This Monday January 1, we will meet in person.
Go to calendar for our schedule
Address for OHMC meditation space:
3812 Northampton St. NW, Washington DC 20015
Please arrive a few minutes early so we can invite the bell on time. You may also arrive 15 minutes early to practice working meditation by helping us set up cushions.
Dear Friends,
This week we will meet Monday evening in person at our meditation space (3812 Northampton Street NW) from 7-8:30PM EST, Wednesday morning online from 7-8AM, and Friday online from 12-1PM EST.
On Monday we will enjoy a guided meditation on letting go of anything we don’t want to carry into the new year, and setting our mindful intentions for 2024. Our meditation will serve as a gentle guide in aligning our intentions with actions and embracing positive changes in our lives.
The new year often brings lots of resolutions, goals, and aspirations – a natural response to the chance for a new beginning. Yet, in the rush to change or improve our lives, we might lose sight of the profound beauty and completeness of the present moment.
Thich Nhat Hanh (Thay) gave a dharma talk at the end of 2013, in which he shared:
Now the year is ending, we should be able to ask ourselves these simple questions: what have I done during the year 2013? Have I been able to produce feelings of joy and happiness? Have we learned to produce a feeling of joy, a feeling of happiness every day during the year 2013?
We know what conditions, what ingredients we need to produce a feeling of joy, a feeling of happiness for us and for the person or people we love. As practitioners, we should be able to produce a feeling of joy, of happiness, to nourish us and the people we love. Have we done that during the year 2013?
From time to time, a painful feeling or a strong, unpleasant emotion comes up. Have we been able to handle them, to calm them down so that we will not be a source of suffering for ourselves or for others?
Because, as practitioners, we should be able to handle a painful feeling or emotion. We should know how to calm down a painful feeling or emotion, or even transform it into something better, like compassion, friendship, forgiveness. Because, like love and hate, pain and pleasure are of an organic nature. If you don’t know how to handle love, it can turn into something else, like anger or hate.
But if you know how to handle hate and anger, you can turn them back into understanding and love.
We can learn all these things as practitioners of mindfulness. If we do not master the practice of generating joy and happiness, if we do not know how to handle painful feelings and emotions, we are going to repeat that in the new year. And the new year will not be very new, but a repetition of the old year.
For years I set intentions that were all about making myself a “better person.” While those have been noble pursuits, this year, instead of trying to fix the parts of me that I don’t like, I aspire to notice the moments of joy and happiness that I already have each day. And not just the big events of life but even the subtle movement of my breath, the quiet beating of my heart, and the weight of my boots on the earth.
When I’m able to live more fully and peacefully in the present moment, I have more clarity and freedom which creates the conditions for cultivating compassion, understanding, and loving-kindness – energies that I want to embody and radiate out into the world. So this year my focus is on finding more ways to nourish my mindfulness and my joy.
What mindful aspirations do you have for the new year? This Monday, after our meditation session, we can reflect together on our aspirations for 2024. Our dharma sharing time offers us a chance to share our experiences and be seen and held by the community and share whatever is in our hearts.
With love,
Annie.