Weekly Email 10/14/20

Greetings Friends,

The Buddha taught the practices of lovingkindness as an antidote to fear for his students who were practicing in the forest. Perhaps you have also been visited by the many flavors of this emotional state we call fear, and have sought an antidote. We need the strength and full breadth of lovingkindness to help us stand up in the face of all of life’s challenges not just to simply be functional, but so that we can feel our capacity and resiliency to be fully engaged in our lives and as responsible citizens in this world that so desperately needs more love. In her book, Lovingkindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness, Sharon Salzberg writes, “…a mind filled with fear can still be penetrated by the quality of lovingkindness…a mind that is saturated by lovingkindness cannot be overcome by fear.”  Let us trust love together.

With Gratitude for you and your practice,

Shelly

Upcoming Program Highlights

This week:

• Shelly will lead the Wednesday evening Weekly Practice Group as usual, 7:30-9:00pm. Zoom link here. Feel free to join early for virtual Tea Time, 7:00-7:20pm, for some time to connect with others over Zoom before the program.
• Shelly will offer their weekly Community Practice Check-In on Thursday, from 9:00-10:00am. All are welcome. Zoom link here.
• The Practitioners of Color Practice Group meets over Zoom this Thursday, 6:30-8:00pm. Contact Stacy at bipoc_council@commongroundmeditation.org for the link.
• Jean Haley & Jane Rauenhorst lead the monthly Mindful Self-Compassion practice group this Friday night, 7:00-8:30pm. Zoom link here.
• As a reminder, every Friday we offer a Mindfulness, Recovery, and the Twelve Steps Zoom group. 7:00-8:30pm. Zoom link here.
• Wynn Fricke and Mark Nunberg will offer a Community Practice Check-In on Saturday at 8am. Zoom link here.
• The Buddhism-Christianity Community Group will meet on Saturday at 9am over Zoom. Link here.
• On Sunday, Mark will lead the Sunday morning Weekly Practice Group over Youtube, as usual, 10:30-11:45am.
• Mark Nunberg and Stacy McClendon offer the Tuesday mid-day Community Practice Check-In every Tuesday, at 12:00-1:00pm. Zoom link here.

Looking ahead:

• The next Dharma Among Us session is with Tara Mulay on Tuesday, Oct 20th, 7:00-8:30pm
• Ramesh Sairam will lead a workshop on Mindfulness and Physical Pain on Sunday, October 25th, from 1-4pm. It will be offered over Youtube livestream and there is limited room for in-person participants. More info and registration here.
• Mark will be leading an online Daylong Retreat on Saturday, October 31st, from 9:30am-4:00pm. More info and registration here.
• Registration is now open for our next multi-day online retreat with Mark and Shelly, Nov 6-7. More info and registration here.

Please note that all times listed are in Central time. For complete, up-to-date program information, visit the online calendar. I recommend you bookmark it for easy access during the week. You might also want to bookmark our Youtube channel.

The Practice of Generosity

Continuing in the tradition of Buddhist monasteries in Southeast Asia, all programs at Common Ground, including these online programs, are offered free of charge in the spirit of generosity. This offering is possible because of the generosity of people like you—from the Buddha on down to all the people in our community—who contribute their practice, time, and financial resources to support the continuation of the center.

To learn how to support the center and our teachers, visit this page. Let us know if you have any questions.

Volunteer Request 
Our volunteer audio team leader, Kevin Bjorklund, is looking for audio processing volunteers to help him continue to keep our Dharmaseed page updated. If you have experience with audio editing and are interested, please contact kbjork63@gmail.com.

Community News 

Supporting Community Connection
Chaiya, one of the center’s volunteers and leaders is interested in forming a community group of other experienced practitioners who would organize ways to provide spiritual friendship to those in the community that might appreciate more connection. Let the office know if you might want to volunteer for this new group. And, please let us know if you are interested in a teacher reaching out to you for spiritual counseling, or perhaps a community leader reaching out simply to connect as a spiritual friend.

Upcoming Events from Healing Minnesota Stories
Healing Minnesota Stories is an organization that works across racial and cultural lines to tell the stories of indigenous people in Minnesota. They have an event coming up that may be of interest.

• Tuesday, Oct. 27, 6:50-8:00 p.m.,  Investing in Healing Minnesota Stories Virtual Event

For more info on their work, visit their website.

Prairie Farm Walkthrough Video
Gratitude to Jennifer who volunteered to help with our fall work week at Common Ground’s Retreat Property at Prairie Farm, WI. Jennifer who works as a documentary filmmaker shotthis simple and beautiful 4 minute video of our Covid Work Week. Please enjoy!

Preparing Meals for Prairie Farm Work Retreatants
Work retreatants continue to visit our retreat property this fall to practice and to maintain and develop the grounds and facilities. If you’re inspired to prepare and freeze a meal to offer to the work retreatants, email gabe@commongroundmeditation.org. You can view a list of possible recipes here.

Common Ground Forums
We’ve created a new medium for online connection for the CG community: forums! We envision the forums as a place for community announcements, mutual aid offers/requests, dharma discussions, and more. Check them out here! Gabe made an initial post inviting folks to introduce themselves and share something about how they’re practicing these days.

Aloka Vihara Kathina
Aloka Vihara is a monastic community in California where former Common Ground community member Niyyanika Bhikkhuni currently lives and practices as a Buddhist nun. They are having a online kathina event (day of celebration and alms-giving) on October 25th. More information here.

Community Survey Still Open for Participation
Thank you to everyone who filled out the community survey we sent out recently. You can still fill it out if you haven’t already, here.

Weekly Tejaniya

Do not practice too seriously,
but peacefully and respectfully.

Fall Quan Yin