Dear Common Ground Friends,

Greetings Friends,

Last week our humanity took another hit. Today we reckon with the racialized, gendered, and sexualized violence that led to the murder of 8 people in Atlanta, and to the life changing injuries of one survivor. Please join me in saying their names: Xiaojie Tan, Daoyou Feng, Delaina Ashley Yaun Gonzalez, Paul Andre Michels, Soon Chung Park, Hyun Grant, Yong Ae Yue, Suncha Kim, and Elcias Hernandez-Ortiz.

Let us remember that our social locations help define the way we tell the stories of this day. It matters whether we acknowledge the 150% increase in Asian hate crimes over the past 4 years or whether our minds dodge the reality of hate inspired violence. Perhaps, what is among the most significant to spiritual seekers, is developing an understanding of the influences that contribute to the stories we tell.  If we aim to be sincere in our mindfulness practice, we must name colonization, imperialism, and white-centric culture among the influences of the stories we tell. This is how we do the brave and noble work of getting closer to what Sebene Selassie calls the “unbearable complexity” of understanding oppression and trauma.

These days, when I’m at a loss how to relate to the unbearable complexity of suffering around us, I light a candle and sit in front of my altar. I take time to simply bow to the profundity of suffering in this world. I’ve been doing this a lot lately…and crying…I’ve been doing a lot of that too… and when the time has passed for this, I pick myself up off the floor and do something. Our practice involves time to “be” and time to “do”. It is up to us to discern what time it is.  May we all allow ourselves the time to be so that we might feel into both what is visible and what is less visible to us, drawing us closer and closer to the unbearable complexities that make up this suffering world we live in. Only when we reckon in this most sincere way, do we learn to take beneficial action.

One way you might take up this noble practice of living into the unbearable complexities of now in a most sincere way, is to join Common Ground’s Truth and Justice Vigil. A vigil is a period of keeping awake during the time usually spent asleep. The Truth and Justice Vigil will help us stay awake and honor the complexity that moves within us during the trials of the former officers involved in the killing of George Floyd. Ayo Yetunde and Stacy McClendon will open the Truth & Justice Vigil on Monday March 29th 6-7:15p, and all subsequent sessions will take place 6-7:30p on Tuesdays, beginning April 6th. See the public calendar for a full description and complete listing of the amazing teachers who will be teaching, sharing their gifts, and holding space throughout the trials. The Truth and Justice Vigil is a collaboration with Buddhist Justice Reporter: The George Floyd Trials, a project that Common Ground cares deeply about.

Join me.

Peace,

Shelly Graf
Associate Director

Upcoming Program Highlights

TUESDAY, MARCH 23RD

• MARK NUNBERG will lead a Daylong Retreat, 9:30am-4:00pm. More info and registration here.