Weekly Email 5-18-23
Dear Common Ground Friends,
In her book, Faith: Trusting Your Own Deepest Experience, Sharon Salzberg describes faith as “The willing suspension of disbelief.” So, rather than thinking of faith as taking up a belief, in Buddhist terms, faith is a willingness to be open, to explore, and to investigate. In that investigation, we learn something about what feels worthy to place the heart upon. What do we rest the heart on in moments when we really need something? Faith is the confidence we find when we connect with what is real. This can be as simple as trusting that we’re actually feeling the breath moving or the feet on the ground. We can verify in these moments directly how there is no space for doubt here. The experience that we can verify, that we learn to say “yes” to, all these many moments when we realize, “experience is being known”, when we’re honest with ourselves about how it is for us, are moments we learn to trust what’s true. We learn to rest our heart on present moment awareness. It’s brave to live this way, with a willingness to acknowledge anything we experience or feel including all the ways we relate to all the mysteries of life and death. It can be useful to have teachers and guides who help illustrate something, but that shouldn’t replace our direct knowing and reckoning of how it actually is for us. That lived experience—what moves our hearts, what we feel, what we sense, how life has expressed itself for us, historically and currently—that is the way it is. That’s the stuff that we get to work with, and when we do this sincerely, that’s what freedom arises from.
Shelly Graf
Co-Guiding Teacher
Join in for these upcoming community events at the city center!
Spring Maintenance Day!
Saturday, May 20th | 9:00 am – 12:30 pm
Come join the Building Committee for a morning of joyful cleaning, tweaking, and fixing. Refreshments will be provided at 12:00.
Garden Workday
May 21st, 12:00 pm – 2:00 pm
Join the garden team in caring for the perennial and rain gardens, beginning May 14th. All skill sets are welcome.
The Practice of Generosity
Ongoing 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 the 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, 10:30-11:45 am in-person and on Zoom with Mark Nunberg
- June 4th with Merra Young
- Sunday evenings, 7:00-8:30 pm in-person with Mark Nunberg
- June 4th with Jean Haley
- Wednesday evenings, 7:30-9:00 pm now in-person and on Zoom with Shelly Graf
- Now in-person and on Zoom! First Fridays, 7:00-8:30 pm, Lovingkindness with Mark Nunberg and Stacy McClendon
- NEW PROGRAM! First Thursdays, 7:00-8:30 pm, Developing the Art of Spiritual Inquiry with Ramesh Sairam. On Zoom in May & June.
- Sundays, 4:30-5:30 pm, on Zoom with Mark Nunberg and Wynn Fricke, on Zoom
- Tuesdays, 12:00-1:00 pm, on Zoom with Stacy McClendon, on Zoom
- Wednesdays, 8:30-9:30 am, in-person with Shelly Graf, assisted by Robin Major
- Fridays, 9:00-10:00 am, on Zoom with Shelly Graf
- Every other Saturday, 10:30 am-12:00 pm, on Zoom with Ramesh Sairam
Meets every Friday, 7:00-8:30 pm.
In-person and on Zoom
On Zoom only
Friday, June 16th | 7:00-8:30pm
- Children’s Program: The Children’s Program is held on the 1st and 3rd Sundays, 10:30 – 11:45 am. The program is for kindergarteners – 3rd graders. If your child is preschool age, you are welcome to join the group but a parent will need to stay with the child. Sunday, May 21st is the final day for the children’s program for this semester, with the exclusion of the next Community Potluck (Sunday, June 18th). The children’s program will begin back up after Labor Day.
- Teen Program: The teen group will meet 10:30 – 11:30 am on the 2nd and 4th Sundays. You can join the Common Ground teen listserv by emailing info@commongroundmeditation.org.
Upcoming Programs at Common Ground’s City Center
To see the full list of programs visit our calendar
Cultivating Virtue as a Support for Liberation: a Bimonthly Practice Group with Gabe Keller Flores
2nd and 4th Thursdays | 7:00 – 8:30pm
The last meeting is Thursday, June 8th. Gabe will resume a weekly practice group in the fall.
In-person and on Zoom
No registration necessary
Daylong Retreat with Shelly Graf
Saturday, May 27th | 9:30 pm-4:00 pm
In-person and on Zoom
Register here
Introduction to Mindfulness Meditation with Stacy McClendon & Mark Nunberg
Six Classes: Tuesday, June 6th – Tuesday, July 11th
7:00 – 8:30 pm CST
In-person and on Zoom
Register here
Enlightenment is an Accident: a Book Reading with Tim Burkett
Sunday, June 11th | 3:30 pm-5:00 pm
In-person and on Zoom
Register here
Buddhist Studies with Mark Nunberg: Divine Abodes
Eight Classes: Mondays, June 12th – July 31st
Optional Sitting Period, 7:00 – 7:30 p.m.
In-person and on Zoom
Register here
Daylong Retreat with Mark Nunberg
Saturday, June 24th | 9:30 am – 4:00 pm
In-person and on Zoom
Register here
Half-Day Retreat with Shelly Graf
Saturday, July 1st | 1:00 pm – 5:00 pm
In-person and on Zoom
Register here
Upcoming Programs at our Retreat Center
Common Ground Retreat Center is located in Wisconsin, about an hour-and-fifteen-minute drive from Minneapolis. More information and registration for upcoming programs at the retreat center can be found here
Embodying the Dharma: an Insight Meditation Retreat with Wynn Fricke and Shelly Graf
Thursday, June 1st- Sunday, June 4th
Zoom spots available.
Register here
Teacher-Led Practice Period with Wynn Fricke
Thursday, June 8th – Sunday, June 11th
In-person only at the retreat center
More info and registration here
Teacher-Led Practice Period with Wynn Fricke
Thursday, June 15th – Sunday, June 18th
In-person only at the retreat center
More info and registration here
Contemplative Arts Practice Period with Wynn Fricke and Richard Bonk
Thursday, June 22nd – Sunday, June 25th
In-person only at the retreat center
More info and registration here
Educator’s Practice Period with Risa Cohen and Paul Sackaroff
Thursday, July 6th – Sunday, July 9th
In-person only at the retreat center
More info and registration here
Labor Day Retreat
with Shelly Graf and Mark Nunberg, assisted by Stacy McClendon and Gabe Keller Flores
Saturday August 26th – Monday September 4th
On Zoom, in-person at our city center and in-person at our retreat center
More info and registration here
In addition to these weekend retreats, we also offer public drop-in groups on the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays of the month at the retreat center, 6:30-7:45 pm. The groups are led by Dharma teachers and community leaders. More info about these Wednesday night programs here.
Current Volunteer Needs
Please contact our Office Manager, Robin Major, at robin@commongroundmeditation.org if you are interested in any of these volunteer opportunities:
- Office Volunteers: We are looking for one or more people with 1-2 years of 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.
- 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!
Sunday, June 18th | 12:00 – 1:30pm
Celebrate community and bring a vegetarian dish to share! There will be music. If you’re like to volunteer to help out before, during, or after, click here.
TCVC Retreat with Deborah Helzer & Vance Pryor
June 17th-24th
This retreat, organized by the Twin Cities Vipassana Collective, will be held at St Anthony Spirituality Center in Marathon, Wisconsin. Click here for more info and registration.
Upcoming Community Group Meetings
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 the correct times and Zoom links.
- Be Queer Now, weekly on Wednesday, 7:30-9:00 PM
- Black, Indigenous, People of Color Community Group, First and Third Thursdays, 6:30-8:00 PM
- Retiree’s Community Group, Thursday, May 18, 12 PM – 2 PM
- Community Group: Learning to Approach Social and Political Conflict with Skill and Kindness, Sun, May 21, 1:30 – 3:00 PM
- Mindfulness & Depression, Sunday, May 21st, 4:00-5:30 PM
- Millennials Sangha, Friday, May 26th, 7:00-8:30 PM
- To see the complete list of community groups, click here.
Be Happy
Every time you recognize that
you have lost awareness, be happy.
The fact that you have recognized
that you lost awareness means
that you are now aware.
Thanks to The Daily Tejaniya for this quote
Common Ground’s Building Committee preparing for this Saturday’s Spring Maintenance Day: From left to right Charlie Borden, Steve Henrich (in front), Jeffrey Swainhart, Dave Redelman and Co-Guiding Teacher Shelly Graf.
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