photo credit: Susie Baer
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Dear Friends,
This Monday, Susie will facilitate and we will recite the Five Mindfulness Trainings according to the Plum Village tradition. Our focus is on the First Mindfulness Training — Reverence for Life.
This day happens to be the 7th anniversary of the death of my birth father. Seven years ago, I facilitated at Monday night sangha. It was the day of his funeral, and it was fitting that I come to the place of comfort in our sangha. Holding the space for friends was a way for me to begin the grieving and healing process.
I still ponder the quality and integrity of my life process as somewhat of an orphan. How much do I have reverence for my own life, the life of my ancestors, the life of my descendants, the life of marginalized people, the life of my pet, a spider, a flower, a person I vehemently disagree with?
What makes us reverent?
I invite you to check in with yourself on this question:
How do I revere life…
• My own life
• My parents’ lives
• My offsprings’ lives
• Marginalized people’s lives
• My pet’s life
• A spider’s life
• A flower’s life
• The life of someone I vehemently disagree with?
Reflecting on the ARISE Sangha’s Contemplations of the Five Mindfulness Trainings, I am faced with the patriarchal messages that have shaped me. I struggle with how the relationship with male authority figures affects my self-confidence; my choice of words when I am making a request; the way I carry my physical body — slouching, or sucking in my stomach, or smiling or laughing when I say something serious. These are the challenges of a young woman growing up not feeling empowered. It is up to me to boost my confidence and practice positive self-talk. I hope with this awareness that I can lift others up to see what is good and beautiful and empowered within.
From The Five Mindfulness Trainings: A New Paradigm for Racial Justice and the Global Pandemic Recitation — ARISE Contemplations by Marisela Gomez and Valerie Brown
The Five Mindfulness Trainings
The Five Mindfulness Trainings keep us centered in life’s storms and joys and reminds us that life is a precious gift. The Trainings are a path to liberation and transformation. Practicing these Trainings supports us toward racial and ethnic reconciliation and social change and heals deep suffering. The Five Mindfulness Trainings help us cross this shore of suffering and brings us to the side of true awakening and love….We are called forward.
We recite the trainings regularly so that our study and practice of the mindfulness trainings can deepen day by day.
Reciting the trainings, practicing the way of awareness, gives rise to benefits without limit.
We vow to share the fruits with all beings.
We vow to offer tribute to parents, teachers, friends, and numerous beings,
who give guidance and support along the path.
First Mindfulness Training: Acknowledging Beauty as Reverence For Life
Aware of the suffering caused by oppression and generational harm based on racial, cultural, social, and ethnic inferiority and superiority and its resultant structures of injustices and harm, I acknowledge the beauty and violence inherent in life.
I vow to resist being complicit in systems and structures that continue to perpetuate violence and hatred instead of reverence of life for marginalized groups. I recognize that each person contributes to my individual and our collective awakening, and the co-creation of a world that celebrates and affirms differences and similarities. All living beings can teach me something when I remember to pause, breathe, listen deeply with a calm and open mind and heart, and ask myself: ”Is there more?” or “What else is here with me?” I honor and respect all life guided by Right View and Right Energy.
With love,
Susie