This Thursday our meeting will take place just as we arrive at this year's Winter Solstice (7:27pm Pacific Time). This longest night of the year has given rise to many holidays of light (Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, Soyal, the winter solstice celebration of the Hopi Indians, and many others). We will explore accessing the light within as we experience the solstice and navigate the shadow within us and in the world.

Could we really love if we lived forever? There is no true love without suffering. This is revealed through our mortality and the impermanence of all conditioned things. We are not the body but its fragility reflects our true essence. Just as when a candle melts, the flame burns. Just as the sun arises out of the darkest night, so too, our awakening to truth is grounded in understanding the Buddha's Noble Truth of suffering. We witness how suffering begins, how it ends, and how to free ourselves from it. As the heart breaks open, we are waking up to the truth of what we are, nothing less than unconditional love. In the words of Victor Frankl, “To give light, we must endure burning.”

Meditation followed by a dhamma talk.

This guided meditation includes a body scan and invites the receptivity and letting-go of whole body breathing. Once we have awakened the vitality and presence throughout the body, we have access to the formless dimension, the awareness that is our source. The meditation closes with “Walk Slowly”, from the poetry of Danna Faulds.

When we are lost in the trance of doing, our lives are on automatic, and contracted by sense that something’s wrong or missing. This talk explores the challenges of learning to pause, and the blessings that arise when we step out of our incessant mental and physical activity and reconnect with the being-qualities of presence, wisdom and love (a favorite from the archives). “The deepest expression of love is this non-doing presence because that’s when we are inhabiting who we really are.”

Short Reflection & Guided Meditation | Earthworm Practice for the Anthropocene | Online Wednesday-Mornings