Triangle Insight Meditation Community |
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May 2022 Newsletter
triangleinsight.org
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When you are alienated from your roots,
you seek buddhas.
When you are in touch with who you really are,
you are a buddha.
Thich Nhat Hanh
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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)
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Wednesday Evenings
6:30 - 8:00 pm (Insight Dialogue: 6:30 - 8 pm)
May 04 – Ron Vereen
May 11 – Scott Bryce
May 18 – Cornelia Kip Lee
May 25 – Phyllis Hicks (Insight Dialogue)
June 01 – Ron Vereen
June 08 – Scott Bryce
June 15 – Francesca Morfesis
June 22 – Daya Breckinridge (Insight Dialogue)
June 29 – Karen Ziegler
Monday and Thursday Morning Meditation
7:00 - 7:45 AM (click here for more info)
Zoom locations to be emailed.
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Amitabha, Chinese, early 7thC.
[Exh. cat.] Embodied Wisdom: Chinese and Daoist Sculpture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art
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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.
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The Practice of Insight Dialogue at Triangle Insight |
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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.
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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. |
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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.
April 2022
To find teacher notes for previous Dharma talks, go here, on the TIMC website.
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RETREATS and SPECIAL EVENTS |
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A 2nd Hybrid Test Day is in planning for improved audio/visual experience and a simplified operating procedure |
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Look for further announcements as planning advances for an alternative to the OWL PRO system. Consultation with a Durham audio-visual company is currently under consideration. Volunteers likely will again be needed for a second test. More information on a date and time for this test will be shared as planning develops.
Ideally, a test day will take place in late May or early June, and the improved system will debut at the Episcopal Center with our usual Zoom connection on a WEDNESDAY in JUNE 6:30 pm - 8: 00 pm .
We offer our deep appreciation to those who gave their time and energy to volunteer for the first test, and we are inspired by the community to find a successful hybrid model for everyone on site and on zoom. Stay tuned.
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Heart of Wisdom: Abiding Together
– An Insight Dialogue Retreat –
With Phyllis Hicks and Anna Brown Griswold
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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.
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OPPORTUNITIES
Community Engagement
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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.
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Please use these links to visit our website for this information |
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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!
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Having admirable people as friends, companions, and colleagues is actually
the whole of the holy life. - The Buddha
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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,
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Illustration for the Diamond Sutta. Dated in the colophon, CE 868.
(Public Domain)
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During times of great turmoil it can be difficult both to listen and feel heard. As Tara Brach says in Deep Listening: Ear of the Heart, "To listen well, we must become aware of the mental static that runs interference: our emotional reactivity; all the ways we interpret (and misinterpret) each other; our haste to prepare a response; how we armor ourselves with judgment. Learning to listen involves stepping out of our incessant inner dialogue and using what St. Benedict called the ‘ear of the heart.’ This deep listening offers a compassionate space for healing and intimacy.”
Our Kalyana Mitta groups offer a special opportunity for this practice. In sharing with a small group of trusted friends, separation is reduced, our hearts soften, and we can listen with greater openness and care. 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.
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KM Groups
We currently have openings in our Insight Dialogue and Raleigh groups. Our Chapel Hill-Carrboro has a waiting list. Our Secular Dharma group in the process of reorganizing and will be open to new members in the near future. A new Sutta Study group is being formed. Details about each of our groups are on our "List of KM Groups" web page
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.
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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. |
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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.
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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.
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Community Connections Committee
A NEW TIMC Initiative connecting and strengthening the bonds of our shared practice.
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One Wednesday evening per season is being designated as a dana night for a specific local nonprofit organization. As an expression of our heart practice and generosity, the Community Connections Committee is recommending Families Moving Forward for the spring suggested donations in lieu of dana to TIMC on May 18th. More information about Families Moving Forward can be found and donations can be offered through this link https://fmfnc.org. The Community Connections Committee extends gratitude to the Triangle Insight Meditation Community for its generous support of this important organization.
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When we resume meeting together at the Episcopal Center, dana baskets will be left out on those evenings, so members have the option of where they want to donate. |
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Financial Support
For Training Programs and Workshops in Racial Justice and Diversity
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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.
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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
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TIMC BOARD | NEWS AND REPORTS |
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Board Meetings
Cynthia, Leah, Marian, Martin and Ron from the Board were joined by Paula Chesnacky from the Sanga, for a Special Open Board Meeting on April 30, 2022.
- The meeting took place on Zoom. Its purpose was to review the experience of participants on the Hybrid Meeting Test Day, using an Owl Pro system for audio-visual operations.
- In light of general agreement that this system performed sub-optimally under the physical conditions of our meeting room at the Episcopal Center and presented some concerns to Zoom participants, we decided to return the Owls and look further for a compatible system. The board will confer with Custom Light and Sound, a Durham company, to resolve these problems. Another testing day may be needed. More information will be shared as this next stage develops.
Cynthia, Leah, Marian, Martin and Ron convened an Open Meeting of the Board of Directors on April 9, 2022, on Zoom. No Sangha participants were present.
- The board unanimously approved the election of Cornelia Kip Lee as an additional director on the board for a 3 yr. renewable term. Please join us in welcoming Kip to the board!
- Here's a summary of the minutes.
The board convened at 12 p.m. and began with a 10 minute meditation and recitation of the Communication Guidelines.
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Approval of Minutes for the 2022 Annual Meeting, 3/19/22.
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An Executive Session to discuss and vote on a candidate for Board Director. The decision was unanimous to appoint Cornelia Kip Lee.
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Discussion of new board member outreach.
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Report from the Community Connections Committee: The CCC will meet to choose the non-profit organization for May donations [see the CCC section in this newsletter for more details].
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Planning discussion for the upcoming Hybrid Meeting Test Day (April 23). Preparatory tasks allocated to different board members included purchase of Owls, assembling supporting equipment, materials; Lunch break and kitchen use preparation, clean-up at end.
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Report from the Editorial Committee on the web redesign project: Leah and Marian met on Zoom with Claudia Fulshaw, an independent graphic designer, and Carol Thomson, founder and CEO of Firestream Media, Durham, NC, who would serve as site builder and designated webmaster for service maintenance (using a Word Press template). They collaborate on many projects for non-profits. No contract has so far been drawn, as several questions remain about the extent of service provided and future web content needs. The board agreed that it was desirable to support local businesses like Firestream Media, and one board member related an earlier positive personal experience when working with Claudia/Carol.
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Report from the Editorial Committee on web content: Marian initiated a discussion of the individual webpages. In the time remaining, the board considered the purpose and uses for the HOME, the SCHEDULE and the PROGRAMS pages. Further assessment of the content is needed from the Board and from the Sangha. Marion drew up an index of current webpages on the TIMC website and distributed it to the board.
The Board adjourned at 2pm.
Join us for the next open board meeting, on Zoom, Saturday, May 21. Time:
12 p.m.–2 p.m. You can join us at any time. A Zoom invite will be sent to newsletter members in the week prior.
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Newsletter Submission Pointers |
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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.
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Changes to existing entries may be incorporated if submitted early in the last week of any month.
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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.
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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
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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.
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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!
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The Triangle Insight Board is looking for interested sangha participants to help us build a Communications Network for our whole practice community
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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!
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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
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