, words, and actions may have been influenced by this inaccurate history. I will look deeply to understand how both physical and mental health, for myself, my family, and my society have been influenced by embracing and denying this racial, social, and ethnic history of inferiority and superiority and its legacy of inequities and injustices.
I will cultivate joy to support me toward individual and collective wholeness. I will practice mindfulness of the Four Kinds of Nutriments to become aware of how edible foods, sense impressions, volition, and consciousness are all influenced by this history. Practicing with Right Energy and Right Resolve, my Right Action of consumption will include awareness of certain websites, electronic games, TV programs, films, magazines, books, and conversations and how they continue to foster wrong perceptions of racial, ethnic, and social injustices.
My understanding of interbeing supports my conscious consumption that sustains a healthy understanding of differences, one that does not oppress or discriminate. This Right Insight will preserve peace, joy, and bring healing in my body and consciousness, and in the collective body and consciousness of my family, my society and the Earth. To assure that my descendants do not live in a racially, ethnically, and socially unjust world, I commit to diligently practicing with true welcoming on this path to nourish and heal myself, the sangha, and society.