Monday, October 5, 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, October 5, from 7-8:30PM ET in person at our meditation space (3812 Northampton Street NW); Wednesday morning, October 7, from 7-8AM ET online; and Friday, October 9, 12-1PM ET online/in person (Hybrid).
On Monday, our evening meditation will be facilitated by Annie.
Lately, I’ve been a little down. I may be walking around living my life as usual, but thoughts are floating around in the back of my mind that make me uneasy and sad: Will AI end the human race while my grandchildren are alive? Will humans survive climate change? Will democracy make it through the upcoming election? Will war and genocide ever end? Will we continue to become more divided and inequitable? How will we take care of all the humans who don’t have enough resources?
If you’ve read the news, even once in the last couple of months, you may also have some of these thoughts floating around in the back of your head. If you have or have had sadness, anger, anxiety, or fear about it, it makes total sense.
I think about the difference between fear and anxiety like this: fear lives in the front of our minds—we are conscious that something dangerous is out there right now and we need to fight or flee. Anxiety lives in the back of our minds—there are monsters back there that don’t need our attention right now (we probably can’t do much to change the situation), but they continue to leak into our mind consciousness through general anxiety and sometimes grief.
What do we do with these hidden monsters? When I read or hear something disturbing about the future of our world, I don’t always know how to handle the bigness of it. I am afraid that if I look too deeply into it, I will collapse into despair, and that may be a correct diagnosis.
A friend of mine has been working on creating tissue paper poppies for each child who has been killed in Gaza or any current conflict in the world. A year ago, I decided to try making some poppies. The practice is to think about just one child as you make each poppy. I created one poppy while reflecting on the grief of one family’s loss of a precious child. I cried off and on for 24 hours and I haven’t made another poppy since then.
Is there anything we can do with our despair beyond eating pizza or turning on the TV (both of those may be wise actions at times)? And how do we train ourselves not to water our despair, and instead continue to water the seeds of possibility for a future where everyone is cared for?
Most of the time when I talk to other people about these challenging topics, the conversation defaults to blame—this is all the fault of _____—or generates more guilt—you or we should be doing X, Y, or Z. Such conversations don’t help release the painful knot in my heart or provide me with concrete ways to live.
What I have found can help is sharing difficulties with other mindfulness practitioners. The sangha can help hold our despair without dismissing it or watering it. These are truly difficult times. We are being shown terrible images about the future and hearing about the deep suffering of people around the planet, and we need each other to help us feel our way through it.
The mindfulness trainings of the Order of Interbeing includes these two lines:
(10th training): We are committed to learning to look with the eyes of interbeing and to see ourselves and others as cells in one Sangha body. As a true cell in the Sangha body, generating mindfulness, concentration and insight to nourish ourselves and the whole community, each of us is at the same time a cell in the Buddha body.
(12th training): We will diligently practice deep looking with our Sangha to discover better ways to protect life, prevent war, and build peace.
We are so lucky to have a sangha where we can investigate the suffering we carry and the thoughts that generate that suffering, share our worries with each other, and let the sangha help us carry them.
On Monday, after mediation we will have the chance to share anything that is coming up for us in our lives, especially whenever we absorb the catastrophic news. Together we can discover ways that we might be a source of healing for ourselves and others. This practice may bring more lightness and smiles to each other and help us navigate these times as a sangha family. We are here for each other.