Dear Friends,

Tuesday evening, January 11, all sangha members are invited to attend the annual Refuge-Precepts Ceremony. It is the time each year when IMFW gathers to participate in reaffirming our commitment to Buddhist practice.

The New Year often brings fresh intention and resolution. However, the goals we set for the year are often difficult to reach, and we end up feeling needless guilt and shame. The Buddhist teachings offer another way to look at intention and aspiration, to see it more as a practice rather than some goal to attain.

The Precepts Ceremony done each year at IMFW, and sometimes daily or weekly in monasteries, reminds us of the foundation of our moral and ethical conduct practice. The five precepts provide us with an orientation that can help spark virtuous activity in our every-day life.

Virtue can have a heavily moralistic or religious overtone, but Buddhist practice views ethical conduct as our determination to develop the wisdom to clearly see how the world works and the compassion to always hold the welfare of others in mind.

The precepts are guidelines, not rules to make us feel guilt or shame. They are ways to help raise our level of awareness to what is going on at a particular moment in our life and whether practicing them leads to happiness, if practiced. They are a basic structure that can form our life path to Do No Harm.

The Precepts ceremony on January 11, invites those present to undertake the five basic precepts to not harm others through our speech and actions. The precepts are:

1. I undertake to refrain from killing and harming living beings.
2. I undertake to refrain from stealing and taking that which is not mine.
3. I undertake to refrain from causing harm through sexual misconduct.
4. I undertake to refrain from false speech, harmful speech, gossip, and slander.
5. I undertake to refrain from the misuse of intoxicants or substances such as alcohol or drugs that cause carelessness or loss of awareness.

The positive power of virtue is enormous. When we don’t live by these precepts, it is said we live like wild beasts; without them, all other spiritual practice is a sham. Imagine trying to sit down to meditate after a day of lying and stealing. Then imagine what a different world this would be if everyone kept even one precept-not to kill, not to lie, not to steal. We would truly create a new world order. (Jack Kornfield, A Path with Heart)

If our intention for being human is to be happy, then practicing the five precepts will help to bring that about.

Preceding the precepts ceremony, we will chant the three refuges. This will be a call and response chanting of taking refuge in the Buddha, the Dhamma and the Sangha. The following is a brief description of each refuge.

1. I go to the Buddha for refuge. When we take refuge in the Buddha, it is not taking refuge in the man who was called Buddha as a god or energy source but refuge in the “awakened,” knowing faculty of all hearts and minds. After enlightenment, the Buddha was asked by those he met along the road, “Who are you?” He answered, “I am awake.” We make a commitment to mindfulness, to awaken. We make a commitment to our knowing what is true in the present moment. When we take refuge in the Buddha, we are acknowledging confidence in the practice of wakefulness.
2. I go to the Dhamma for refuge. When we take refuge in the Dhamma, it is more than the words that were spoken by Buddha. We take refuge in truth, the way it is in the here and now. When we take refuge in the Dhamma, we are surrendering to the impermanent, selfless nature, and unsatisfactoriness of life, not our belief of how life should be if we could control it. We have confidence that “letting go” of beliefs and opinions can lead to happiness. We have awareness that trying to “hold on” to things causes suffering. We have faith in the natural law of experience—that all causes have effects. We open to the truth, to the way life actually is; the orderliness of the truth of nature itself and how it functions. There is no refuge in the conditioned reality of greed, hatred and delusion. The world our mind creates and that we cling to is illusion and causes suffering. Therefore we take refuge in the here and now.
3. I go to the Sangha for refuge. We have faith and commitment to those who are practicing to awaken to the truth. It is you and I, those of us who recognize this as a path to Truth. It is individuals and groups committed to recognizing the truth in the now. We place confidence in this group that is practicing together and supporting each other in our practice. In the Sangha we have faith that letting go of self-centered views and self-concern is necessary and that this leads to a noble, unselfish response to life.

When the awakened heart knows the way things truly are, what springs forth is harmonious and virtuous action.

With lovingkindness,

Tammy

Hi all

My co-teacher, Sondra Gudmundson, and I are offering up live online self-compassion opportunities soon.

The first is a free 1-hour session on Tuesday, January 11 at 6 pm Eastern. We’ll cover what self-compassion is and why it is so important for well-being. We’ll talk about research on the benefits of cultivating self-compassion, and also address common misgivings, such as the perception that self-compassion is ‘weak.’ We will then offer some simple practices to bring more self-compassion into your life. For more info and to register, click here or use the button below. This class also serves as an orientation session for the full course.

The second opportunity is the full 8-week Mindful Self-Compassion course, with one course being taught on Tuesdays and a second course on Wednesdays--all from the comfort of your own home via Zoom:

• Tuesdays, starting January 25 at 6 PM Eastern meeting weekly through March 15
• Wednesdays, starting January 26 at 10 AM Eastern meeting weekly through March 16.
• Each class lasts about 2.75 hours (with breaks!)
• Bonus 4-hour retreat after Session 5 on Sunday, February 27 beginning at 1 PM Eastern

The full course goes much deeper with activities including:

• meditations
• teachings on various topics like shame, anger, and gratitude
• experiential exercises
• small and large group discussion
• ideas for home practices

The intent of the full course is for participants to

• Directly experience self-compassion
• Learn practices that evoke self-compassion in daily life

For more information, you can click on the links above. This course does have a registration fee, and an early bird discount is available if you register by January 12. Every effort is made to help people in need. Please email us if there are financial concerns.

If you want to explore self-compassion, the best thing is to sign up for the free 1-hour online session and then decide if you want to take the full course with vested tuition. If you have any questions, feel free to email me at jonwalker22@gmail.com or Sondra at lovingkindpresence@gmail.com.

We look forward to journeying with you in mindful self-compassion in 2022!

With care,

Jon and Sondra

Right smack in the middle of the Buddhist path is meditation. The Buddha is meditating in all of those statues, monastics show up well before the sun rises to have the first of meditation sessions that fill much of the day, and most of us on the path squeeze in a little meditation here and there.

Why all this sitting around? Meditation is the central practice in a lifestyle that is about transforming the heart-mind in a positive way. In Buddhist practice, we are attempting to live in a way to create less suffering for ourself and for others.

For some of us, meditation obviously fits into the game plan for less suffering. Meditating, for some, is a pleasant experience. There is a sense of ease, some peace in the midst of the business of life and a sense of release. But this isn’t the case for everyone; for some, meditation is a struggle. Sitting still can be physically and psychologically painful. It can seem that meditation is creating rather than alleviating suffering.

The reality is not so much that meditation is nice and pleasant for some people and hard for others; each of us have tremendously varied experiences of meditation each time we sit down according to a variety of factors creating the experience of a particular sitting session.

We’ve started to experiment with some practice periods at Sangha House. These are periods of time when there is a regular sitting schedule. The first six-day period had two hours of sitting and walking meditation in the morning and an hour in the evening. My wife Pamela and I were the people who committed to being there each morning and evening. It had been years since I was in a situation where I was committed to such a schedule. Get up at 5:15 in the morning, take a quick shower, grab a cup of coffee and head over.

In just a few short days, I found a very different day-to-day self getting out of bed, getting ready, and meditating. Some days, the whole thing was welcome and other days the scene was processed by a cranky old guy wanting to stay in a warm bed and thoughts of “Forget it, nobody will show up anyway.” Some of the meditation was pleasant and some a struggle.

When you are in a situation where you’ve committed to a practice, you learn to move through and with the moods and desires and just do the practice. Once we had published the details in the newsletter and made a couple of announcements about the practice period, we were committed to be there. I was reminded how sitting according to a schedule and a commitment to self and others rather than just sitting when the mood strikes is very, very different. Yes, one might sit more, but there is also the learning to work with whatever “yes” and “no” mind arises by holding to the commitment like it was short-term vow taken for self and others.

As we do more of these practice periods, please consider making a commitment and following through and see how it feels. Also consider that you are not just committing to do this for you; your acts of signing up and showing up are a way to give to the sangha. You are giving your time and energy to build a practice environment where we can gather and support each other by sitting still and walking quietly and taking part in this path of transformation. By committing to a period of practice, you are giving yourself a gift and giving a gift to others by strengthening the context for transformation at Sangha House.

We will offer another Practice Week, perhaps more than one during the year. Times and dates will be posted on the website at https://www.imfw.org/ , on Facebook and in the newsletter.

We continue to keep an eye on pandemic developments and will notify people of any changes to our policy via an announcement. If you are on our mailing list to receive our newsletter, you will also receive our announcements. Our covid policy is posted on our website https://www.imfw.org/covid19.

We are open, both for Tuesday and Sunday opportunities to sit. We are strongly suggesting that masks are worn if you are inside of our building. We continue to practice physical distancing and we have plenty of hand sanitizer and extra masks. So, if you are healthy we would love to have you join us at 2332 Sandpoint Road.

We continue to offer a Zoom option! So, if you prefer, you can join us from the comfort of your home. Simply click on the link that is mailed out weekly.

Yoga classes continue to meet in person. Saturday 9 am Lisa Selby teaches yoga and Sundays at 9:15 Pam helps people stretch and limber up to sit in comfort for the 10 am Sunday meditation.

We appreciate all who have continued to support our Sangha with the donation of their time, talents and financial resources. Thank you, because of you, we have remained open.

Our mission is to provide for the study and practice of Insight (Vipassanā) Meditation according to the Theravāda Buddhist religious tradition and to support and encourage the development of community based upon Buddhist ideals, teachings and practices.

IMFW is entirely supported by voluntary donations that embody the ancient practice of dāna or generosity. The teachings are always offered freely and practitioners are invited to offer support that matches their own financial means, and/or by volunteering time and talents to support the teachers and the upkeep of Sangha House.

Lisa Selby, 200 hour Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT), is offering a Yoga class, in the basement of Sangha House. Class will be a one hour, all levels, flow class. All are welcome! Bring your mat, and any props you have, and start your weekend off right!

Please drop in, no pre-registration required. This class is offered freely. A donation of any kind is welcome.

If you have any questions you can email me at lisa@lisaselby.yoga.

A friend invited me to my first yoga class 4 years ago. After going back the following week, I knew that yoga was something I needed in my life, as often as possible. A year after that, I knew I wanted to learn everything I could about yoga and share it with as many people as I could! I am a 200 hour yoga teacher, registered with The Yoga Alliance. I studied therapeutic yoga and I believe yoga is for every body! There is no age or flexibility limit! I truly endeavor to empower my students, in every class, by teaching with proper alignment, muscle engagement (I will tell you to spread your toes 50 times!) and lovingkindness. I can't wait to see you on your mat!

Lisa Selby