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Interbeing Sangha of Kingston - Weekly Electronic Bulletin Issue #3 - June 30th, 2017

Interbeing Sangha
of Kingston

Weekly Meeting

Our weekly gathering takes place as usual this holiday weekend, on Sunday, July 2nd, for meditation and dharma sharing, 6:30pm at Unitarian Place (Kingston Unitarian Fellowship), 206 Concession Street. Aileen Stewart will be bell minding.

This Week

Five Mindfulness Trainings

For those who would like to deepen their practice, we will convene a half hour early, at 6:00 pm on Sunday, July 2nd, to recite and reflect upon The Five Mindfulness Trainings. These powerful statements are the Buddhist precepts for lay people, translated by Thich Nhat Hanh for modern times. Practicing them helps us be more calm and concentrated, and brings insight. This will begin a new monthly practice of reciting the trainings on every first Sunday.

Reclaim your Life

"The objects of our desire are constantly changing. And our desires for the objects we consume also change from one moment to the next. We are always running after something new. We may be infatuated with what we’ve bought for a while, but soon we take it for granted, we get bored, throw it away, and then buy something else. As you grow in mindfulness, you reclaim your life. You begin to see how much time we lose in empty, meaningless consumption. Looking deeply, we see that empty consumption brings us no lasting happiness, only suffering.

-- Thich Nhat Hanh, Creating True Peace: Ending Violence in Yourself, Your Family, Your Community, and the World, 2004.

Practice

Pebble Meditation

Did you know that Thich Nhat Hanh has a special practice of mindfulness meditation for children, called Pebble Meditation? It is a beautiful way for people of all ages to use mindful breathing and visualization to cultivate the qualities of freshness, solidity, clarity, and freedom using the images of a flower, a mountain, still water, and a spacious blue sky. Learn more (including a video demonstration) on the Plum Village website, and find resources for teaching here.

Date Poll

Sangha Care Meeting

Please take the Doodle poll to find the date that works best for our next sangha care meeting, to be facilitated by our Sangha Care Team. Follow the link here to take the poll.

Save the Date

Outdoor Summer Day of Mindfulness

Sunday, August 27th, Interbeing Sangha is planning an outdoor Summer Day of Mindfulness including walking meditation, eating mindfully together, and a session of Mindful Movement. We will soon have a poster to share, and registration; stay tuned.

Interbeing

"If we look deeply at the bud on the tree, we will see its nature. It may be very small, but it is also like the earth, because the leaf in the bud will become part of the earth. If we see the truth of one thing in the cosmos, we see the nature of the cosmos. Because of our mindfulness, our deep looking, the nature of the cosmos will reveal itself."

- Thich Nhat Hanh, The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching: Transforming Suffering into Peace, Joy, and Liberation, 1999.

Our sangha has two teams helping to share leadership and facilitation of our meetings. Our Bell Minders Team are mindful facilitators for our weekly gatherings, taking beautiful care of our friends in the practice including the bell. Our Sangha Care Team facilitates sangha care meetings, plans retreats, and coordinates outreach. If you are interested in helping with either or both, contact interbeingkingston@gmail.com for more information.