A Welcoming Community

Common Ground is committed to being a welcoming, accessible, and safe practice home for all.

Over the years the community and leadership at Common Ground have become increasingly aware of the important intersection between our Buddhist practice of opening to the moment just as it is and the necessity of engaging the often messy and difficult work of acknowledging how cultural conditioning unconsciously keeps us bound up in cycles of suffering. As leaders of this community, we are committed to finding ways to keep this conversation alive and creating enough safety so that all people feel welcome to practice at the center and so that we can deeply see and hear each other. We aspire to develop compassion and to practice non-harming so we may skillfully address the roots of suffering embedded in our views. The freedom that the Buddha points to involves acknowledging and responding to the suffering we see around us. As an organization we are committed to better understanding the injustices arising because of our ignorance in areas of race, class, gender, sexual orientation, physical ability, and all the other ways that we perpetuate ideas and feelings of separation.

Common Ground is home to people who are very sensitive to chemicals and fragrances, both synthetic and “natural.” Please see Common Ground's policy on fragrances and scents here.