Sangha Meeting Online

Sunday, April 5, 2020

Peg Syverson Introductory Remarks:

Welcome everyone online today and a warm welcome to all those who are listening, and especially sanghas in England, Madison, Alpine, Texas, and our dear friends in Hawaii and Chicago. Today we will have a sangha meeting with a presentation from the Board, but first I want to offer a brief introduction and a bit of context. 

Right now, we seem to be waiting for something.

Maria Popova highlighted the book Delayed Response, by Jason Farman, who writes: Waiting isn’t an in-between time. Instead, this often-hated and under-appreciated time has been a silent force that has shaped our social interactions. Waiting isn’t a hurdle keeping us from intimacy and from living our lives to our fullest. Instead, waiting is essential to how we connect as humans through the messages we send. Waiting shapes our social lives in many ways, and waiting is something that can benefit us. Waiting can be fruitful. If we lose it, we will lose the ways that waiting shapes vital elements of our lives like social intimacy, the production of knowledge, and the creative practices that depend on the gaps formed by waiting.

Waiting, as represented by silences, gaps, and distance, allows us the capacity to imagine that which does not yet exist and, ultimately, innovate into those new worlds as our knowledge expands.

Day after day, as we wait for the things we desire, we become different people. In the act of waiting, we become who we are. Waiting points to our desires and hopes for the future; and while that future may never arrive and our hopes may never be fulfilled, the act of reflecting on waiting teaches us about ourselves. The meaning of life isn’t deferred until that thing we hope for arrives; instead, in the moment of waiting, meaning is located in our ability to recognize the ways that such hopes define us.

Now consider this:

The Spanish Flu lasted three years, from January 1918-December 1920

The Great Depression lasted from 1929 through the thirties, continuing basically until the start of World War II in 1939, nearly a decade.

World War II followed and lasted from 1939 until 1945, six years

The Great Famine in China of modern times lasted from 1959-1961 and killed between 15-30 million people

By comparison we have been sheltering at home a little more than three weeks. I’m not trying to scare you, or to minimize the difficulties. I’m pointing out that humans are amazingly adaptive to life circumstances, and we will be too. The key in all of these crises is that people work together and that they support and encourage each other in the midst of danger. While anxiety, fear, and dread are contagious, so are calm and mindful attention, courage, mutual care and encouragement. 

Many people are facing very grave losses, and there are no doubt more to come. 

The painful thing about community is that you feel not only your own losses, but the losses of others so keenly. As Carl Jung said, the price of consciousness is pain. But the great strength of community is the commitment to each other and the mutual care that sustains us. 

And it has never been more important to stay awake, to avoid anything that distracts us from experiencing the utter aliveness of this moment. We cannot control the circumstances we find ourselves facing, but we can manage our own mind and heart and body so that we are strong and resilient in the face of them. In this way we serve our vow and become a resource for others. 

Our purpose as a community is not sitting in meditation, although that is a central practice. It is not achieving exalted states of consciousness, not worship of a deity—or even the Buddha. It is not simply fellowship and being part of a congregation. It is not being less anxious, less angry, more calm and kindly. All of these things may be byproducts of our practice together. But what you tell me, what I observe, what our times and our circumstances need, what is most satisfying, creative, meaningful, connected—what is most wise and compassionate—is this profound spiritual life that is shared, liberating, joyful, and a force for good, in our own lives and in the lives of others. We are in relationship with all being, with all life on earth, and that is one powerful teaching of this moment. 

Whatever circumstances we encounter, we can decide to meet them nobly, with ever expanding wisdom and compassion, and we can encourage and nurture others. We can learn so much from this experience. Whatever is running through your mind—masks, groceries, news items, anxiety, uncertainty—is also running through others’ minds and you can use that knowledge to connect in ways that amplify the dread and panic or you can choose to foster awakeness and courage and resilience. 

Zen is not a superficial feel-good mindfulness balm for troubled egos. It is truly a matter of life and death. Because the Buddha understood just how powerful that meeting is, he emphasized the importance of sangha, knowing that these profound teachings are strong medicine, and they can only be expressed and conveyed together. We need each other to realize fully our human lives, to regulate our nervous systems and to find mutual support and care. But we are not here to be relieved of our own suffering; we are here to liberate ourselves and every other living being in the middle of it. 

So we are sheltering in place, but that place is spacious given the technologies available to help us stay connected with each other, with our families, and with the larger world. Information is abundant (even over-abundant!), and collectively we are rising to meet the challenges: researchers, doctors, nurses, journalists, postal workers, garbage collectors, restaurant workers, school teachers, artists and musicians, spiritual leaders, and on and on. 

We are doing our best at Appamada to support you in as many different ways as we can, with opportunities for connection every single day. We have just finished the writing intensive led by Robin Bradford and Judy Myers, and we will be planning other intensives as well. 

We have had to make some adjustments to our online configuration in response to the various upsets of the Zoom world, and so it is a bit more inconvenient but safer for our meetings.

Please know that many people are working to make it possible for us to offer what we hope will be supportive of your practice and your life. Kim Mosley and Anne Heinen have been heroically researching and implementing the Zoom technology, which seems to be changing daily, Jessica and Jon-Eric Steinbomer have helped teach us how to use new features such as the webinar and have supported Flint’s inquiry sessions so beautifully. And many thanks to our new teachers, Wednesday evening facilitators, and to Ann Lipscomb and Cathy King-Tryce for organizing the mask-making initiative. Our Board, from whom you will hear in a minute, has been working tirelessly, and our Councils and Teachers continue to meet weekly for supporting the sangha in this interim state.

Most of all, our heartfelt gratitude for all who are continuing to support Appamada through your contributions. We all benefit from and deeply appreciate your care for our sangha in this difficult time. 

We are in advanced training and a long-term intensive, as I have mentioned, and we can help each other and everyone manage the new forms: physical distance, wearing masks, handwashing, and so on. I know we will be feeling the effects of this pandemic for many years to come, but I believe we can weather the immediate dangers over the next 12 months or so, if we use our practice and our vow wisely. Please know that we support you and care for your well-being—body, heart, and mind. We’ll learn together how to use the technology in support of our spiritual practice, community, and vow. It seems it is allowing participation by folks far away or otherwise unable to come to Appamada, and that is such a good ting that we may discover we want to continue with it. 

So now I would like to turn you over to Jon-Eric, who will speak on behalf of Appamada’s marvelous Board. In case you don’t know, these are the Board members: Jon-Eric Steinbomer, Jason Still, Robin Bradford, Mino Giunta, Clayton Maxwell, Mitch Solomon, and Flint and I as ex-officio members. Jon-Eric brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to his role as Board President, so I will gratefully hand the screen time over to him.