The new year reminds us of one of the most heartening and beautiful teachings, which is that it is always possible to begin anew. Beginning anew is always possible, not because we want it to be or because we believe it is true, but because this moment now IS new; now is always now and cannot have come before now. Because of this reality, we can listen right now to what life is asking of us and respond accordingly.
As we know, we are in a time of immense complexity, rapid change, painful polarization, and tremendous suffering in the world. One of the ongoing questions I contemplate is the place of a Dharma Center – of CIMC in particular – in these times. It is an alive and essential question for me in my role as guiding teacher and also because of seeing confusion clouding clarity for so many these days. Regardless of whether our lives are relatively easy and free from conflict, we are all feeling the pain of the many wars, the climate chaos, and so much more. When we come together in Dharma Centers to practice wisdom and compassion, we are collectively bearing this pain. We are the world and we carry worlds upon worlds in our bodies.
To me, one of the places of a Dharma center is to honor and delight in its collective nature. When applying for a retreat in another lineage that I consider to be part of my family, I asked if I could come but not practice exactly in the way described. The main monk, a Dharma brother, passed on the message to me to come, “just to be together.” We gather, whether in the building or online, just to be together and to align in our mutual aspirations to cultivate wisdom, compassion, patience, and kindness. We come together to weather the storms and to make our way through to greater clarity and understanding – to learn from the storms rather than drowning in them. An African proverb says: smooth seas do not make skillful sailors.
And yet, we don’t and won’t collectively share the same perceptions and passions. This doesn’t make us less of a community, it makes us a community in which there is room for diverse views and approaches. Each of us is a lighthouse, a center of light that emanates out in all directions. In my mind, we need to acknowledge painful events without entanglement, to neither join nor be above the fray, holding as many narratives as we can without fixating. Dharma centers are places where we can discover wise questions. How can we emphasize peace while also working for justice for all? Can we stay still within ourselves and not avoid or be complicit with the unwholesome? In the silence and spaciousness of contemplation, we are invited to listen deeply, not accepting easy answers.
Dharma centers are places to learn how to transcend parts of the ideological narratives that harden the heart and don’t allow seeing other as self and self as other. They are places in which to hold both anguish and joy, to practice “don’t know” mind, and to learn how to hold our own distress instead of offloading it on anyone else. In this way, our tendencies towards selective empathy ease and we can respond spontaneously yet not impulsively, leading with the heart. Let’s be tender with everything and everyone and know that we can always begin anew.