Weekly Email 3-22-23

Dear Common Ground Friends,

As students of the Buddha’s teachings, we learn to return over and over again to the direct immediate and intimate study of dukkha, the pervasive and inherent unsatisfactoriness of existence. This insight does not discount the many joyful and beautiful experiences in life, they are real, but they do not satisfy in a lasting way. As it turns out, understanding the underlying nature of dukkha is our most trustworthy, sobering, and ultimately liberating teacher. Although we will resist giving it the curious and careful attention that it deserves, the study of suffering and its release is the best use of this human life.

Without wisdom, our lives are a setup for endless stress. Reflecting honestly, how many times today have our hearts been burdened by the weight of fear or hope–wanting the conditions to be different than they are? Discontentment seems second nature to us. Although we may deeply desire the resolution of all of our stress, we wrongly presume that this depends on a change in circumstances. It rarely occurs to us that what is required is a transformation of understanding.

Everyone is welcome to join in for one or more of the following three programs where we do our best to deepen our understanding of suffering and its release.

Living the Practice Workshop: Emptiness and Dukkha: 9:30am-4:00pm, Saturday, March 25th

Resilience Daylong Retreat, 9:30am-4:00pm, Saturday, April 1st

Inquiry Retreat: Exploring the Art of Investigating Dukkha, April 13th – 16th

Wishing us all ease with conditions,

Mark Nunberg
Co-Guiding Teacher

Sutta Studies Openings!
Common Ground’s year-long Sutta Study group has openings for this coming year, beginning Saturday, April 1st (or Saturday, May 6th if you are not able to make it by April 1st). For more information about this year-long opportunity and commitment, click here. To submit an application, click here. We will run a lottery for open spots on March 28th.

Weekly Programs
To view a complete list of our regular program offerings, visit our upcoming programs page on our website. As always, our online calendar is the best way to find correct times and Zoom links. 

Open Meditation
In person meditation is now available, M-F, starting at 6:30 a.m. Check our online calendar for additional times and details. There are many in-person as well as virtual opportunities for silent meditation, 7 days a week. Visit the calendar for times and details.

Weekly Practice Groups

• Sunday mornings, 10:30-11:45am in-person and on Zoom with Mark Nunberg
• Sunday evenings, 7:00-8:30pm in-person with Mark Nunberg
• Wednesday evenings, 7:30-9:00pm currently on Zoom with Shelly Graf.
  *This program will offered in our hybrid format starting on April 5th. 

The Practice of Generosity

Continuing in the tradition of Buddhist monasteries in Southeast Asia, all programs at Common Ground 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.

Current Volunteer Needs 
Please contact Robin Major at robin@commongroundmeditation.org if you are interested in any of these volunteer opportunities:

• Audio and YouTube Volunteers: We’re looking for volunteers to join our audio processing and YouTube editing teams. It’s easy to learn! No previous experience in audio or video necessary.
• Office Volunteers: We are looking for one or more people with 1-2 years experience at the center and with prior office experience to help us with office tasks and bulletin board maintenance. Experience with G-Suite and general comfort with computer technology would be helpful.
• Website Volunteer: We are hoping to re-do our website in the coming months. If you have experience building websites and are interested in helping with this, please write an email of interest to Robin.
• Wishlists: If you would like to donate a specific item, check out the Retreat Center Wishlist and the City Center Wishlist.

Community News 

Community Potluck!
Join in for Common Ground’s Spring community potluck on April 16th from 12:00-1:30. Bring a vegetarian dish to share!  If you’d like to volunteer before, during, or after the event you can sign up here.

Volunteers in Prison
A few Common Ground community members are working with prison facilitators to re-start meditation and Buddhist programs that were suspended during the height of covid. If you are interested in volunteering with this community group, you can read more here.

Calendar Page Captchas
If you have been experiencing difficulty opening the calendar page, you are not alone! We are working to update our calendar page and hopefully will have it fixed soon. Accessing the calendar through Google Chrome, or another non-Safari platform, works best.

What Is Our Relationship to Life?
First, we must ask ourselves:
what is our relationship to reality?
What is our understanding of life?
We must look at life as it is,
and come into intimate contact with life.

 Thanks to The Daily Tejaniya for this quote