Monday, July 28, 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, July 28, from 7-8:30PM EDT in person at our meditation space (3812 Northampton Street NW); Wednesday morning, July 30, from 7-8AM EDT online; and Friday, August 1, from 12-1PM EDT in person / online (hybrid).
Camille will facilitate this Monday. Camille shares:
We welcome you to our Monday night in-person sangha, where we will share our once-a-month tradition of reciting the Five Mindfulness Trainings to help us cultivate and deepen our mindfulness practice. We will focus on the Second Mindfulness Training, True Happiness.
As I contemplate and practice with the Second Mindfulness Training, I am reminded that my happiness is not separate from the happiness of others and that by practicing generosity, I can help relieve suffering and ill-being.
Recently I have not been practicing generosity toward myself. I feel sadness and despair with all that is happening in our world and also sad and confused about my personal life. I have a habit of focusing more on my faults and the parts of myself that I don’t like than on my more wholesome qualities. One way I do this is to focus on habits that have been passed down from my parents and ancestors, such as blaming myself for the unhappiness of others. In this way, I avoid giving myself love, understanding, and compassion.
I recently volunteered at a Blue Cliff retreat in their family program. It was a good opportunity to practice generosity as we spent hours chopping vegetables, helping the sisters with personal chores, working in the garden, and playing with children. It was gratifying and exhausting, and I really enjoyed being in community with sangha brothers and sisters. During this volunteer time, I was also able to be more generous to myself.
During a Dharma talk by Sr Tree, she suggested we try to cultivate more understanding and compassion in order to love and accept ourselves without looking outside of ourselves. She suggested that we try to embrace and understand the things we don’t like about ourselves without focusing on shame or guilt. I am in my mother (and all my ancestors) and my mother is in me.
I decided to make a list of all the skillful and unskillful qualities of my mother and father while remembering my interbeing with them and all that is around me. My belief is that this will help me accept some of the less skillful qualities and allow me to embrace the skillful ones. Practicing generosity to myself and accepting and understanding myself, with all my faults, is a lifelong practice.
When I pay attention to and care for my own suffering, I create more space for others. When we water seeds of love and compassion in ourselves, we water seeds of love and compassion in others. That is when happiness can grow. Thay teaches that happiness is made of suffering and that you can’t have a lotus without the mud. Suffering and happiness inter-are.
On Monday night, we will read the trainings together and share our reflections on how generosity and happiness can work together in our practice as well as in our life. I look forward to our time together and sharing sitting, walking, and singing meditations with you in joy and happiness.
Much love,
Camille
The Second Mindfulness Training: True Happiness
Aware of the suffering caused by exploitation, social injustice, stealing, and oppression, I am committed to practicing generosity in my thinking, speaking, and acting. I am determined not to steal and not to possess anything that should belong to others; and I will share my time, energy, and material resources with those who are in need. I will practice looking deeply to see that the happiness and suffering of others are not separate from my own happiness and suffering; that true happiness is not possible without understanding and compassion; and that running after wealth, fame, power and sensual pleasures can bring much suffering and despair. I am aware that happiness depends on my mental attitude and not on external conditions, and that I can live happily in the present moment simply by remembering that I already have more than enough conditions to be happy. I am committed to practicing Right Livelihood so that I can help reduce the suffering of living beings on Earth and stop contributing to climate change.
PS - Below is a short poem that brings me happiness that I will recite during walking meditation written by Sr Dang Nghiem, MD in her book “The River In Me”:
Step by Step
Sunshine on my face.
Sunshine on my shoulders.
Sunshine on my feet.
Let’s walk in beauty, so all may be awakened.
Let’s walk in wholesomeness, so all may see the way home.
Let’s walk in truth so all may arrive together.
Step by step, our feet touch the earth.
Step by step, breath is life.