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News and inspiration from Interbeing Sangha of Kingston
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Interbeing Sangha of Kingston - Weekly Electronic Bulletin          Vol. 2, Issue #21 - 10 January 2019

Interbeing Sangha

Weekly Meeting


Happy New Year! Please join us for our next weekly gathering, taking place Sunday, January 13th for meditation and dharma sharing, 6:30pm at Unitarian Place (Kingston Unitarian Fellowship), 206 Concession Street. Keith Gawronski-McNinch will be bell minding.
Interbeing (part 1)

"If you are a poet, you will see clearly that there is a cloud floating in this sheet of paper. Without a cloud, there will be no rain; without rain, the trees cannot grow; and without trees, we cannot make paper. The cloud is essential for the paper to exist. If the cloud is not here, the sheet of paper cannot be here either. So we can say that the cloud and the paper “inter-are.” “Interbeing” is a word that is not in the dictionary yet, but if we combine the prefix “inter-” with the verb “to be,” we have a new verb, “inter-be.” If we look into this sheet of paper even more deeply, we can see the sunshine in it. If the sunshine is not there, the forest cannot grow. In fact, nothing can grow. Even we cannot grow without sunshine. And so, we know that the sunshine is also in this sheet of paper. The paper and the sunshine inter-are. And if we continue to look, we can see the logger who cut the tree and brought it to the mill to be transformed into paper. And we see the wheat. We know that the logger cannot exist without his daily bread, and therefore the wheat that became his bread is also in this sheet of paper. And the logger’s father and mother are in it too. When we look in this way, we see that without all of these things, this sheet of paper cannot exist. Looking even more deeply, we can see we are in it too. This is not difficult to see, because when we look at a sheet of paper, the sheet of paper is part of our perception. Your mind is in here and mine is also. So we can say that everything is in here in this sheet of paper."

-- Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace is Every Step

Sangha Care

Meeting Poll


Before the holidays we shared the news that the monastics from Blue Cliff Monastery in New York need some rest, and will not be touring Canada this year to offer retreats. It is wonderful that lay leaders from Ottawa Pagoda Sangha are willing to serve as teachers, and we have also joyfully heard from Sarah Martin and Hang Nhan at Kingston Sangha that they could help with teaching as well.
So, our sangha needs to decide if we will host a residential retreat in Kingston to take the place of the annual regional retreat, and be sure we have a strong team to begin planning. The survey sent out last month showed some support for planning the retreat, so the next step will be to gather as a group for a sangha care meeting to determine if we will move forward. If you are interested in helping with planning for a residential retreat in Kingston, please respond to this poll to choose a date for our next sangha care meeting.

Plum Village Blog

Where is Thay?


The monastics of Plum Village in France shared a beautiful holiday message entitled Where is Thay? "Looking deeply with the eyes of signlessness, we can see that Thay is not only in Vietnam. Thay is fully present in us as we enjoy a meal with our loved ones, knowing it is a precious moment. Thay is sitting at our side as we breathe relaxingly and wait in our car at a stop light. Read more...

Community Announcement

Climate Change Conference


Jane Owen invites everyone to attend "Use Your Brain to Change Your Footprint" led by Julia Miller at the Ongwanada Resource Centre on Saturday, February 9th from 9:30 am to 5:00 pm. This free conference aims to raise community consciousness on climate change, inform and inspire individual engagement and collective impact at the local level in Kingston. Participants will learn about key climate change contributors, hear from local champions and problem solvers, and explore opportunities and resources in Kingston. For more information and to register, follow this link to the conference's Eventbrite page.
Interbeing (part 2)

"You cannot point out one thing that is not here—time, space, the earth, the rain, the minerals in the soil, the sunshine, the cloud, the river, the heat. Everything coexists with this sheet of paper. That is why I think the word inter-be should be in the dictionary. To be is to inter-be. You cannot just be by yourself alone. You have to inter-be with every other thing. This sheet of paper is, because everything else is. 

Suppose we try to return one of the elements to its source. Suppose we return the sunshine to the sun. Do you think that this sheet of paper would be possible? No, without sunshine nothing can be. And if we return the logger to his mother, then we have no sheet of paper either. The fact is that this sheet of paper is made up only of “non-paper elements.” And if we return these non-paper elements to their sources, then there can be no paper at all. Without non-paper elements, like mind, logger, sunshine, and so on, there will be no paper. As thin as this sheet of paper is, it contains everything in the universe in it."

-- Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace is Every Step
Newsletter Editor: Keith Gawronski-McNinch
Newsletter Assistant Editor: Susan Howlett
Social Media Editor: Cat London

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, as well as retreats, taking beautiful care of our friends in the practice including the bell. Our Sangha Care Team facilitates sangha care meetings, plans retreats, minds our library and resources, and coordinates outreach. If you are interested in helping with either or both, contact interbeingkingston@gmail.com for more information.
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