Monday, June 17, we will meet in person.
Address for OHMC meditation space:
3812 Northampton St. NW, Washington DC 20015
Please arrive a few minutes early so we can invite the bell on time. You may also arrive 15 minutes early to practice working meditation by helping us set up cushions.
Dear friends,
This week: we will meet Monday from 7-8:30PM EDT in person at our meditation space (3812 Northampton Street NW), Wednesday morning from 7-8AM EDT online, and Friday 12-1PM EDT in person.
Annie will facilitate Monday night. She shares:
We will read the Five Mindfulness Trainings together. Reading and practicing the trainings is a way to deepen our understanding of the world and our part in it.
This week after we read the trainings, we will focus on the First Mindfulness Training: Reverence for Life.
Aware of the suffering caused by the destruction of life, I am committed to cultivating the insight of interbeing and compassion and learning ways to protect the lives of people, animals, plants, and minerals. I am determined not to kill, not to let others kill, and not to support any act of killing in the world, in my thinking, or in my way of life. Seeing that harmful actions arise from anger, fear, greed, and intolerance, which in turn come from dualistic and discriminative thinking, I will cultivate openness, non-discrimination, and non-attachment to views in order to transform violence, fanaticism, and dogmatism in myself and in the world.
This training is a reminder that if we want to be a force of nonviolence and compassion in the world, we need to practice not making any person our enemy.
This training is important whether we are working with the ongoing wars in the world or an interpersonal issue. How do we continue to hold the truth that we cannot be separated from others, even those we vehemently disagree with?
Thich Nhat Hanh (Thay) spoke and wrote quite a bit about this. In his poem/song Alone Again, he writes (bold highlight is mine):
alone again I’ll go on
with bent head, but knowing
the immortality of love
and on the long rough road
both sun and moon will shine
promise me, promise me this day
while the sun is just over head
even as they strike you down
with mountain of hate and violence
remember brother
men is not our enemy
just your pity, just your love
invincible limitless
hatred will never let you face the beast in man
and one day when you face this beast alone
your courage intact, your eyes kind
out of your smile will bloom a flower
and those who love you will behold you
across ten thousand worlds of dying of dying and birth
alone again I’ll go on
with bent head but knowing
the immortality of love
and on the long rough road
both sun and moon will shine
lightning my way
On the societal level, I am practicing trying to hold the suffering of the Israelis and Palestinians, while also co-organizing a peace walk to bring attention to all of the killing and support an end to all violence.
On a personal level, I am practicing with a situation related to an old and dear friend of mine who did something that contributed to irreparable harm to my family. Since that happened, I have been practicing to not make her an enemy and it has been extremely challenging.
Because of my dedication to this practice, I have not given up. I know that all of my practice before and since this event contributes to my growing ability to not add more violence to an already difficult situation. I work with this situation daily by caring for my own suffering, sending my old friend metta, and trying to cultivate compassion by understanding how it must have been for her when she made those choices.
I trust that my understanding and my love will make a much more positive impact on the world than my anger and violence will–in both this personal situation and also in the wider world. As the First Mindfulness Training suggests, I can “cultivate openness, non-discrimination, and non-attachment to views in order to transform violence, fanaticism, and dogmatism in myself and in the world.”
Thay writes about the First Mindfulness Training in the book, For a Future to Be Possible:
It never helps to draw a line and dismiss some people as enemies, even those who act violently. We have to approach them with love in our hearts and do our best to help them move in a direction of nonviolence. If we work for peace out of anger, we will never succeed. Peace is not an end. It can never come about through non-peaceful means.
Most important is to become nonviolence, so that when a situation presents itself, we will not create more suffering. To practice nonviolence, we need gentleness, loving kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity directed to our bodies, our feelings, and other people.
After we read the trainings together, we will have time to share our own reflections on when we have made other people enemies, and when we have been able to hold onto our inner and outer peace and nonviolence, and what practices support this, or whatever else your heart wants to share with the sangha.
I look forward to seeing you then.
Warmly,
annie.