Appamada

2024-07-15 | Depth in Practice | Noble Truths, Noble Path | Bhikkhu Bodhi by Appamada

00:10:19 - Poem - Accepting This

00:14:20 - Robin Offers Part 1 - Dharma Exercise - Writing

00:17:36 - Robin Offers Part 2 - Dharma Exercise - Sharing

00:18:38 - Participants Go Into Groups Of 2 for 15 Minutes

00:18:44 - Robin Invites Everyone to Share and Connect

Accepting This

Yes, it is true. I confess,
I have thought great thoughts,
and sung great songs—all of it
rehearsal for the majesty
of being held.

The dream is awakened
when thinking I love you
and life begins
when saying I love you
and joy moves like blood
when embracing others with love.

My efforts now turn
from trying to outrun suffering
to accepting love wherever
I can find it.

Stripped of causes and plans
and things to strive for,
I have discovered everything
I could need or ask for
is right here—
in flawed abundance.

We cannot eliminate hunger,
but we can feed each other.
We cannot eliminate loneliness,
but we can hold each other.
We cannot eliminate pain,
but we can live a life
of compassion.

Ultimately,
we are small living things
awakened in the stream,
not gods who carve out rivers.

Like human fish,
we are asked to experience
meaning in the life that moves
through the gill of our heart.

There is nothing to do
and nowhere to go.
Accepting this,
we can do everything
and go anywhere.

light will someday split you open…. ~hafiz

Light will someday split you open
Even if your life is now a cage.

Little by little, You will turn into stars.
Little by little, You will turn into
The whole sweet, amorous Universe.

Love will surely burst you wide open
Into an unfettered, booming new galaxy.

You will become so free
In a wonderful, secret
And pure Love That flows
From a conscious, One-pointed, Infinite Light.

Even then, my dear, The Beloved will have fulfilled
Just a fraction, Just a fraction!
Of a promise He wrote upon your heart.

For a divine seed, the crown of destiny,
Is hidden and sown on an ancient, fertile plain
You hold the title to.

O look again within yourself,
For I know you were once the elegant host
To all the marvels in creation.

When your soul begins
To ever bloom and laugh
And spin in Eternal Ecstasy-

O little by little, You will turn into God.

~Hafiz

2024-07-09 I Inquiry I Body of Compassion I Flint Sparks by Appamada

2024-07-08 | Depth in Practice | Noble Truths, Noble Path | Bhikkhu Bodhi by Appamada

2024-07-07 | Dharma Talk | Practice Discussion | Ann Lipscomb by Appamada

Sometimes

~ David Whyte

Sometimes

if you move carefully

through the forest,

breathing

like the ones

in the old stories,

who could cross

a shimmering bed of leaves

without a sound,

you come

to a place

whose only task

is to trouble you

with tiny

but frightening requests,

conceived out of nowhere

but in this place

beginning to lead everywhere.

Requests to stop what

you are doing right now,

and

to stop what you

are becoming

while you do it,

questions

that can make

or unmake

a life,

questions

that have patiently

waited for you,

questions

that have no right

to go away.

~ David Whyte

2024-07-01 | Depth in Practice | Noble Truths, Noble Path | Bhikkhu Bodhi by Appamada

00:02:00 - Koan - 'Not Helping'

00:08:47 - Exercise - in Groups of - 1. Reflect on the Koan for 5 minutes - 2. Speak to what it brings up in you, if anything

00:08:55 - Joel Invites Participants to Share

Koan taken from :

Zen Master Raven: Sayings and Doings of a Wise Bird - 2002 - Robert Aitken

'Not Helping'

After a talk by Raven about the Precepts, Woodpecker said, “The Cowbird lays her eggs in the Wren’s nest and the two wrens have to hustle to feed the cowbird’s baby as well as their own. I don't see why the wrens stand for it, especially since the cowbirds baby is a lot bigger, and theirs has a huge appetite. Maybe the wrens are really Bodhisattvas, selflessly devoted to helping others”.

Raven said “They arn't helping the Cowbirds”

2024-06-25 I Inquiry | Life and Death I Flint Spark by Appamada

|