Dear friends –
I find it difficult to maintain my breath right now in the midst of so much violence against Black men, women and children. We will have our regular Day of Mindfulness on Saturday from 10-3 which will be mostly silent. As planned, we will offer a Ceremony to Support the Sick. This Ceremony can be dedicated to those who are sick across all dimensions of being. Those who are suffering through old age and death, those who are suffering through violence perpetrated against them. Their families, their friends, their communities, their race – sick at heart for what they experience day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, decade after decade, century after century. Those who are suffering because their mental and spiritual sicknesses restrict their view of the consequences of perpetrating violence against others and thus against themselves. Those who are suffering because they refuse to acknowledge what is happening around them.
And on Sunday, some of us will attend, as silent witnesses, possibly chanting, the Black Lives Matter Vigil at the Vancouver Art Gallery from 12:30 to 2:30.
Please consider joining us on either or both days so we may take refuge together in the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha – refusing to turn away from suffering. We will retreat by moving forward together.
Bethan – True Spacious Mind
