Dear Friends,
Please join us this Sunday evening, October 15th, at 6:30pm ET as we hold our weekly WMC mindfulness practice via Zoom.
After sitting meditation, we’ll recite the Refuge Chant, watch a portion of a video dharma talk, and have an opportunity to practice dharma sharing. The entire program will run about 60 minutes total.
‘As we convene this week, the global community is reacting to the latest manifestations of destabilizing violence in Israel and Gaza. The acts of terrorism and escalation to war have watered our collective and individual energies of uncertainty, sorrow, outrage, and despair.
The Plum Village tradition has its roots in a similar time, during the Vietnam War. Thich Nhat Hahn taught extensively about being peace and practicing engaged Buddhism in the midst of a country and culture being devastated by war. He drew on that experience and Buddhist teachings to speak directly to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict during a 2003 retreat and in subsequent writings. Thay emphasized recognizing and transforming the roots of misperception and dehumanization in the ongoing conflict:
“Both Israelis and Palestinians are victims, even their governments are victims of these ideas and emotions. The practice recommended in Plum Village is not to destroy the human being, but to destroy the real enemy that is inside the human being. If you want to help someone with tuberculosis, you kill the bacteria, not the person. All of us are victims of the bacteria called violence and wrong perception. While we are in Plum Village, we have the opportunity to sit down together, locate the real enemy, and discuss how to remove it. When you still have a lot of anger, fear, and despair, you are not lucid or calm, and you are not able to undertake the right action that can bring real peace.
“If I can say anything to you, it is to invite you to look deeply and recognize the real enemy. That enemy is not a person. That enemy is a way of thinking that has brought a lot of suffering for everyone. This is an opportunity for us to sit down, be calm, and do just that—identify the real enemy and seek ways to remove it.” (Thich Nhat Hanh)
In the intervening 20 years, Israelis and Palestinians have practiced together in Plum Village sanghas and have used their practice to be change agents. Tonight, we will practice in solidarity with those who continue to hold space for non-violence and peace in the midst of war -- just as Thay taught and practiced during the Vietnam War.’
Lori
True Harmonious Dwelling
Member of the Order of Interbeing
Still Water practitioner
If you would like to join us online, please write to wmcsangha@gmail.com and we will send you details.
Our Sangha is supported by dana - donations given from the heart. Your generosity is a gift that supports the Vihara, WMC expenses, the library, and your own practice. Part of your tax deductible donation also goes to help the Thich Nhat Hanh Foundation (which right now is all that is supporting our monks and nuns in monasteries around the world) and automatic monthly donations can be scheduled at our website:
https://www.mindfulnessdc.org/giving
We’ll see you this Sunday.