Need Zoom tech support to join us? Email Phyllis here.
(support available before sangha starts)
Marie will facilitate on 8.23.21
Dear Thay, Dear friends,
We will start the evening with a guided meditation to settle our bodies and prepare for reading the Five Mindfulness Trainings.
After our recitation, we will focus our attention on the Third Mindfulness Training: “True Love” (in the traditional version) and “Cherishment as True Love” (in the ARISE version). Below, you will find both Trainings.
As I write these words, I’m sitting on my brother’s porch in Wilmington, North Carolina - a place I have visited for twenty years but only recently learned of its’ coup d’etat, wherein white supremacists overthrew a US government.
A stream of history - most of which I will never know - led to and is alive in this moment. How do I choose to respond, to be in this moment? I’m deeply grateful to the ARISE Trainings for reminding me of practices that used to feel incompatible. I now realize and experience how interdependent they are:
I am often unaware of how I have benefited or not benefited from systemic and structural inequities; AND
I want to practice “bold love that fosters justice and belonging AND tender love that seeks peace and connection;” AND
I cherish myself and my suffering without discrimination; AND
I cherish this body and mind as an act of healing for myself and for others; AND
I cherish this breath. I cherish this moment. AND
I cherish the liberation of all beings guided by the wisdom and solidity of the sangha.
This is my path of true love.
What strikes me, as I reflect on all of this, on my aspirations and on my ways of being, is the importance of sangha. When teaching about the Three Jewels - the Buddha, the Dharma (the Teachings of the Buddha), and the sangha (the community of practitioners) - Thay emphasizes the importance of sangha and sangha building:
“The Sangha can be described as a stream of life going in the direction of emancipation, joy, and peace. The only condition for us to enter the stream of the holy Sangha is that we practice. If we do, we will obtain “stream entrance” right away. This was the word used by the Buddha. If we embrace the practice of mindful living, we join the Sangha and enter the stream...It is not difficult. If you want to practice in a joyful way, build a Sangha where you are. The Sangha is your protection. It is the raft that will carry you to the shore of liberation. Without a Sangha, even with the best of intentions, your practice will falter. "I take refuge in the Sangha" is not a declaration of faith. It is a daily practice…”
Over the years, when the going has gotten really tough - whether personally or globally - the sangha was there, practicing. And whether I was physically present, virtually present or not - when the sangha was practicing, I was practicing. Through the sangha, my practice continues to be nourished and strengthened in ways that help me to pause, look deeply and, on a good day, practice bold and tender love. And, when I don’t, it helps me to remember to breath and to “cherish myself without discrimination.”
On Monday night, after reciting the Five Mindfulness Trainings, we’ll explore how the sangha supports our practice with the Third Mindfulness Training.
What parts of the Training are fulfilling and/or challenging?
When/how do you lean into the sangha body for support?
What makes this easier or harder?
How have your experiences with sangha changed over time?
I look forward to our being together - wherever you are.
With a warm bow,
Marie
Traditional Third Mindfulness Training: True Love
True Love
Aware of the suffering caused by sexual misconduct, I am committed to cultivating responsibility and learning ways to protect the safety and integrity of individuals, couples, families, and society. Knowing that sexual desire is not love, and that sexual activity motivated by craving always harms myself as well as others, I am determined not to engage in sexual relations without true love and a deep, long-term commitment made known to my family and friends. I will do everything in my power to protect children from sexual abuse and to prevent couples and families from being broken by sexual misconduct. Seeing that body and mind are one, I am committed to learning appropriate ways to take care of my sexual energy and cultivating loving kindness, compassion, joy and inclusiveness – which are the four basic elements of true love – for my greater happiness and the greater happiness of others. Practicing true love, we know that we will continue beautifully into the future.
ARISE Third Mindfulness Training: Cherishment as True Love
Aware of the suffering caused by discrimination and oppression, I vow to understand its roots within my consciousness and my body and the collective body of the sangha and larger society. I vow to recognize the ways in which I have benefitted or not-benefitted explicitly or implicitly from systems and structures that foster discrimination and injustice.
I am aware of the legacy of violence, especially unlawful police violence, perpetrated against Black people, indigenous people, people of color, differently abled people, people of various gender identities and expressions and sexual orientation, and others who are marginalized. I acknowledge the lived experience of all people to deepen my capacity for understanding and for greater compassionate action. I am aware that narrowly constructed, prevalent interpretations of intimate relationships constrain how we cherish each other in our expression of love, leaving many further isolated and alienated. I am committed to looking tenderly at my suffering, knowing that I am not separate from others and that the seeds of suffering contain the seeds of joy.
I am not afraid of bold love that fosters justice and belonging and tender love that seeks peace and connection. I cherish myself and my suffering without discrimination. I cherish this body and mind as an act of healing for myself and for others. I cherish this breath. I cherish this moment. I cherish the liberation of all beings guided by the wisdom and solidity of the sangha. This is my path of true love.