Dear Friends of the Dhamma,

One of the many experiences I'm having this last month is shame, a bone-deep embarrassment, of what has been unspoken and thus unaddressed by white people for so long. By me, and in our life together....

Writer Eula Biss, who has been examining the experience of whiteness for years, names its "unexamined quality as primary ground of its privilege: an ability to move through life without thinking about what your race means to other people, and what your existence in a community means to the people around you."

Since George Floyd's murder, I have been having many in-depth discussions with family and friends about the most meaningful actions we might take to help educate ourselves and use our Buddhist practice to best support the dismantling of racism.

Inspired and informed by Buddhist teachings on compassion, ethics, right effort, and right understanding, I believe we are called to critically reflect and to feel the tremble of our hearts right now. I believe each of us is called to act, each in our own way, to contribute to a vision of an inclusive, equitable, and diverse community.

Buddhist traditions suggest that the conditions of our actions of body, speech, and mind are often hidden, even from ourselves, and Buddhist practices can support us in looking at our own shortcomings, and to bear witness to the wounds of our world. Inspired by Thich Nhat Hanh, "we are determined not to avoid or close our eyes before suffering."

A recent interview by Jill Suttie with Rhonda Magee, MBSR teacher and law professor at the University of San Francisco was helpful for me to better understand how I might work with my discomfort and pain around racism in a skillful and wholesome way.

Interview excerpt: -by Jill Suttie, syndicated from Greater Good, Jun 10, 2020

"Mindfulness meditation may hold the key to grappling with interpersonal racism, because it helps people tolerate the discomfort that comes with deeper discussions about race. And it can help cultivate a sense of belonging and community for those who experience and fight racism in our everyday lives.

Racism and other forms of bias are pervasive in our culture. So, most of us have inherited ways of thinking about ourselves and others that are fairly reductionist—notions of race, gender, and other things that give us a limited sense of who we are. We can all see the harm that this causes, the polarization and identity-based violence in our time.

...I think we're called to challenge not only these behaviors, but the reductionist thinking that contributes to them, but we can't do it without creating some spaciousness in ourselves to understand how we hold these ideas in our own brain, body, and experience. Because cultural trainings and conditionings run so deep, we need to meet the challenges of un-training ourselves with a similar level of depth.

...The historical Buddha dealt with many of the challenging social realities of his time—for example, allowing women into the order of practice in ways that other religious or other wisdom traditions at the time didn't. He specifically countered and addressed the caste system in his time; he worked with kings and others in power to influence the way they exercised power in the direction of minimizing harm."

As a spiritual community, may we work within ourselves and between ourselves to change the systems that we are living in.

May we see the inner dimension to racial justice, even while we work to change cultural systems around us.

With love and compassion,

Dear Friends,

Our Sangha continues to meet weekly via Zoom. I encourage anyone who has thought they might like to join us for a Tuesday night sit, to try the Zoom meeting. It is a shorter version of the Tuesday night lineup, from the comfort of your own home!

One nice benefit of all the technology has been a great offering of distance learning! Often free or offered at a very reasonable price. Please check out the two Zoom classes that are listed in this newsletter; The 37 Practices of the Bodhisattva and a six week course on Mindfulness Awareness Practices. Both are freely given and remotely offered.

I regret to announce that Refuge Recovery will not resume their weekly meetings when we open up Sangha House. Currently, there is no one to lead the group meetings. If anyone is interested in that role, please contact Tammy Dyer at tamaradyer6@gmail.com.

Thank you to everyone who continues to so generously support Insight Meditation Fort Wayne, both with their time and their financial contributions. The entire Board appreciates this so much. As the Buddha taught, giving is for our benefit, first and foremost. In that spirit, I encourage you to make a donation to IMFW. Thank you!

Bodhisattva is one who undertakes the commitment and the action to save all sentient beings with the vast heart of compassion (bodhicitta). These 37 practices are said to contain all the teachings of the Buddhist path and are set forth in four sections:

Engaging is right view, inspiration for the path, the faults of samsara and the lack of lasting happiness to be found in worldly life. Engaging is commitment and these seven passages give reason to set off on the path.

Three trainings are kamma, renunciation, and bodhicitta. In this Buddhist tradition, placing others before one's self is a critical part of the path that leads one to see that there is no enduring self-existing self to protect thereby giving rise to compassion and renouncing self-grasping which engenders kamma. This sets forth the purpose of the path.

Relative and Absolute, based on the ultimate nature of reality, is where we get into deep and challenging stuff as the rubber hits the road. We don't comprehend it but we are introduced, well advised, and challenged to contemplate and attempt it. This is truly counterculture teaching as it's the opposite of striving for success, wealth, fame, respect - and all self-concern. Here one is challenged to be courageous and undefended as one realizes the interconnection of beings and phenomena on the ultimate level.

Guardians of the Gates outlines obstacles and how to overcome them with the aspiration to save all sentient beings.

Parimitas/6 perfections are set forth boldly and clearly with reasoned explanation.

In this session, we will look at this framework by taking one verse from each category and discuss how to incorporate the verses into daily life. If there is interest, we can continue with other verses on a schedule to be determined.

If you have questions or are interested in attending the July 17, 6:30 pm session on an introduction to the 37 Practices in a zoom session, please email:

pamela@appreciateyourlife.com

The class is presented by John and Pamela Steinbach

Pamela: I began my Buddhist path at Wat Buddha Dhamma in the mid 1970s with Ayya Khema. I then spent several years at Minnesota Zen Meditation Center with Katigiri Roshi. In 2014 or so, I met Garchen Rinpoche who I consider my root guru and have studied and practiced Vajrayana whenever he came to Dayton and continue to follow him and others in the Drikung Kagyu lineage remotely. The 37 Practices challenge my efforts in meditation and post meditation and give me much to contemplate. There are plenty of highly realized teachers available on the internet and we can point to you to them; I'm pleased to offer a very basic introduction not as an expert but from another student walking along side on the path, perhaps over a cup of coffee with you. I anticipate that participants will find some teachings familiar and others a bit different and interesting. I find the practice of these pith sayings of much benefit and believe they can be for practitioners of any Buddhist lineage to grow in compassion and strengthen resolve.

John: As an old guy that has been around dharma practice for a long time, I like to share things that might help others. These 37 sayings lodge in the mind and can arise as potent reminders of aspects of practice throughout the day. Anything that can move us to constantly have practice in mind is a treasure worth sharing.

I will be teaching a free online 6-week class starting on Thursday, July 23. Each class lasts about 90 minutes, and is based on the Mindful Awareness Practices series from the Mindfulness Awareness Research Center at UCLA. Their classes are designed to fit into the lives of all the busy folks out there in LA, so it packs a lot of stuff into a relatively short series. We’ll cover the basics such as mindfulness of breath, eating, walking, sounds, emotions and thoughts. We'll also touch on dealing with difficult emotions, physical discomfort and cultivational practices like loving-kindness. And, best of all, the price is right! (Because I hope we can learn from each other as we navigate these difficult times.) If you are interested, email me at jonwalker22@gmail.com.