Homework

INFO AND RESOURCES FOR SEPTEMBER 13th MEETING

This month, we’ll examine white supremacy culture, and what goes into building anti-white supremacy culture.
To make the best use of our time together, we’ve asked you to please download and read Tema Okun’s article on the characteristics of white supremacy culture. IN ADDITION, please listen to this podcast in which Dan Harris interviews Resmaa Menakem (1 hour 18 minutes), and read Lyla June’s essay “The Vast and Beautiful World of Indigenous Europe”.

Just like last month, we’ll meet for two hours, with breaks. We’ll sit together; check-in about how race, racism, and whiteness have been in our awareness recently; connect about the personal challenges we face in confronting white supremacy; and set intentions for our individual work of uprooting racism and systemic oppression. As always, all are invited, regardless of their level of experience investigating race and whiteness. We look forward to seeing you there!

INFO AND RESOURCES FOR OCTOBER 11th MEETING

This month’s topic: what is action?

• Other than supporting (allying with) BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color*) what is the work of white people? What actions should we initiate-what actions are we responsible for? *There are pros/cons with this acronym that the article linked to discusses however the term is current in equity/inclusion work.
• At this moment in time, white people hear conflicting messages about what they should do, but how do we discover and do our work?

And because Tema Okun is a white woman who’s been doing this work for decades, prior to Sunday, please listen to this interview with her on the Finding Refuge podcast with Michelle Johnson.

INFO AND RESOURCES FOR NOVEMBER 8th MEETING

Our RESOURCE is the letter from the Sangha Life Committee about upcoming Sangha Circle meetings starting in January 2021. Please read before Sunday.

In light of the SL Committee’s work to help create a multicultural CIMC, we come to you with a question: how do we create warm, embodied culture within the White Awake Sangha (WAS)? What work do we want to do among ourselves?

We’re listening to Resmaa Menakem:
“We will not end white-body supremacy- or any other form of human evil- by trying to tear it to pieces. Instead, we can offer people better ways to belong, and better things to belong to. Instead of belonging to a race, we can belong to a culture. Each of us can also build our own capacity for genuine belonging.”

It’s both/and work. We do the internal work within WAS, and participate in the Sangha Life Circles to learn and listen for what’s needed to build a genuine welcoming culture at CIMC. But we have to begin the work within WAS.

Our framework is the same: meet in community for two hours, with breaks, meditate, connect in small breakout groups and in the larger group, review where our hearts are in this moment and set intentions for our individual work of uprooting racism and the work of building community at CIMC.

• How has perfectionism shown up in your life this month? As you think about the ways perfectionism has shown up for you – or about perfectionism in general – what bodily sensations, emotions, or images arise?
• How would you apply the antidotes to perfectionism* to the contexts that came to mind in response to the first question? What other opportunities to apply these antidotes exist in your life?

As usual, we’ll meet for two hours, with breaks, breakout groups, and opportunities for open discussion. All are invited, regardless of their level of experience investigating race and whiteness. Our goal is to build community as well as resilience, capacity, and commitment for the work of fighting systemic oppression in our hearts, communities, and (most especially) our beloved Center. We look forward to seeing you there!

*antidotes to perfectionism: develop a culture of appreciation, where the organization takes time to make sure that people’s work and efforts are appreciated; develop a learning organization, where it is expected that everyone will make mistakes and those mistakes offer opportunities for learning; create an environment where people can recognize that mistakes sometimes lead to positive results; separate the person from the mistake; when offering feedback, always speak to the things that went well before offering criticism; ask people to offer specific suggestions for how to do things differently when offering criticism; realize that being your own worst critic does not actually improve the work, often contributes to low morale among the group, and does not help you or the group to realize the benefit of learning from mistakes

INFO AND RESOURCES FOR JANUARY 10th MEETING

• How has perfectionism shown up in your life this month? As you think about the ways perfectionism has shown up for you – or about perfectionism in general – what bodily sensations, emotions, or images arise?
• How would you apply the antidotes to perfectionism* to the contexts that came to mind in response to the first question? What other opportunities to apply these antidotes exist in your life?

As usual, we’ll meet for two hours, with breaks, breakout groups, and opportunities for open discussion. All are invited, regardless of their level of experience investigating race and whiteness. Our goal is to build community as well as resilience, capacity, and commitment for the work of fighting systemic oppression in our hearts, communities, and (most especially) our beloved Center. We look forward to seeing you there!

Addendum (1/11):

After the events of Wednesday, January 6, we decided to pivot from using our first breakout group to explore perfectionism and claim some space for embodied anti-racist practice time to register our physical responses to Wednesday’s attack on the Capitol.

The prework for today’s White Awake Sangha is to listen to this Minnesota Public Radio news program hosted by Angela Davis with guests Resmaa Menakem, BraVada Garrett-Akinsanya, and Qorsho Hassa.

The prompts for the first breakout room will be as follows:

• Recall the images and sounds of a predominantly white angry mob storming the Capitol in support to Trump’s attempts to overturn the election.
• Notice if the muscles are relaxed or tight, the quality of the breath, deep or shallow? What’s the heart rate like, has it sped up, slowed down or stayed the same?
• You may experience sensations, impulses, emotions or images in your body. If you did, please describe them.
• Or you may not feel anything. If so, what does this lack of feeling feel like… numbness, blankness, perhaps like you’re not quite in your body?
• Notice if you have the impulse to fight, flee or freeze? Or if you want to shut down and override what you’re experiencing?
• Is there a movement or sound your body would like to make that might help you discharge some of the unwanted energy? Please explore this movement or make this sound.
• Notice any felt shift in your body. Do you still feel like you did at the beginning, or did something in you settle or become more present?

• How has urgency shown up in your life this month? As you think about the ways perfectionism has shown up for you – or about perfectionism in general – what bodily sensations, emotions, or images arise?
• How would you apply the antidotes to urgency to the contexts that came to mind in response to the first question? What other opportunities to apply these antidotes exist in your life?

As usual, we’ll meet for two hours, with breaks, breakout groups, and opportunities for open discussion. All are invited, regardless of their level of experience investigating race and whiteness. Our goal is to build community as well as resilience, capacity, and commitment for the work of fighting systemic oppression in our hearts, communities, and (most especially) our beloved Center. We look forward to seeing you there!

INFO AND RESOURCES FOR MARCH 14th MEETING

This month, we’ll continue our year-long investigation of white supremacy culture, working in an embodied way with defensiveness and its antidotes (described below). In breakout groups, we will discuss the following questions, which many of you will get to explore a second time:

• How has defensiveness shown up in your life this month? As you think about the ways defensiveness has shown up for you – or about defensiveness in general – what bodily sensations, emotions, or images arise?
• How would you apply the antidotes to defensiveness (as shown below) to the contexts that came to mind in response to the first question? What other opportunities to apply these antidotes exist in your life?

As usual, we’ll meet for two hours, with breaks, breakout groups, and opportunities for open discussion. All are invited, regardless of their level of experience investigating race and whiteness. Our goal is to build community as well as resilience, capacity, and commitment for the work of fighting systemic oppression in our hearts, communities, and (most especially) our beloved Center. We look forward to seeing you there!

*****

Defensiveness in white supremacy culture (as described by Tema Okun):

• The organizational structure is set up and much energy spent trying to prevent  abuse and protect power as it exists rather than to facilitate the best out of  each person or to clarify who has power and how they are expected to use it
• Because of either/or thinking (see below), criticism of those with power is  viewed as threatening and inappropriate (or rude)
• People respond to new or challenging ideas with defensiveness, making it  very difficult to raise these ideas
• A lot of energy in the organization is spent trying to make sure that people’s  feelings aren’t getting hurt or working around defensive people • white people spend energy defending against charges of racism instead of  examining how racism is actually happening
• Leaders perceive calls for change as personal attacks (because if they were  leading in the “right” way, then nothing would need to change); their defensiveness creates an oppressive culture where people feel they cannot  make suggestions or when they do, these are ignored

Antidotes to Defensiveness:

• understand that structure cannot in and of itself facilitate or prevent abuse
• understand the link between defensiveness and fear (of losing power, losing face, losing comfort, losing privilege)
• work on your own defensiveness
• name defensiveness as a problem when it is one
• give people credit for being able to handle more than you think
• discuss the ways in which defensiveness or resistance to new ideas gets in the way of the mission
• support yourself and others to avoid taking things personally

INFO AND RESOURCES FOR APRIL 11th MEETING

This month, we’ll use our time together to honor and mourn those murdered in Atlanta, and to explore our embodied responses to the recent surge of anti-Asian violence and Mel Cherng’s letter to the CIMC leadership. We’ll also reflect on our own relationships (as white Buddhists) to Asian and Asian American individuals and communities, and to the Asian lineages that have preserved Buddhist practices over the centuries.

To prepare for our time together, please read the following prompts and reflect on one or two that feel alive for you over the next couple of weeks:

1. Explore the bodily sensations, emotions, and thoughts that have arisen in response to the March 16th shooting deaths of 6 Asian-American women and 2 non-Asian people in Georgia.
2. What do you know about: The Asian lineages from which your practice(s) is (are) derived? Asian American Buddhist communities? The Asian American community at CIMC? You might take some time to investigate these communities. What, if any, is your relationship to these communities? What sensations arise with these contemplations?
3. Attend to the sensations, feelings, images, or ideas that arise when you reflect on the fact that Asian cultures birthed, raised, protected, and cultivated Buddhist teachings and practices, long before there were “white” Buddhists.
4. What sensations arise when you contemplate or engage in devotional or merit-making practices?

Please also spend some time with the following resources:

https://tricycle.org/trikedaily/asian-american-erasure-buddhism/
https://tricycle.org/podcast/japanese-buddhism-internment/
https://www.lionsroar.com/weve-been-here-all-along/
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/04/05/5-facts-about-buddhists-around-the-world/
https://www.pewforum.org/2012/07/19/asian-americans-a-mosaic-of-faiths-overview/

1. Sit every day. Try sitting for a minimum of 15-30 minutes per day. More if you are able. Please practice your meditation in silence.
2. Formal Practice: Standing & Walking: Practice standing meditation at least once in your day. Practice walking meditation at least once during the day as you move through the world.
3. Gratitude Practice: Text or e-mail your 2 or 3 buddies from the workshop 3 things you are grateful for each day. Can be anything!
4. Intention: Remember your intention, dedication or vow. If you haven’t completed writing it please do so and store it in a special or safe place. Read it as often as you wish and/or read or recollect your intention before sitting & throughout your day.
5. Pause. Stop-Tune into your heart. That is where love, wisdom, grace & compassion reside. With loving attention, feel what matters most to you. Yes, there maybe anxious thoughts, worry, grief, trauma, but don’t let your heart be colonized by fear. Take time to quiet the mind & tend to the heart. Go out or go to a window & look at the sky. Breathe in & open yourself to the vastness of space. Sense the seasons turning. Breathe out & rest in loving awareness. Practice Steadiness & Equanimity-Learn from the trees. Learn from Nature-They are still in the center of it all- They are nature-You are nature. Be still in the center of it all. Do this as often as you like.  -Jack Kornfield with tiny changes
6. When the Buddha spoke about the Four Noble Truths, he stated what they were: the truth of suffering, the truth of the origin of suffering, the truth of the cessation of suffering & the truth of the way out of suffering by means of the eightfold noble path.
7. The 1st activity in relationship to the Four Noble Truths:
   Is the instruction to understand suffering, to study it, to get to know it really well. Some will complain that, by studying suffering, dukkha is kind of pessimistic. But the purpose of focusing on suffering is to understand it so that we can be free from the causes of suffering, so that we can be truly at ease or happy.a) Explore Dukkha, the meaning of dukkha. The truth of dukkha. Contemplate the First Noble Truth- that there is discontent, unsatisfactoriness, sorrow, anguish, in life. The Buddha said, Come & see, take a look at the nature of the body, heart, mind-investigate for ourselves. “one abides contemplating dhammas –here, the first noble truth- internally, externally, and both. So we investigate how we actually experience dukkha, internally, in ourselves and externally, in the world”How do you experience Dukkha? Birth is Dukkha,, sickness is Dukkha, Aging is Dukkha, Death is Dukkha. Pain, grief, despair are Dukkha. To be separated from the pleasant is Dukkha. To be united with unpleasant is Dukkha. To not get what one wants is Dukkha. Check it out—Is this so? “whatever is felt is Dukkha” (unsatisfactory, unreliable, uneaseful-due to the changing nature of all things)b) Ask: what allows me to open to Dukkha? What stops me from opening to Dukkha? Remember: we can open to the painful experience in the mind & body-we are investigating & realizing the 1st NT for ourselves The Buddha said, “Here one knows, as it really is-“this is dukkha”. Remember this exploration brings two great results. It is the gateway to awakening & the arising & nourishing of compassion.
8. Just start to contemplate the Second Noble Truth. Explore the cause of dukkha, which is craving. What is craving & how do we experience it?  Thirst-craving-clinging, grasping, desire-endlessly wanting – something more or different from what’s there. This is the human condition. That’s what moves us forward: Thirst-craving, grasping, clinging & desiring something that isn’t there) .”Oh,, as soon as I HAVE  this kind of craving-grasping, PURSUING very quickly after that, I HAVE You can ask yourself: What allows me to open to, to get to know Craving? What stops me from following Craving? (we will explore this more next class)
9. Please text or e-mail or call your buddies once a week and share what you have leaned. Don’t forget this is the middle path and it’s ok to HAVE FUN!

1. Sit every day. Try sitting for a minimum of 15-30 minutes per day. More if you are able. Please practice your meditation in silence.
2. Formal Practice: Standing & Walking: Practice standing meditation at least once in your day. Practice walking meditation at least once during the day as you move through the world.
3. Gratitude Practice: Text or e-mail your 2 or 3 buddies from the workshop 3 things you are grateful for each day. Can be anything!
4. Intention: Remember your intention, dedication or vow. Read it as often as you wish and/or read or recollect your intention before sitting & throughout your day.
5. Practice Pausing!
6. The 1st activity in relationship to the Four NobleTruths:
   Is the instruction to understand suffering, to study it, to get to know it really well.
   Continue opening to Dukkha and learning about Dukkha!NEW HOMEWORK BELOW:
7. **The 2nd activity is to contemplate the 2^nd Noble Truth: Continue to explore the cause of dukkha, craving, clinging to sensual pleasures, for becoming or  renewed existence & for on-existence.  The activity is to begin to abandon, let go of that craving, that compulsivity. It’s humbling to pay attention to what goes on in the mind. Explore clinging & your responses to clinging: (some ways below)
   • Clinging to sensual pleasure. Do you see that relationship? If desire for sensual pleasures arise, is it harmless & pain free or does that desire cause you suffering? Do you crave the avoidance of discomfort or to be comfortable?
   • Be aware of clinging to views, opinions & to stories. Stories: “who I am, what happened to me, what is going to happen to me, what needs to happen to me, who other people are, what they are like.” These are stories, views & opinions. Investigate, when they are present, if your response adds to your suffering.
   • Get to know clinging to self-identity, self-image—the whole megillah we build up around this idea of self. Is there attachment? You are not expected not to have a self or not to be a self. But the clinging to self, the attachment to self, is one of the causes of Dukkha. Is this so?
   • **What is your response to the cause of Dukkha? Who’s fault is it? Who did this? This shouldn’t be happening to me! Let’s pretend this isn’t happening or trying to fix things, in order to make it go away. Get to know the ways that you compound suffering. Is it possible, that there is another response to craving, to wanting something to be different then it is? Is it possible that Dukkha & it’s causes can be to responded to- with kindness, tenderness, caring, coming close to Dukkha, offering ease or spaciousness? The heart of the teaching is the encouragement to understand, realize, our capacity for creativity, growing inwardly, heart-fullness, for inner ease, freedom, to walk this path to liberation!
8. The 3rd Noble Truth states that there is an end suffering. The truth that dukkha can come to an end. There is the cessation of sorrow in clear seeing. The ease that comes from releasing, letting go of craving, clinging is the experience of this Noble Truth. Inner freedom appears when we let go, when we live in the reality of the present. Sorrow arises when the mind & heart are caught in greed, hatred, delusion. (Our tendencies are pushing away our experience, grasping it, struggling with it, making something out of it, or becoming it.)  And then we have a moment of clear seeing- we see that we are reacting in habitual ways, we let go or let things be. Freedom appears in their absence. Freedom manifests as ease, love, generosity connectedness, clarity. (just some ways)  Cession is easeful! It is an end to craving, clinging, grasping, attachment even in a moment.  Remember, Ajahn Buddhadasa said, “There’s no difference between the absence of greed, hatred, & delusion for a moment or for a lifetime.” Freedom is only found here & now.-
   We can experience what the Buddha taught: suffering, the cause of the suffering, & the release of suffering. Get to know this direct & immediate experience of freedom!  Check it out!
9. Please text or e-mail or call your buddies once a week and share what you have learned. Don’t forget this is the middle path and it’s ok to HAVE FUN!

1. Sit every day. Sit 15-30 minutes per day. More if you are able. Practice in silence.
2. Formal Practice: Standing & Walking: Practice standing & walking meditation
3. Gratitude Practice: Text, e-mail your buddies 3 things you are grateful for daily
4. Intention: Remember your intention, dedication or vow.
5. Practice Pausing!
6. The Fourth Noble Truth-The way out of suffering is to follow the Noble Eightfold Path, which consists of Right/Wise View, Right/Wise Intention, Right/Wise Speech, Right/Wise Actions, Right/Wise Livelihood, Right/Wise Effort, Right/Wise Mindfulness & Right/Wise Concentration. To follow the Noble Eightfold Path is to practice the Buddha Path to liberation from suffering. “The safe and good path leading to happiness is the Noble Eightfold Path.”– the Buddha (MN 19.26)
7. Wise View: “What is right view? Knowledge of suffering, knowledge of the origin of suffering, knowledge of the cessation of suffering, knowledge of path leading to the cessation of suffering – this is called right view.” – The Buddha (MN 141.24)
   The 4NT’s are perspectives we can adopt for finding greater freedom & happiness.
   • If we want to suffer less, it helps to notice when we are suffering (1st NT);
   • it is all too easy to be distracted from suffering by other preoccupations. It is also useful to discover the attachments that create the suffering (2nd NT) so we can begin to let go of them.
   • The point of view that it is possible to let go of these attachments fully and so end the suffering (3rd NT) gives direction and encouragement for the practice to do so.
   • And finally, knowing a way to create the appropriate conditions for freeing ourselves from our clinging (4th NT) orients us to the practices that help.
8. Reflections: Take time to reflect on these questions.
   Inventory of views: Spend the first week noticing the primary views, orientations, or beliefs you live by. What role do these have in your life? What is your relationship to them? Do you believe them? Why? Which views do you have that are not beneficial for you? Which views are beneficial?
   Keeping ease in view: The second week notice the times you have a relative sense of ease. Notice how a sense of ease might be different from relaxation. Notice also the small moments of ease that might appear briefly throughout your day, perhaps even in stressful times. If you know how to bring more ease into your life, this week, do what you can to do so. What do you learn from this focus on ease? What does it highlight about your lack of ease?
   Reflecting on Liberation: The third week: Notice, what beliefs do you have about Liberation or Awakening? Are any of these beliefs obstacles to practicing on the path of liberation? How important is the possibility of reducing or ending suffering for you? Are you motivated by other goals that may interfere with over-coming suffering? What ordinary or small experiences of liberation from suffering do you have in your daily life? What role can these have in supporting your practice?
9. Please text or e-mail or call your buddies once a week and share what you have learned. Don’t forget this is the middle path and it’s ok to HAVE FUN!

The Four Noble Truths – April-Homework- ****Read HW- Practices have stars ****

• *Sit every day. Sit 15-30 minutes per day. More if you are able. Practice in silence.
• Formal Practice: Standing & Walking: Practice standing & walking meditation
• *Gratitude Practice: Text, e-mail your buddies 3 things you are grateful for daily
• Intention: Remember your intention, dedication or vow.
• *Practice Pausing!

 **** NEW HOMEWORK BELOW: Read & Reflections HW have stars****

1. **NEW HW:** Reflections & Practices: Take time to reflect on these questions.
   Lust & Renunciation: The first week:
   • Give yourself time to notice & reflect on the role of lust in your life.
   For this purpose consider lust as any strong desire or compulsion for sensual pleasure of any kind. How much time do you spend thinking about & wanting sensual pleasure? What forms of sensual pleasure are you most motivated by?
   How does your desires for sensual pleasure affect you?
   • Spend an equal amount of time considering what benefits might be available to you if you let go of attachments to sensual pleasure you may have.
   What helpful intentions might you want to use to replace intentions connected to sensual pleasure? When you do pursue sensual pleasures, what other wise intentions can guide this pursuit? In what ways can ease & simplicity help you understand the benefits of renunciation?

   Ill-Will & Goodwill: The second week:
   • Give yourself time to notice & reflect on the role of ill-will & aversion in your life. How frequently are you aversive? In what conditions are you more likely to be aversive? How does aversion & ill-will affect you & your behavior?
   • Also reflect on your relationship to goodwill, kindness, & loving-kindness.
   How often do you have goodwill for others? Are you motivated to have more goodwill? Spend time actively intending goodwill to others. How does this affect you?

   Hostility & Compassion: The third week :
   • Give yourself time to reflect on how hostility appears in your life? It may be useful to consider expressions of anger & irritation towards others or yourself as forms of hostility. Do your actions and/or words cause harm, even in minor ways, to others? If so, spend time reflecting-how does reflecting on this affect you?
   • Also reflect on your relationship to compassion. What role has compassion had in your life, both in receiving it & in having it for others? During this week, look for opportunities to have compassion. Spend time staying with any compassion you might be feeling. How does it feel to be compassionate? How might it benefit you if you cultivated more compassion?
   
   **Loving-kindness & Compassion: The fourth week:
   • Loving Kindness Practice:
   Practice a period of Loving kindness meditation every day. In addition, as you go about your day, periodically intend loving- kindness toward people you encounter. Find ways to act on intentions of kindness toward others.

2. • Compassion Practice:
   Look for opportunities to act compassionately. Notice how this affects you. In what ways can you act compassionately so that you feel more easeful & perhaps less clinging? How can compassion serve as a support to your inner freedom?
3. **Please text or e-mail or call your buddies once a week and share what you have lerned from above.
4. **Please HAVE FUN!

“Coming Home”   1^st session

Homework: 1). Daily meditation practice: 15-20” or more
5-10” is better than none
Stop/pause during the day to come home to awareness
2) Contemplation of a phrase or word from today’s talk
eg: “grace,” “grace of diminishment,” “heart of compassion,” etc.

1) Elder years most heroic.
How we respond to these challenges is the growing edge of our practice. An invitation, an opportunity, a challenge

2) Wisdom treasure from Teilhard de Chardin
In younger years, we’re invited to “divinize one’s activities.”
In later years, invited to “divinize –make sacred– one’s passivities.”  Seeing the sacred in the commonplace
“In my younger years, I thanked God for my expanding, growing life, but now in my later years, when I find my physical powers growing less, I thank God also for what I call the grace of diminishment.”

3)  Importance of lightness of being: a sense of humor
Ram Dass at 85 after massive stroke
“This is aging… Wow! It’s all new. It’s all new… sh…ah…
Every change in your body shows you are attached to the past
I send love to my painful foot and pay attention to my spiritual practices
My body is like having an old Ford car. The body is your conveyance on this plane but our souls meet on another plane.”

4) Four heavenly messengers: birth, old age, sickness, & death
Started his journey toward liberation
Challenges us to look for deeper meaning in process of aging
We are a holy mystery –  Our essence/core is pure awareness

Ajahn Lee (monk in Thai Forest tradition): “Aging, sickness and death are treasures for those who understand them. They’re noble truths, noble treasures, if they were people, I’d bow down to their feet everyday.”

To understand his statement, we need the two truths in Buddhism:
Relative reality  is the world as we know it. The world of duality,
subject/oject, pain/pleasure, the 10K joys and sorrows of life
Ultimate reality is beyond concepts, the absolute nature of all things,
the unconditioned, the mystery.  Called God in theistic traditions.

Ajahn Lee’s statement is pointing ot the mysteries of life and death.
Challenges us to open our minds to other dimensions of reality,
seeing beyond this dualistic world., to ultimate truth

5) Elders as pathfinders or wayshowers:  Joan Halifax
“The wisdom that we need to solve our problems lies encoded in the depths of our unconscious minds, but it must be evoked by Elders who reveal our potentials. Without realized models to evoke our archetypal depths, we are literally lost in the world. We have no map; we have no guide; we have no song. Throughout history, elders have served as beloved pathfinders, beckoning us to enter the province of old age in anticipation of growing strength and usefulness to society.”

6) Words of Dogen  (13^th C Japanese Zen master)
“You can understand all of Buddhism, but you can’t go beyond your abilities and your intelligence unless you have robai-shin, grandmother mind, the mind of great compassion.”
Through our brokenness, compassion and loving kindness arise
Compassion—an all-embracing love, ultimate fruit of our practice

Meditation: Coming home to pure awareness

Excerpt from a dharma friend’s writing:
“We’re preparing for both life and death through finding a place of rest in the middle of awareness, in the middle of experience. We can call that place Home, and keep re-arriving there.”

Daily practice 15-20 minutes.  Shorter is better than none
Play with “pause practice” or “awareness pause,” 3-4 x a day
Pause practice: 1) Stop or pause  2) Soften eyes, let them widen into panoramic vision 3) Take three slow, full breaths as you 4) open to awareness without an object
These are sacred moments of pure being, pure awareness

Aging with Wisdom, read short section ”Pure Perception” and several other “Wisdom Treasures”

Talk: Reflections on Awareness and Practice
Four heavenly messengers:  old age, sickness, death and the wandering contemplative
Buddha realized there is freedom beyond suffering—an end to suffering
Propelled his journey to enlightenment

How we relate to story? Possibility for us & where practice leads
How we find meaning in suffering
Our practice give us means to answer that question

Practice: constantly evolving, changing; personal, mysterious
Three main elements: 1) Daily meditation practice
2) Integrating meditative awareness/mindfulness into daily life
3) Retreats: both guided or solo retreats

Several generalizations:
Buddha compared this process to refining gold: inspiring image
We slowly purify mind/heart of its obstacles/kilesas,
Gradual process of transformation: leads to more sustained periods of concentration, deeper levels of absorption/samadhi
Everything depends on how we respond to what arises
We notice how positive qualities sustain & support us: equanimity, patience, trust, confidence, metta, compassion, Refuge. at beginning, dedication at the end
HH Dalai Lama’s bodhisattva prayer: aspiration & practice for all

Daily practice: dharma reading, movement, yoga stretches, waking up the spine/breath. Embodied practices affect the quality of meditation
Meditation: “choiceless awareness” or “open awareness”
A non-referential practice. (No focus as in breath, mantra, etc.)
Dwelling in pure awareness; aware of what’s arising moment to moment
Objects arise in awareness –sounds, sensations, feelings, thoughts
Return to awareness without an object. Open awareness. Subtle

Indescribable awareness sometimes described as having 3 qualities: empty essence (shunyata), lucid, and compassionate

Mingyur Rinpoche’s book In Love with the World: A Monk’s Journey Through the Bardo of Living and Dying
“Awareness is the essence of our existence. It is within our reach all the time, and yet most of us do not recognize that.”

 “Mind the gap” Gap between thoughts, emotions, perceptions
Mind is liberated from its misperceptions

“What we call the gap refers to a fleeting moment of naked awareness, a split-second opening that introduces us to our original mind and provides a taste of freedom from confusion.”  Mingyur Rinpoche

Most important: to discover what practice most suits you

Pause practice or Awareness pause
How do you come home to yourself?
Remembering…  “Remembrance is Bhairava”   (aphorism)
Bhairava is the name of the Lord  (Sanskrit)
Remembrance is a sacred moment
Finding the sacred in everyday life; in the smallest moments, in the simplest things. A secret pratice, beckoning you at any moment.

Daily practice 15-20 minutes.  Shorter is better than none
Play with “pause practice” or “awareness pause,” 3-4 x a day
Pause practice: 1) Stop or pause  2) Soften eyes, let them widen into panoramic vision 3) Take three slow, full breaths as you 4)  open to awareness without an object
These are sacred moments of pure being, pure awareness

Aging with Wisdom, read  “A New Vision” and “The Unbroken”

Awakening: a gradual unfolding of consciousness as kleshas, attachment to self,   etc. gradually lessen and dissolve.

Enlightenment: shift in consciousness that transforms one’s view of life
Enlightened ones still experience suffering (pain, dying) but their relationship to it has been transformd. They’re free from suffering at level of mind/heart

Teachings encourage us to remember:
We all have potential for enlightenment — the seed of liberation within us
          Meditation is time honored way to realize that

Some perspectives on dealing with suffering
Our first response to suffering or adversity is usually aversion, but teachings regard suffering as filled with potential.
Slogan from “Five Points of Mind Training”
“When the world seems full of darkness, transform difficulty into the path of awakening.”

Suffering is knocking at door of our awareness, inviting us to wake up
This is how we find meaning in suffering: compassion opens us
Compassion — most precious experience of love & connection

1) Grace & Grit: Spirituality & Healing in Life & Death of Treya Killam Wilbur
Realization: her suffering connected her to all dealing with cancer & opened heart of compassion

2) Our shared intention to live with Alzheimer’s: “loving and consciously.”
A guiding mantra for how to live with any illness

3) “This is in the natural order of things.” Acceptance of things as they are

4) Meta perspectivie“Grace of diminishment.”Hallowing diminishments

5) “You must become a chaos to give birth to a dancing star.” Neitzsche

How we meet suffering in our lives
Instead of contraction, wisdom encourages us to open
Acceptance & aspiration: may this suffering open my heart w. compassion for       myself and all others

4 steps for dealing with feelings:  “Befriending feelings” or  “handshake practice”
1) Opening to the feeling
2) Notice where feeling manifests in the body
3) breathe space into & around feeling. Surround it with warm acceptance
In breath: “may I/all beings  be well”
Outbreath: “may I/all being be free”
4) Fully opening & accepting our feelings; doorway to compassion

How we meet suffering is one of the keys to awakening
“Our sorrows and wounds are healed only when we touch them with compassion.” Jack Kornfield

“That is what compassion does. It challenges our assumptions, our sense of self-limitation, worthlessness, of not having a place in the world. As we develop compassion, our hearts open.” Sharon Salzberg

Announcement: No meeting next week 3/5 but added 5/2 instead

Homework:
Daily practice: 15-20” or more.
Awareness pauses: 1) stop/pause 2) awareness of body 3) three awareness breaths – open awareness without an object

“Knowing Your Refuges” from Aging with Wisdom

Refuge and creating a field of support
Refuge: Pandemic has been called “the Great Teacher.”
Knowing our refuges: more important than ever
Especially important for us as elders

Two key questions:
What do you turn to when challenged
Where do you place your trust?

3 kinds of refuge: outer, inner, and innermost
Outer refuges:

1) The triple refuge: Buddha, dharma, sangha
Invitation to discover depths of meaning in these 3 words

2) Refuge in nature:  (includes pets!)

“Ten thousand flowers in Spring, the moon in autumn,
A cool breeze in summer, snow in winter.
If your mind isn’t clouded by unnecessary things,
This is the best season of your life.”
–Wu Men (13th century Chinese poet)

Inner refuges:
3) Refuge in short prayer:
“Three mindful breaths”    “Awareness pause” “Thy will be done”

Personal refuge prayer: “For the sake of all, I take refuge in spaciousness, pure awareness, and boundless compassion which is the nature of everyone’s mind.”

H.H. Dalai Lama’s Bodhisattva prayer
This is generating the mind of enlightenment

With a wish to free all beings
I shall always go for refuge
to the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha
until I reach full enlightenment.

Enthused by wisdom and compassion,
today in the Buddha’s presence
I generate the Mind for Full Awakening
for the benefit of all sentient beings.

As long as space endures,
as long as sentient being remain,
until then, may I too remain
and dispel the miseries of the world.

4) Refuge in mantra: “the word that protects” Buddho
Om Mani Padme Hung; “Jewel in the heart of the
lotus” – the heart, center of awakening, not mind

5) Refuge in the breath

Innermost refuges:
6) Ultimate refuge: meditation
7) Subtlest:  refuge in pure awareness

Creating a field of support  (practice from Mahayana Buddhism)
“Aging is not merely about the body losing its poise, strength, and self-trust. Aging also invites you to become aware of the sacred circle that surrounds your life.”  John O’Donohue from AnamCara

Create that sacred circle, field of support, a blessing field
One aspect of refuge is learning to lean on others, to relax into
knowing/trusting that we are not alone.
Affirmation of love, kindness, and support we’ve received through our life. These are your benefactors.

Receptive meditation
Those with whom you felt safe, protected, connected
Their openness, kindness, acceptance and unconditional love —
This is a blessing field.

Homework:
Daily practice 15-20 minutes.  Shorter is better than none
Play with “pause practice” or “awareness pause,” 3-4 x a day
Pause practice: 1) Stop or pause
2) Soften eyes, let them widen into panoramic vision
3) Come into awareness of the body. Take three slow, full breaths as you
4)  Open to awareness without an object
These are sacred moments of pure being, pure awareness

Aging with Wisdom  Read section “Passages: Dying into Life”

Talk Notes: Passages: Dying into Life  or   The Secret of Living & Dying     

Today’s session is dedicated to CIMC dharma teacher Ron Denhardt

Story: Another CIMC dharma teacher asked Ron how to reply to her 4 year old’s questions about death.
“I would tell her death is like a butterfly that we transform into something beautiful and vast that is love. That love is always available and here. It holds us no matter where we are. If you remember a time when you felt deeply loved, then that love will come to you always.

I would tell her death is different for everyone, but for many it is a joyful realization that we are pure love.”

Buddha said:  “Of all meditations, that on death is supreme.” He taught that remembeing death should be a central part of one’s practice.

Five Remembrances
The Buddha: “ These are the five facts one should reflect on whether one is a woman or a man, lay or ordained. They will help you to remember your true nature of no birth and no death.”
That phrase, “your true nature of no birth, no death” points to possibility of freedom from suffering, an ultimate freedom, liberation

5 Remembrances: all reflections on impermanence – foremost Buddhist teaching
(This is Thich Nhat Hanh’s version)

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 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.
My actions (karma) are my only true belongings, the ground upon which I stand.

Guided meditation: Another way to approach this essential teaching about the realities of life

Breathing in, I’m aware of aging and becoming old
Breathing out, I give thanks for this calm breath

Breathing in, I’m aware that I’ll have ill health
Breathing out, gratitude for this moment deepens

Breathing in, I’m aware that all sentient beings will die
Breathing out, I marvel at life’s impermanence

Breathing in, I realize the certainty of separation & change
Breathing out, I cherish this fleeting moment

Breathing in, I am accountable for all of my actions
Breathing out, I accept how every action shapes our lives

Buddha reminds us: “When one perceives impermanence, the perception of not-self is established. With the perception of not-self, the conceit of “I” is eliminated, and this is nirvana (liberation) here and now.”   

 Conclusion: Ram Dass at his final teaching
“He said over and over again, ‘I am loving awareness,’ and everyone softly repeated it. When we got to the end, his head dropped; his body slumped in his wheelchair.”
Mirabai Bush, another teacher present, asked if he wanted to say anything more.
“I didn’t think he’d say anything, but he gave me this brilliant, mischievous smile, and he just waved his hand, and all 400 people waved back. So he waved again. And they waved again. And he said, ‘I am conducting a symphony of love.”

Ram Dass said the secret of dying is the same as the secret of living: “It’s to be fully and lovingly present in the moment.”  

Love and Grief: Session 6

Homework:
Daily practice 15-20 minutes.  Shorter is better than none
Set a timer so you don’t have to be concerned about time.
Begin with the clear intention to give your full, dedicated attention to this precious time.
1) Start with awareness of the body: 4-5 slow, deep abdominal breaths, slightly extending the out breath. Notice the slight pause at the end of the outbreath
2) Do a brief body scan letting go any tension, tightness, or discomfort the outbreath
3) Come to breath, following it either at the abdomen, chest, or nostrils — wherever feels most natural to you.
4) Rest in awareness, very open and receptive. Naturally thoughts continue to arise, but when you notice wandering, bring your attention back to the breath.

During the day, play with “pause practice” or “awareness pause,” 3-4 x daily
Pause practice: 1) Stop or pause  2) Drop your awareness into the body. 3) Soften eyes, let them widen into panoramic vision 4) Take three slow, full breaths as you 5)  open to awareness without an object
These are sacred moments of pure being, pure awareness

Reading:
Aging with Wisdom, “Bleached Bone” and “The Unbroken” by Rashani Rea

Notes from talk: Love and Grief:  the threshold between them.
Grief expressed about planetary situation and times of precipitous change
Question: how are you dealing with this? Where does your practice come in?
**Invitation to find new ground. What might this be for you?
We need to find our own inner ground. Cultivate equanimity, resilience

Reflections on Grief & Love
Credits: Opening to Grief; finding your way from loss to peace – Claire Willis and Marnie Crawford
Frank Ostasecki The Five Invitations: Discovering what Death can Teach us about Living Fully

 1) General: Opening to/embracing our sorrow: lifelong practice.
David Brooks, NYT columnist. Asked readers how they’re doing
“Heart rending and gutting….Everyone, young and old feel vulnerable, extremely vulnerable….There’s just this river of woe out there that really has shocked and humbled me.”
Grief: our common ground, our shared humanity, opens heart of compassion

2) Powerful feelings: Saying yes to our grief: breaks open the heart
Eventually becomes portal/ threshold to a sacred moment and to realization that our love is larger container that helps to hold our grief

Image: In Japan there is 500 yr old art called Kintsugi, “the art of recognizing beauty in broken things.”

From Rabia, (8^th C Sufi saint) “Tell me where it hurts, God said, and every cell in my body burst into tears.”

C.S. Lewis, after death of his wife, wrote in A Grief Observed, “No one told me grief felt so much like fear.”

3) Grief most intensely personal, but also the common ground of humanity

“Tragedy and sorrow can accomplish in a single moment what years of sitting on a meditation cushion may never yield, an unequivocal surrendering into the arms of the mystery.”    (quote from Rashani Rea’s book)

4) Grief has its own rhythms  — “a deep, slow process of the soul.”

5) When/how does the shift come, portal or threshold to something new?
*Universal truth: grief & love inextricably intertwined
Quote: “We transform suffering and get through adversity by loving and helping each other.”  (Claire’s book)

*From Francis Weller: The Wild Edge of Sorrow: Rituals of Renewal and the Sacred Work of Grief
“There is some strange intimacy between grief and aliveness, some sacred exchange between what seems unbearable and what is most exquisitely alive. “

*Our willingness to open to our suffering, accept it, feel it deeply, for that  brings kindness & compassion to self/others—including suffering of world
*Gratitude for the relationship, the love. Gradually we see the relationship continues
Thich Nhat Hanh “the continuation body”

* Role of meditation and contemplative practices:
Speaking personally, role of meditation got us thru  cascade of losses and grief
“We were held in the fire of transformation; we were burned and burnished until the gold of love shone through unobstructed between us.”  Olivia’s book

Cathy Colelman’s essay on Dying & Being with Grief
“–welcoming everything, pushing nothing away, letting go of control, …and sharing compassion and gentleness with ourselves and others.
–finding a place of rest in the middele of awarenss, in the middle of experience. We can call that place Home, and keep re-arriving there.”

From her daughter Heather: “Love forever binds energies forever together. Beyond time and physical bodies. How lucky we are.”

Conclusion:
Do not be dismayed by the brokenness of the world.
All things break. And all things can be mended.
Not with time, as they say, but with intention.
So go. Love intentionally, extravagantly, unconditionally.
The broken world waits in darkness for the light that is you.

L.R. Knost   (author, advocate for children’s rights)

Session 7:  Vulnerability and Resilience

Homework:
Given this is our last week, invite deepening commitment to meditation practice and awareness pauses during the day.

Meditation:  20 or more minutes, starting with several minutes of stretching, listening to what the body is asking for. Try meditating after a walk, yoga, exercise, and notice how meditation is often much easier.

Given the topic of resilience and vulnerability, notice the subtle variations in your mind states in these two areas; when you feel resilient — aligned, energetic, and strong;
And when the tender moments arise – doubt, anxiety, indecision, etc.
Invite self compassion at those times. Maybe place your hands over your heart center and breathe deeply, grounding in the body.

Notes on talk: Vulnerability and Resilience
Vulnerability: inevitable aspect of elder years especially approaching the end of life
What is your relationship to vulnerability? How easily do you ask for help?
How do you feel about receiving help?

Issue of surrender:
Sometimes a struggle between trying to hold on to old identities or surrender to an inevitable process
Practice of surrender: practice it in small ways
Letting go of something we want; Letting go of an impending argument
Letting go of our expectations of things happening in a certain way.
Conclusion: practice of letting go is the core of spiritual practice
Opening to our vulnerability is essential to letting go
Practice of letting go in meditation
Meditation: a preparation for death — the final letting go
Notice where you hold on/let go in your life

Gifts of surrender: More ease in handling uncertainty
Greater acceptance of fragility of life. More open to harsh realities of life
Greater sense of inner freedom, immediacy, preciousness of life
Deeper acceptance of impermanence:
Less identified with doing, more with being

Rumi quote: the link between helplessness and loving:
“Always check your inner state with the Lord of your heart.
Copper doesn’t know it’s copper until it’s turn to gold.
Your loving doesn’t know its majesty until it knows its helplessness.”

Conclusion: Vulnerability is doorway to opening & receiving love, and radiating it

Resilience: connection to meditation and contemplative practices
Definition: “the ability to recover quickly from an illness, change, or misfortune.”
Synonym: flexibility
Not one word but a constellation of characteristics, traits, skills
Meditation: regenerates the brain; increases our ability to handle stress with skill
To be self aware and able to handle our reactions to challenge
To trust our inner strength and develop a strong inner locus of control
Develop confidence in our ability to cope
image “The oak fought the wind and was broken, whereas the willow bent when it must, and survived.”

Tool kit for resilience: Resilience of mind/heart, body, emotional resilience, spiritual gifts
1) Centrality of meditation & other contemplative practices
How we frame what happens to us affects how we respond to challenges
It’s the secret, inner power to handling life’s challenges
Working with mind/heart: constant process of strengthening an inner core of clarity, flexibility, strength,
Can we see the challenge as an opportunity, a learning?
Gifts of adversity: turning adversity into the quest for freedom
Truth: we can’t develop resilience unless we’re challenged

2) Physical resilience: Building physical strength thru exercise, yoga, etc.
The body as a source of resilience.
Body as metaphor:  strong, flexible body contributes to inner qualities
Also linked to subtle body, energy body

3) Working with feelings. The more we’ve done our inner work, the more emotional resilience we’ll have.

4) Connection to others: helps soften feelings of isolation, awakens compassion
Feeling our interconnectedness contributes to resilience

5) Know your sources of support and inspiration: energy is reflected back to us
From great teachers, benefactors, spiritual masters

6) Spiritual dimension: Our resilience becomes a gift to others

Conclusion:Resilience a mandala or constellation of attitudes, characteristics, skills
Becomes our protection, our strength to respond to the blows of life.
“Life doesn’t get easier or more forgiving, we get stronger and more resilient.”

Homework:

Meditation practice –may it continue to deepen
Awareness pauses–open to pure awareness without an object (3 breaths)
Remember your take away from the course

Joys & Sorrows: Session #8  “Aging, Awareness and Awakening”
Recap: 1st three sessions dealt with core Buddhist teachings:
1) Awareness 2) How we handle suffering 3) Finding refuge

Death/dying; Love/Grief; Loss/Resilience; Joys/Sorrows

Topics you all named. Possibilities for another course:
Topic of identity: who am I now? Reinventing ourselves
Dealing with change
Acknowledging limitations
Uncertainties of life: living with the unknown
Others: heart practices, deepening practice, working with the mind/heart, challenging emotions, etc.

Reminder: Notes/homework from all classes on website. Lower left of home page, then find name of our course and sessions.

Taoist saying: 10,000 Joys and 10,000 Sorrows

Sorrows: Another view; the most valuable journey to become familiar with our mental patterns — the entire spectrum from joy to sorrow

A few key observations:

1) Suffering: compelling motivation for deepening meditation practice
Everything linked to awareness of ups/downs of our mental states
Slowly, surely, develops equanimity, steadiness, inner strength
Also flexibility –most precious quality we can cultivate, practice

2) Caution: perils of self judgment:
Take care not to hold unrealistic expectations of yourself
We’re all human!

3) Buddhist maxim says simply: “Pain is inevitable: suffering is optional.”
Everything depends on mind & commentary re what’s happening

4) Another cause of sorrows: dissonance between our firmly held images of ourself and the reality of what’s happening, now

5) Inspiration from Etty Ilillesum An Interrupted Life

Incredible testimony to resilience of human spirit.

“You must be able to bear your sorrow; even if it seems to crush you, you will be able to stand up again, for human beings are so strong…. Give your sorrow all the space and shelter in yourself that is its due, for if everyone bears his grief honestly and courageously, the sorrow that now fills the world will abate.”

10,000 Joys — lighter emotions like contentment, delight, wonder, gladdening the mind/heart

“Life is short and we have never too much time for gladdening the hearts of those who are travelling the dark journey with us. Oh be swift to love, make haste to be kind.”    Henri Frederic Amiel

Tsoknyi Rinpoche:  “Happiness for no reason”
Lojong practice: “Always keep a joyful mind.”      
Rodney Smith:  “Where is happiness in this moment?”
Ease of heart/happiness is a choice: Thich Nhat Hanh

Sri N. Maharaj: “All happiness comes from awareness. The more we are conscious, the deeper the joy; Acceptance of pain, non-resistance, courage, and endurance, these open deep and perennial sources of real happiness, true bliss.”

Please read or listen to chapter # 10, in Narayan’s book, The Magnanimous Heart. It is entitled “Don’t Know Mind.”

“Nothing in the world can one imagine beforehand, not the least thing.
Everything is made up of so many unique particulars that it cannot be foreseen”
—Rainer Maria Rilke

Take this practice up in the many moments of imagining during the day: when you notice that you are thinking about what will happen, or when you are predicting what will not happen, or lost in anxiety about what might happen. See if you can recognize when you are planning, or worrying, or imagining.

Then at the same time, see if you can integrate your understanding of this teaching of “Don’t Know Mind” during those moments – so that you are not swept into the currents that prevent you from experiencing awareness of the present moment, that preclude you from seeing that the future is unknowable, and that these thoughts about it spring from causes and conditions, that these thoughts are basically opinions, without substance. Perhaps you will see these imaginings as empty. But the main thing is to experiment – to see the mind and the heart in relation to these imaginings and how resting in “not knowing” feels very different than being lost in imaginings, and leads to different outcomes. This is what we are being encouraged to do. Then please be prepared to share what you have learned with your fellow yogis in class.

Please read or listen to chapter # 10, in Narayan’s book, The Magnanimous Heart. It is entitled “Don’t Know Mind.”

“Nothing in the world can one imagine beforehand, not the least thing.
Everything is made up of so many unique particulars that it cannot be foreseen”
—Rainer Maria Rilke

Take this practice up in the many moments of imagining during the day: when you notice that you are thinking about what will happen, or when you are predicting what will not happen, or lost in anxiety about what might happen. See if you can recognize when you are planning, or worrying, or imagining.

Then at the same time, see if you can integrate your understanding of this teaching of “Don’t Know Mind” during those moments – so that you are not swept into the currents that prevent you from experiencing awareness of the present moment, that preclude you from seeing that the future is unknowable, and that these thoughts about it spring from causes and conditions, that these thoughts are basically opinions, without substance. Perhaps you will see these imaginings as empty. But the main thing is to experiment – to see the mind and the heart in relation to these imaginings and how resting in “not knowing” feels very different than being lost in imaginings, and leads to different outcomes. This is what we are being encouraged to do.

This week we are adding the instruction to “be in the body”  Because the body is always present.  The sensations that are occurring in the body are only felt as they happen in the present moment.  By being aware of the sense contact we are able to stay present with our experience as it is happening and can see first hand that these sensations in the body are arising out of our control – we “don’t know” which sensation will appear next.

Then please be prepared to share what you have learned with your fellow yogis in class.

The home practice this week is to be aware of the assumption that the next moment will be either better, worse, or the same as, the current one.

Please notice any false comfort in imagining a future moment, or any fear and anxiety in anticipating a future moment.

Please practice seeing this. Please practice not coming to conclusions. Be aware of the wish for certainty when certainty is not possible. Be aware of attempting to control the uncontrollable.

Continue to practice the first two week’s homework, and be prepared to come to class and report to your fellow yogis about how you are practicing with these instructions.

The home practice this week is to be aware of the assumption that the next moment will be either better, worse, or the same as, the current one. Remind yourself, “Don’t know.”

Please notice any false comfort in imagining a future moment, or any fear and anxiety in anticipating a future moment.
Please practice seeing this. Please practice not coming to conclusions and see if you can discover what is motivating the search for a false refuge. See if you can see the anxiety, fear, desire, or dread behind any rehearsing. Be aware of the wish for certainty when certainty is not possible. Be aware of attempting to control the uncontrollable.

Please be prepared to come to class and report to your fellow yogis about how you are practicing with these instructions.

The home practice this week is to be aware of when you relate to the here and now with the word “again.” Seeing if you can be aware when you are feeling that what is happening is the same thing that has already happened.

Then… See if you can distinguish content from awareness, the difference between that feeling of “again,” from the freshness and intimacy of life happening here and now.

Please read or listen to chapter # 11, “From Hope to Faith” in The Magnanimous Heart.

The home practice this week is to be aware of when you relate to the here and now with the word “again.” Seeing if you can be aware when you are feeling that what is happening is the same thing that has already happened.

Then… See if you can distinguish content from awareness, the difference between that feeling of “again,” from the freshness and intimacy of life happening here and now.

Or see if you are using the word again to judge yourself or others, “I didn’t exercise again today,” or “They are monopolizing again.” Notice the tone of voice you are using when you say the word “again.” (even internally)

Then please be prepared to share what you have learned with your fellow yogis in class.

Reminder: There will be no class on Tuesday, March 23 and on Tuesday, March 30

Please read or listen to chapter 11, in Narayan’s book, The Magnanimous Heart. It is entitled “From Hope to Faith.”

The home practice is to doubt your doubts.  To be able to do this you have to know it is a doubt. If it is completely submerged, unconscious and you are identified with it, it will be hard to catch sight of.

So play around with this, not in a heavy way, but see if you can recognize doubt occurring.  It might appear in the following forms: doubt in yourself, doubt in the practice, doubt in your capacity to practice, doubt in the progress along the path, or doubt in the path.

Then please be prepared to share what you have learned with your fellow yogis in class.

1. Sit every day. Try sitting for a minimum of 15-30 minutes per day. (sit more if able) Please practice your meditation in silence.
2. Gratitude Practice: Text or e-mail your buddies in the class 3 things you are grateful for each day. Can be anything.
3. Reflections:
   • Spend some time considering & noticing what you usually take refuge in. Both internally (i.e.-kindness, compassion, fear, anxiety, fantasy, etc) AND externally,(i.e. eating-cheese, shopping, talking to someone, exercise, sleeping, twitter, internet,
   • Recollect what you took refuge in 5 years ago. Is it the same or different than what you take refuge in now?
   • Share with buddies via text or e-mail a sentence of what you learned.
4. Taking Refuge Practices; Everyday read the refuge handout.
   What did you learn?Taking Refuge in the Buddha, we reflect on the inspiration of the Buddha’s life, turning towards our own innate goodness as well as that of others. We align our lives with the possibility of alleviating suffering and cultivating true happiness. We commit ourselves to Awakening, the remembrance of our true and beautiful nature.Taking Refuge in the Dharma, we reflect on the Buddha’s teachings and practices that cultivate wisdom, compassion and skillful action; our spiritual endeavors are dedicated to the liberation of all beings from suffering that we might all live lives of under-standing, kindness and love.  We walk the path of awakening in life, resolving to live in accordance with what is true.Taking Refuge in the Sangha, we reflect on the power of community to remember that we are not alone; that together we begin the healing of centuries of oppression and trauma within a deep knowing of the interconnectedness and interdependence of all beings and all things.Taking Refuge, we learn to trust the unfolding of our lives and act for the benefit of all beings. We discover that our happiness, sorrow and awakening are interconnected with others. We come together in practice and Taking Refuge, turning towards that which truly matters in our lives, for the highest good of all.

****PLEASE HAVE FUN!****