This Monday November 20, 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 in person (3812 Northampton Street NW in DC) on Monday 7-8:30PM EDT, online on Wednesday morning from 7-8AM, and in person on Friday 12-1PM.
On Monday evening, Camille will facilitate.
Plum Village, the practice center in France founded by Thich Nhat Hanh (Thay), has sought to create an environment where people can learn to “live in harmony with one another and with the Earth.” On their website they recently shared that the conflict in the Middle East and in many other places in the world are “painful to civilians on both sides and they appeal to all combatants to put an immediate stop to killing and acts of violence.” The Buddha said that “hatred cannot respond to hatred; only love and compassion can respond to hatred.” Thay says “there is no way to peace, peace is the way.”
I often sit these days of late with feeling the pain, suffering and despair of others all over the world. It is exhausting and I often feel depleted. What helps me is to be reminded by Thay to first recognize the suffering within myself and to transform the unwholesome seeds of anger, hatred or violence into seeds of peace, joy, and loving kindness. I take time to breathe in and breathe out, and then in that moment when I can cultivate those positive qualities in myself, I can begin to generate more compassion to my family and all beings who suffer.
A short teaching video by Thay called “War and Peace Within” was a good reminder to me of touching the seeds of joy, happiness and loving kindness in myself. He shares that we have both war and peace within each of us and around us, and that with mindfulness we can learn to come home to ourselves to find more stability without overwhelm and fear, and to touch joy and peace within. When I was at a lovely place called “Great Falls” in Maryland last week - I was able to touch joy and much peace as I watched the falls flow swiftly and beautifully down and thru the rocks. I couldn’t stop smiling. I was aware of what was happening in that moment and at that moment there was much peace. When we are able to recognise this in our daily lives, we can “cultivate the energy of mindfulness” in ourselves, our friends and the world.
I hope you enjoy the video above which I will share in person on Monday night. You might also enjoy this scripted meditation below from Plum Village “to cultivate stability, solidity, and radiate compassion”:
“Allowing the energy in my body to sink down to my lower abdomen, I breathe in.
Visualizing roots extending beneath my body into the Earth, I breathe out.
Deeply connected to the Earth, I breathe in.
Allowing the energy to sink deeper into the Earth, I breathe out.
Feeling even more stable, more solid, more peaceful, I invite all who are suffering in war zones to sit with us.
I invite all Israelis and Palestinians to sit with us, now, in stability and solidity.
We take root deeply into the Earth, so that anger, hatred, sadness, depression, and hopelessness
cannot move us.
With solidity, we do not let this war blow us away, nor turn us into its victims.
Man is not our true enemy. Our true enemy is the hatred, violence, and ignorance within us.
I am deeply connected to the Earth. I am very stable and solid.
I now invite friends from Ukraine, Russia, Syria, Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia and all troubled places on Earth, to sit with us.
I invite friends from places destroyed by earthquakes, fires, floods, and other disasters to sit with us.
We shall sit together solidly and stably, our roots connected deeply into the Earth, so these difficulties cannot blow us away or make us victims.
I am solid as a mountain, free from all hatred, free from all violence.
I allow the energy of compassion from my heart to flow out to embrace myself and all who are going through trauma, violence, and death.
May the energy of compassion embrace all of us on Earth to help us heal and transform our difficulties.
May the great energy of compassion help to cool down the hatred, the anger, the violence, so that all friends in war zones can be protected.
The Buddha taught: “Hatred cannot respond to hatred; only love and compassion can respond to hatred. This is the eternal truth, the eternal law.”
It is always possible to live together. It is always possible to sit down and discuss reconciliation so that a solution can be found.
May everyone on Earth open their heart, so that everyone can see the light, the light of God, the light of goodness, of beauty and truth.
We continue to cultivate our solidity and our stability, so that we can offer support right now to all who suffer from conflict between humans and with nature.
The only way out is our peace, our solidity, our stability.
With this energy, we offer help; we support them.
We embrace them with all the compassion in our hearts.”
I look forward to being with you on Monday night and sitting together for peace.
In love and light,
Camille