In Person Meetings and Events are Postponed Due to COVID 19 Epidemic

February 2020: Empathy Practice

“True empathy transcends the duality between speaker and listener. Instead of engaging in an exchange, we enter a field of empathic presence—one of awareness, warmth, and care—in which all experience, regardless of its local identity as mine or yours, is known and felt. We enter that space by using whatever tools support our ability to open our heart to another's experience.

I believe our society and world today have a vast need for this kind of true, deep empathy. From our individual hunger for connection and healing to the urgent need to bridge political, class, and racial divides; from the growing global refugee crisis to the dangerous effects of climate change—empathy can extend our sense of identity beyond traditional borders, even beyond the human family to include other species and the biosphere as a whole.” 

Oren Jay Sofer 

Say What You Mean- A Mindful Approach to Nonviolent Communication

"Empathy is a respectful understanding of what others are experiencing. The Chinese philosopher Chuang-Tzu stated that true empathy requires listening with the whole being: "The hearing that is only in the ears is one thing. The hearing of the understanding is another. But the hearing of the spirit is not limited to any one faculty, to the ear, or to the mind. Hence it demands the emptiness of all the faculties. And when the faculties are empty, then the whole being listens. There is then a direct grasp of what is right there before you that can never be heard with the ear or understood with the mind."

Marshall Rosenberg

Nonviolent Communication

January 2020: Thoughts on Buddhism and Civil Disobedience

Extinction Rebellion as spiritual practice: some thoughts
Yogaratna

The Buddha Taught Nonviolence, Not Pacifism
Paul Fleischman

Should we use civil disobedience to stop violence?
Thich Nhat Hanh

December 2019: Making the Invisible Visible

Making the Invisible Visible

"Practicing mindful awareness of these aspects of our conditioning and habits of the mind helps us to know what we are up against within ourselves as we seek to make change in the world.The capacity to recognize and accept where we are and to investigate what must be changed to minimize the harm that our own views and blindspots cause others is essential to the work of racial justice. And the capacity to do all of this with as little attachment and identification to the outcome is essential to true liberation."

Rhonda Magee

https://tricycle.org/magazine/race-meditation/

A Force More Powerful is a documentary series on one of the 20th century’s most important and least-known stories: how nonviolent power overcame oppression and authoritarian rule. It includes six cases of movements, and each case is approximately 30 minutes long. 

Watch for free:

A Force More Powerful

Extinction Rebellion

Extinction Rebellion

On Sunday, October 20th, we heard a presentation on Extinction Rebellion. Buddhists, including some from the Plum Village tradition, David Loy, and Thanissara, are involved in this group. Here is some information:

Extinction Rebellion US Demands and Principles

Extinction Rebellion - Ithaca Information Sign Up Form

Ecodharma - David Loy

Thanissara

Climate Strike Action - Friday September 20th

A group of us intend to attend the the Climate Strike on Friday, https://www.facebook.com/events/515764929211654/.

We are following a prompt by the Earth Holder Sangha in the Plum Village tradition, to practice deep listening at the strike, sitting with a sign stating "Concerned about Mother Earth? Fellow citizen willing to listen.”

If you intend to join us in this practice, please read and watch the links below, which teaches about the transformative power of deep listening and some of the practices necessary to get into the deep listening practice.

We also ask that everyone commits to doing a sitting practice prior to attending the event, so that we can be in a better place to listen.

We will be meeting and doing a walking meditation around the commons prior to our deep listening practice.

If you intend to attend with us, please send a DM to Anise at le.bananier@gmail.com so she can communicate further logistics.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyUxYflkhzo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pojo9rR0h7E
https://www.mindful.org/deep-listening/