Monday, May 1, we will meet online.
Need Zoom tech support? Email Phyllis here.
(support available before sangha starts)
On Monday Marie will facilitate and we will meet online on Zoom 7-8:30PM ET. This week will welcome folks who are new to us at 6:15 and offer some guidance on the flow of the evening.
Dear Thay, dear friends,
On Monday we will practice together and then read and explore our experience with the Five Remembrances, a verse recited regularly by Buddhists all over the world:
I am of the nature to grow old. There is no way to escape growing old.
I am of the nature to have ill-health. There is no way to escape having ill-health.
I am of the nature to die. There is no way to escape death.
All that is dear to me and everyone I love are of the nature to change. There is no way to escape being separated from them.
I inherit the results of my actions of body, speech, and mind. My actions are my continuation.
I have been caring for my elderly mother since November. She fell ill whilst visiting us and was in and out of hospitals and rehabilitation centers until last month, when she came to us to recuperate. After four months of “failing”, she began to thrive such that, last week, she returned to her home in Boston. During this same month, Nessie, our beloved dog (and my “second heartbeat”) went into decline, and we euthanized her (which sounds so final, and does/doesn’t feel that way).
Nessie has transitioned, and my mother is on her way. So am I.
Nessie’s passing was peaceful and pure. My mother’s feels mixed: sometimes complex and fraught and other times, full of ease and love. And mine…?
Until I sat down to write this, I had been focusing on my Mum and Nessie’s transitions. Implicitly, I had considered myself “fully alive” and not “on my way” to death. And now that I’m looking more deeply, I see that my passing is in my living. “My” living is their living. And their living and passing is also mine. Yet all of this is so easy for me to forget!
Hence this invitation to remember. On Monday night, you’re invited to share your experiences with impermanence, transitions, and interbeing.
How does it feel when you experience interbeing and/or the impermanence of life?
What helps you to remember that interbeing and impermanence are the essence of life?
What causes you to forget?
Has this changed over time, and if so, how?
I look forward to being together.
With love and a bow,
Marie