Triangle Insight Meditation Community |
|
April 2022 Newsletter
triangleinsight.org
|
|
In owning and honoring our pain for the world, and daring to experience it, we learn the true meaning of compassion: to “suffer with.” We begin to know the immensity of our heart-mind. What had isolated us in private anguish now opens outward and delivers us
into the wider reaches of our inter-existence.
Joanna Macy
|
|
Our home is the
Episcopal Center at Duke
505 Alexander Ave. | Durham, NC 27705
(when safe to gather in person)
Morning meditation: Monday and Thursday
Wednesday meditation with Dharma Talk, or as Insight Dialogue (below)
|
|
|
|
Wednesday Evenings
6:30 - 8:00 pm (Insight Dialogue: 6:30 - 8 pm)
April 06 -- Ron Vereen
April 13 -- Scott Bryce
April 20 -- Karen Ziegler
April 27 -- Phyllis Hicks (Insight Dialogue)
May 04 -- Ron Vereen
May 11 -- Scott Bryce
May 18 -- Cornelia Kip Lee
May 25 -- Phyllis Hicks (Insight Dialogue)
Monday and Thursday Morning Meditation
7:00 - 7:45 AM (click here for more info)
Zoom locations to be emailed.
|
|
Amitabha, Chinese, early 7thC.
[Exh. cat.] Embodied Wisdom: Chinese and Daoist Sculpture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art
|
|
|
If you would like to know more about our meditation schedule or would like to sign up to receive a Zoom invite for Morning Meditation or Wednesday Evenings, visit the Schedule page on our website OR email us at info@triangleinsight.org, and tell us the Zoom list(s) you would like to join,
To receive this monthly newsletter, please complete the newsletter subscription on our Newsletters webpage, or send your request to the info email above.
If you would like to change any part of your subscription, please email us and we will make this change for you.
|
|
|
The Practice of Insight Dialogue at Triangle Insight |
|
|
Insight Dialogue is an interpersonal meditation practice and is offered at Triangle Insight once monthly, usually on the fourth Wednesday of the month. It brings the mindfulness and tranquility of silent meditation directly into our experience with other people.
An excellent resource for learning more about the practice is the new website for Insight Dialogue: www.insightdialogue.org.
|
|
GuanYin (Kuan Yin)
Bodhisattva of Mercy and Compassion
|
|
|
The evening begins with silent meditation practice, followed by gentle mindful movement, and then shifting into dyad practice where interpersonal mindfulness is explored with a partner in response to a contemplation that is offered. The dyad practice is optional so that anyone who chooses to remain in silent practice may do so, rather than shifting into dyad practice. One can investigate the guidance of the contemplation internally, noticing the moment by moment unfolding of internal experience. Note that the ID practice goes from 6:30 to 8:00 pm while meeting on Zoom. When it is possible to resume in-person meetings the time will return to 8:30 pm, to allow for more spaciousness and time for questions. We hope you will be able to join us. |
|
|
Links to Wednesday Dharma Talks
Our Triangle Insight Meditation teachers support your continued exploration of the Dharma by offering the recordings of their talks for your review . Since the talks are now available, notes and references will no longer be requested of the teachers as these are often noted in the talks.
Please click on any specific date below and you will be directed to the recording of the talk for that date.
March 2022
Mar 30 – Jeanne van Gemert (recording unavailable - link is to the text)
To find teacher notes for previous Dharma talks, go here, on the TIMC website.
|
|
|
RETREATS and SPECIAL EVENTS |
|
|
TEST DAY for Hybrid Meetings is SATURDAY, APRIL 23rd |
|
|
SATURDAY April 23rd, 10 am - 2:30 pm
Site: Episcopal Center at Duke and via Zoom
A BIG THANK YOU to everyone who has volunteered to help test the new Owl Pro camera system, Zoom connections, and best arrangement of screens and seathing at the Episcopal Center (EC). A tentative schedule can be found HERE. You will get more schedule information prior to Test Day.
-
Total testing time at the EC is 10 am - 2:30 pm. The core tech team will unpack and plug-in the equipment in the morning.
-
Volunteers are welcome to arrive at 11am to observe, help arrange the furniture, lay cable, or set up sight lines for the screens and microphones.
-
EC participants may also arrive at 12:30pm to take part in the Hybrid Session.
-
Zoom participants should check in just before 12:30 pm. You will receive a Zoom address before April 23.
|
|
|
IMCC Spring 2022 Residential Retreat |
Untangling the Tangles
with Sharon Beckman-Brindley and Hugh Byrne
April 28-May 1, 2022
Serenity Ridge Retreat Center
Nelson County, Virginia
Retreat Description
‘A tangle within, a tangle without, people are entangled in a tangle… Who can untangle this tangle?’ (SN 7:6)
The Buddha saw, with great compassion, that people in his time were caught up in tangles of desire, discontent, and worry. His teachings offered an answer to the question of tangles as he pointed to the cultivation of appropriate attention and to other skillful qualities of heart and mind—such as mindfulness, discernment, compassion, joy and letting go.
We, in our own times, can be similarly caught in tangles. In this retreat, we will, together, deepen our cultivation of the freedom that can be found in the wholesome practices offered by the Buddha. We will focus especially on making our spiritual practice uniquely our own as we apply the teachings to the particular circumstances of each of our own conditions, experience, and life.
IMCC is Insight Meditation Community of Charlottesville
|
|
|
Heart of Wisdom: Abiding Together
– An Insight Dialogue Retreat –
With Phyllis Hicks and Anna Brown Griswold
|
|
|
Insight Dialogue brings together meditative awareness, the wisdom teachings of the Buddha, and the power of relationship to support insight into the nature, source, and release of human suffering.
We will practice the six meditation guidelines forming the core of Insight Dialogue: Pause, Relax, Open, Attune to Emergence, Listen Deeply, and Speak the Truth. The essence of the practice is to become aware of how the heart and mind function, how habits hold us captive, and what remains when those habits dissolve.
Meditating alone and, also in pairs and small groups engaged in dialogue processes, we will contemplate the interconnected nature of all experience and invite the wisdom of the heart.
|
|
|
OPPORTUNITIES
Community Engagement
|
|
|
Do you have an event or activity that you would like to share in this space? The newsletter welcomes ideas for volunteer activity to engage our Buddhist values and spirit. Email your ideas to board@triangleinsight.org, and please include main details and relevant links. Your contribution will appear in this section.
|
|
|
Please use these links to visit our website for this information |
|
|
Sangha means spiritual community, and it is treasured because without it awakening cannot be sustained. –Jack Kornfield, After the Ecstasy, the Laundry
The Welcoming Committee wishes to foster the experience of belonging to a diverse, tolerant community connected through mindfulness practice, where all feel welcome and safe. We seek to link all participants and newcomers to ongoing activities and to ensure the Zoom connection is available. You are welcome to Visit our Webpage!
|
|
|
Having admirable people as friends, companions, and colleagues is actually
the whole of the holy life. - The Buddha
|
|
|
New Sutta Study Group
A new KM group based on studying and discussing the Buddhist suttas is being formed. If you’re interested or would like more information,
|
|
|
Illustration for the Diamond Sutta. Dated in the colophon, CE 868.
(Public Domain)
|
|
|
During these times of great violence and suffering, we can experience a tangle of difficult emotions. Bringing mindful awareness to all we are holding supports us in releasing the tangle and moving from contraction to compassion.
As Gil Fronsdal notes in Responding to Tragedy, “In the face of unimaginable tragedy, violence and hate, we are called upon to honestly recognize our own fear, confusion and anger….To develop our mindfulness of all three is to learn how to be free of their forces. This is a slow and gradual process. But the more free we become, the more we are able to organize our lives around our best intentions.”
Our spiritual friends groups provide a special opportunity for this practice. In sharing our experiences with a small group of trusted friends, our feelings are held with tenderness and care. Understanding deepens, separation is reduced, and we see more clearly. We can then connect with our heart’s intentions and respond with wiser, more compassionate action.
A beautiful aspect of this process is that as the heart of the dharma is enriched in our own lives, we are contributing to the spiritual journey of others. This is the gift of the third jewel of sangha, a jewel that illuminates this path we travel together.
|
|
|
KM Groups
We currently have openings in our Insight Dialogue group. Our Chapel Hill-Carrboro and Raleigh groups each have a waiting list. Our Secular Dharma group is in the process of re-forming and will be open to new members in the near future.
Information about our KM program and links to helpful resources are on our KM web page. If you’d like more information, or you want to join a group, be on a waiting list, or start a new group, please contact Sarah Tillis, KM Coordinator at sarah@triangleinsight.org.
|
The KM Coordinating Team of Sarah Tillis and Tamara Share expresses deep gratitude for the dedication of our sangha. |
May our Kalyana Mitta groups be of great benefit to all. |
|
|
Known as RAGs, Racial Affinity Groups allow people to deepen self-awareness around issues of race in small, racially homogeneous groups. As we face our long history of systemic racism and violence against people of color, RAGs provide a safe space where participants can integrate the dharma into their exploration of racial belonging and racial habits of harm.
|
|
|
 |
RAGs Coordinator
Kathy Shipp, long-time participant of the Triangle Insight community, is the coordinator of TIMC's Racial Affinity Groups. Kathy will keep the sangha aware of on-going RAGs and the opportunities for practice that they offer, through newsletter, website and meeting announcements. She will be available to answer questions about RAGs formation and RAGs experience, and she will be a resource of information about racial equity training and practice. She will maintain an up-to-date list of active RAGs, and connect people who are interested in forming a new group, To reach out to Kathy, email her at kathy@triangleinsight.org.
|
|
|
|
Sangha Support: Caring Circles, Helping Hands
A TIMC Sangha Initiative connecting and strengthening the bonds of our shared practice.
|
|
|
Caring Circles offers the Triangle Insight Meditation Sangha a simple framework for requesting and providing services to cope with the uncertainties and needs of everyday life.
Knowing there is a helping network for sharing and receiving is a great joy and safe haven. Requests for assistance from the TIMC community will be connected with TIM regular practitioners who are ready to volunteer their assistance as a form of dana service.
|
|
|
Financial Support
For Training Programs and Workshops in Racial Justice and Diversity
|
|
|
|
Our goal:
To help individuals and our community deepen the understanding of how unexamined views of race can limit the mind and human systems.
A Scholarship Fund for this purpose exists through donations from the TIMC General Fund and the generosity of several Triangle Insight participants.
If Triangle Insight sangha participants would like to receive scholarship support for training with OARNC, White Awake, or other programs addressing racial injustice, please send email to board@triangleinsight.org.
|
|
|
|
We invite the community to join this initiative by contributing directly to this scholarship fund.
For your convenience, you may use the dedicated PayPal portal
|
|
|
|
TIMC BOARD | NEWS AND REPORTS |
|
|
Board Meetings
Cynthia, Leah, Marian, Martin and Ron convened the 2022 Annual Meeting of the Board of Directors on March 19, 2022, on Zoom. Here's a summary of the minutes.
The board convened at 12 p.m. with additional participants present from the sangha.
The meeting began with a 10 minute meditation and recitation of the Communication Guidelines. These agenda items were accomplished:
Approval of the 2/19/22 Board meeting minutes.
Review and approval of the 2021 TIMC Annual Financial Report
Executive Session called (Zoom Room) for the Election of Officers
- Martin Steinmeyer was elected Chair of the Board for a term of one year.
- Marian Place was elected Secretary of the Board for a term of one year.
Discussion of existing guidelines for speaking with prospective board members
- Two board members volunteered to search for interested individuals.
Report from the Racial Affinity Groups Coordinator, Kathy Shipp,
- RAG groups may need to be diversified in type so as to be as welcoming as possible. Kathy will look into whether “affinity” could be one theme for KM groups ("affinity sits"), and report on this investigation to the board.
Hybrid Meeting Test Day
- Saturday, April 23 is the revised date for the hybrid test.
- Ron will write further instructions and send a schedule to the volunteers; there will be a report to the sangha about the test outcome.
- Martin will finalize the schedule for the test.
Editorial Committee report
- Current webmaster will soon end her work with us (Mary Ka Powers).
-
Agreement to search for a replacement to redesign the webside and provide on-going web management; Leah will coordinate web redesign and hosting process. Marian will coordinate a website content review.
Discussion of strengthening ties among sangha members
- One idea was to hold an outside/inside potluck at the Episcopal Center when space is available.
- Other options mentioned could take advantage of different forms of technology available to us: a general email list-serv; a Calendar on the website to show events and activities; an audio player to easily access dharma talk recordings; a web-based forum to facilitate topic-specific groups.
Approval of a second donation to the Episcopal Center in lieu of not renting space for the last two years.
Decision to continue publishing audio recordings for each Dharma Talk when available. Links to recordings from the preceding month will be published in this newsletter and on the website under Dharma Talk Recordings. This will become a feature on the website in the near future.
Decision not to ask teachers to post references to their dharma talks.
Meeting Adjourned: 2:00 p.m.
The next open board meeting will be held a week earlier than usual. Join us on Zoom, Saturday, April 9, 12 p.m.–2 p.m. A Zoom invite will be sent to newsletter members in the week prior.
|
|
|
Newsletter Submission Pointers |
-
At least two weeks prior to the month in which you wish your announcement to appear, submit new items to info@triangleinsight.org.
- Include in your request a short statement of your relationship to TIMC.
- New requests submitted in the last week of any month may not be accepted if time is a factor in preparing a final copy.
-
Changes to existing entries may be incorporated if submitted early in the last week of any month.
-
All authors are encouraged to update their newsletter entries and to resubmit, clearly indicating all changes in text and lay-out to minimize error and design time.
-
Keep the text crisp and short, but include important details and attachments. Instead of longer texts, refer the reader to websites for additional information.
- Indicate how many months you want your entry to be published, and
-
Stay in touch with updates if any specific details change. You are responsible for calling in any changes in time, special dates and/or end dates for ongoing classes, groups or other continuing entries.
-
Special circumstances may require adjustment of the deadlines indicated here; early submission is a best practice and helps the newsletter editors determine where, how and if the item submitted shall be published (please see #1 in the Guidelines).
Please contact us through info@triangleinsight.org, and include "Newsletter" on the subject line. We will help you get your item published. Thank you for helping us!
|
|
|
The Triangle Insight Board is looking for interested sangha participants to help us build a Communications Network for our whole practice community
|
|
|
|
Newsletter Editorial Committee
To all interested sangha participants, we are forming a Newsletter Editorial Committee and hope you will volunteer to help develop and maintain the Newsletter. Email www.board@triangleinsight.org. noting Editorial Committee in the subject line.
Website
Plans are in the works for refreshing the website with advice from. a professional website designer. If you are interested in working on planning the website, send us an email: ww.board@triangleinsight.org.
Thank you!
|
|
|
|
|
|
You are welcome to contact me directly with any comments or suggestions to improve the newsletter and website.
In humor and good intention,
Leah Rutchick, leah@triangleinsight.org
|
|
|
|
|
Share, Share, Share Tell your friends
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
