Monday, October 31, we will meet online.
Need Zoom tech support? Email Phyllis here.
(support available before sangha starts)
This is our last week of our month-long theme of exploring the practice of Engaged mindfulness, and practicing in ways to bring more peace, generosity, and compassion to the world.
This month, our sangha is supporting an organization called VOLAR (Village of Love and Resistance), a project to promote territorial justice for residents of East Baltimore by incorporating cooperative living with a community hub to include community wellness, job training, office space and community organizing and investment. All of the donations (dana) we receive this month will go to VOLAR.
"Generosity" is the title of the 13th mindfulness training of engaged Buddhism for Thich Nhat Hanh’s Order of Interbeing. The beginning of this training reads:
aware of the suffering caused by exploitation, social injustice, stealing and oppression, we are committed to cultivating generosity in our way of thinking, speaking, and acting. We will practice loving kindness by working for the happiness of people, animals, plants and minerals, and sharing out time, energy, and material resources with those who are in need.
I personally believe it is helpful to cultivate generosity in our seeing and listening. Much of my personal practice of generosity includes being there in person for those most vulnerable. It might mean bringing food and clothing to those in need, and listening to their stories, sharing a practice called craniosacral therapy for folks with PTSD, HIV, and cancer, or just seeing and saying hello to a stranger on the street who would appreciate a smile.
I shared this story in another sangha last week:
As I was rushing to see a brand new therapist downtown, I hastily walked past a homeless man in a wheelchair, who I had smiled to earlier. This time as I walked quickly by he shouted and swore - and I noticed he dropped his coffee or hot chocolate partly on his lap and mostly on the ground.
Instead of turning all the way around to see if I could help him - I continued walking fast - worrying about my appointment, not wanting to be late, and at the same time thinking I should stop and help. I continued to walk - wondering to myself why I wasn’t stopping.
As Marie talked about two weeks ago, I made a decision not to engage. Was it concern about all my suffering and caught up in my own despair, or was it fear that he was angry and might lash out at me? I'm still not sure. I know I was not feeling happy or peaceful, and didn't really want to engage in that moment with someone else who was also suffering. Thich Nhat Hanh (Thay) reminds us in Being Peace that "if we are not happy , if we are not peaceful, we can't share peace and happiness with others." Perhaps that is where I was in that moment - I couldn't bring understanding and peace to the gentleman I passed because I couldn't find it in myself.
I loved what Marie shared from Thay last week,
“...engaged practice has to do with your daily life, with your suffering and with the suffering of the people around you. You have to learn how to help a wounded child while still practicing mindful breathing. You should not allow yourself to get lost in action. Action should be meditation at the same time.”
When I got to my therapists office - I took time to care for myself and be more in touch with myself - I quieted, I cried, and I felt listened to and seen. My suffering was able to ease. I then had the capacity to really see the suffering of the gentleman I passed -- to act from a place of calm and mindfulness and know that I could perhaps help ease his suffering. As Thay might say - his suffering is my suffering, my happiness is his happiness. I didn't see the gentleman on the way home - but saw him in many other people as I walked by and my action/meditation was to smile at all of them.
This week, I invite you to explore the following:
-How might you act with compassion and still take care of yourself?
-In what ways do you practice listening, seeing, acting, speaking and how might this be a form of engaged practice?
-What other ways might you see engaged practice benefiting others as well as yourself?
I look forward to being with you on Monday night.
In love and peace,
Camille