Author Archives: sangha

Good afternoon dear friends –

What beautiful fresh and sunny days we are having right now! So beautiful for walking. And how wonderful to be gathering again now it is September! We will have a chance to greet each other and catch up a bit on what is happening in our lives and with our practice. We will also be able to discuss and clarify how we will be meeting now that the Zendo will soon be opening.

Thursday, September 3, will still be a Zoom meeting as we recite the Five Mindfulness Trainings followed by Dharma discussion.

The Zoom link and password remain the same. This information can also be found at : http://wavesandwater.org/site/sangha/about/thursday/

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89551327240
Meeting ID: 895 5132 7240
Password: 891639

Over the last couple of months, Mountain Rain Zen Community has developed a protocol for meeting in the Zendo beginning perhaps September 10. Here are some key points of the protocol for meeting in person:

First, there will be WIFI and we are committed to continuing with ZOOM for friends who want to join us from Alberta, Nanaimo, the North Shore – and anywhere else. This includes folk who simply find it more comfortable right now to meet on the internet.

As we indicated previously, please ensure that you identify yourself by using video, displaying a photograph, or displaying your full name so we have a sense of safety and community. We will have two or three computers in the Zendo so everyone can be “present” and Zoom users will be able to see not only each other but also those in the Zendo.

Second, there will be a limit of 12 people in the Zendo at any one time. We will need to have everyone who wants to meet in the Zendo to contact us as early as possible OR before 5:00 on Thursdays to either reserve a place or find out we are fully booked: wwsangha@gmail.com. It would be very helpful if you could respond as soon as possible if you plan to attend even irregularly!

We hope that a solid core group will commit to all Thursdays, or first Thursdays, or Thursdays in October, etc. We will nourish each other and the Sangha by coming together as a community.

Our program over the next two months will include Dharma talks from two Plum Village monastics:
Sister Peace: Cultivating Love & Peace for Racial Healing
Sister Tam Muoi: Racial Justice: What can White people do?

You may be interested in an article by Sister Annabel in Lion’s Roar: Thich Nhat Hanh at home in Vietnam: https://www.lionsroar.com/thich-nhat-hanh-at-home-in-vietnam

Also, the Thich Nhat Hanh Foundation has a biweekly e-mail called THE RAFT that provides a varied selection practice resources: thichnhathanhfoundation.org/the-raft

With warm wishes for your health and well-being –

Good morning dear friends!

On Thursday evening we will have our final Sangha gathering of the summer. We will meet again September 3^rd. That may be in person (and by Zoom) in the Mountain Rain Zendo or it may be by Zoom alone…. Please watch out for the blog message as well as the front page of the website.

Tomorrow evening (July 30) those of us who can will meet at Mountain View Cemetery at 6:45 to practice at a safe distance. Here are some things good to know about meeting at Mountain View 5455 Fraser Street Vancouver:

1/ Both the washrooms and the road gates close at 7:30 BUT we do not need to leave. We do need to make sure we park our vehicles on neighbouring streets so we are not locked in!

2/ The two main entrances are from 41^st Avenue at St. George Street and Fraser Street at 39^th  Avenue.

3/ Please come to the Main Building (straight in from 39^th) where we will meet. We will walk to the fountain (south and west from the Main Building) to begin our practice. Someone will stay at the Main Building until 7:10.

4/ We will plan to  practice until 9:00 – however due to the lack of washrooms after 7:30 we will understand anyone needing to leave early!

Those of us who cannot make it – Please join Rebecca and others in an hour of individual practice – two periods of sitting and walking, some tea, perhaps some reading or chanting or deep relaxation.

We would appreciate knowing who plans to attend so we can keep an eye out for you! (wwsangha@gmail.com)

Offering love and compassion to all beings –

We will meet again in September

Good afternoon dear friends

This evening we will have our usual sitting, walking, sitting, walking with the inclusion of the Great Bell Chant with Thay and Br Phap Nien at the beginning of each sit. In the second hour we will have a variety of chants and practice songs with video from both monastic and lay practitioners.

We will meet by Zoom on Thursdays for the rest of July. As is our tradition, in August we will not meet.

It is possible on September 3rd we will be back in the Mountain Rain Zendo – at least some of us meeting face-to-face. There are no firm plans from Mountain Rain yet, but there is an intention. We will be in touch through the blogposts in the last week of August to let everyone know if this is happening and how it will happen. We will almost certainly have practitioners sign in so we can control numbers for physical distancing.

We are hoping that once we are back in the Zendo we will be able to continue with Zoom for those who cannot come to Sangha in person. Currently there is no wifi in the Zendo but that may change….

May we practice together with grace and ease.

Bethan

Good afternoon dear friends

Last evening we practiced with Thay’s story about writing the poem “Dedication,” read the poem itself, and listened to the practice song that put the poem to music: “Alone again” This may be found at https://plumvillage.org/articles/blog/poems-of-thay/alone-again-song-recommendation-thays-poetry/

We also listened to Dharma teacher Larry Ward’s poem and video talk “USA: The business that became a country.” This may be found at <https://www.thelotusinstitute.org/blog/thebusinessthatbecameacountry>

Our hearts were full!

Next week – July 2 – we will recite the Five Mindfulness Trainings developed by Marisela Gomez and Valerie Brown and supported by ARISE Sangha:
Contemplations on the Five Mindfulness Trainings, a new paradigm for racial justice and the global pandemic: “Let us open to a new and deeper way of understanding the Five Mindfulness Trainings, guiding principles for mindful and ethical living, which call us toward individual and collective awakening, compassion, and peace. We are aware that we are interconnected. What happens in Wuhan, China affects people in New York City. What happens to the Black body affects all bodies. We are called forward.” https://arisesangha.org/june-2020-special-newsletter

And on June 9 we will bring practice songs and offer them to each other! Please let us know at wwsangha@gmail.com what songs you might like to offer OR simply ask the Sangha to sing! We will have words and folk who are willing to teach the songs.

We are changing one of our Zoom practices – we will begin next week! There will be a waiting room that you enter when you use the meeting ID and the password. Someone will be in the waiting room to allow you to enter. It is important that we see who you are so please turn on your video. If you are uncomfortable having your image present throughout Sangha please try to have a background, preferably one that includes your face, if you turn off video.

We will no longer be admitting those who log in without a face to begin with and then a name and image to carry on. This is partly for security reasons but also because we come together to practice in community and we cannot “commune” so well with “iPhone on a black background”!

Please join us – and let us know if you need any help getting on-line.
With a smiling bow, Bethan

Good afternoon dear friends

In these difficult times sitting, walking and studying the Dharma in community – even virtual community – can help us maintain our breath. Even if we can manifest deep mindful breaths for one minute at a time, that will help.

This week we have an opportunity to practice the Ceremony to Recite the Five Mindfulness Trainings. In the following weeks we will complete our viewing of Sr Annabel’s talk and then carry on with a focus on practice songs and what we can learn from them.

For Thursday, if at all possible, please have the text of the Five Mindfulness Trainings with you (available at http://wavesandwater.org/site/practice/five-mindfulness-trainings/ ) so that you can participate in the recitation.

The Zoom link and meeting ID remains the same and can be found at : http://wavesandwater.org/site/sangha/about/thursday/

We hope you can join us. And, here is an offering – a poem by our OI brother Dzung Vo who practices with the Vancouver Mindfulness Community:

i can’t breathe
said George Floyd
the knee of four hundred years of racism
on his neck

i can’t breathe
said the woman with fear
in her eyes
her lungs attacked by coronavirus
as she was put onto the ventilator

i can’t breathe
said the nurse, exhausted
after a long shift
sweating under a hot surgical mask
and foggy goggles

i can’t breathe
said the young man
poisoned by a toxic drug supply
and generations of trauma and loss

i can’t breathe
said the one hundred thousand
dead americans
a nation and a world in mourning

i can’t breathe
said cities choked in smoke
from a planet on fire

breathe my dear
said the buddha of our time
reminding us of the way
to love and healing and transformation

breathe my dear
said the beloved community
grieving
and waking up together

breathe my dear
said mother earth
and let my oceans, mountains,
and forests embrace you
right now

when it seems so hard just to breathe
right now
just breathe

With permission….

Dear friends

Breathing In and Breathing Out

Over the next three Thursdays we will have the opportunity to listen to a Dharma Talk by Sr Annabel: Compassion is Non-Local: “Please remember that the world needs your happiness.” Sr Annabel recorded this talk on April 26, 2020. Each week we will watch and listen to approximately 30 minutes of the talk followed by Dharma discussion.

This talk is from a series of on-line offerings called THE RAFT. Created by the Thich Nhat Hanh Foundation, Plum Village Monastery, Parallax Press, and the Plum Village App team, The Raft is a special weekly series for a period of time during the pandemic, assembled to nourish and inspire your individual and collective mindfulness practice.

This is THE RAFT website: https://thichnhathanhfoundation.org/the-raft You can subscribe….

There are also many other Plum Village offerings that are being broadcast over Zoom. For example Dharma Teacher Joann Rosen who visits both here and in Victoria invites us to an on-line 21-day retreat. Starting June 7 until the 28th, we are going to begin anew together, this essential new way of holding the whole awesome catastrophe, waking up to 21 days of formal and informal practice, familiar and out of the box ways of connecting with self and others. Details for the retreat at: sugarplumsangha.org/21day-workout

If you have found anything you especially enjoy, please let us know!

ZOOM INFORMATION for our Thursday night gatherings remains the same as in the past – we welcome everyone….
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89551327240
Meeting ID: 895 5132 7240
Password: 891639
If you are joining by phone :
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kcJTaAG3iR

May all beings be well….

Dear Friends

The upcoming Thursday, April 30, is a fifth Thursday. It is a tradition of Waves and Water Sangha to offer something a little different on fifth Thursdays. This week, we invite you to each share an offering with the community. This can be anything from songs, poems, stories, activities, shadow puppetry, and skills … all are warmly welcome. We will have the usual two periods each of sitting and walking first.

If you are looking for an idea, please consider offering a story of joyful effort in times of quarantine. Where did you find that making a joyful effort benefited your spirits during this time? Was there a ritual that became meaningful? Were there surprising moments of joy within the limits of the quarantine? You could tell us this story in any way you like.

Facilitating on Zoom is a bit more challenging for us. If you are able to let us know ahead of time what your offering will be, that would help us to plan the evening.

We look forward to your stories. For further information on joining us via Zoom, please visit our web page at : http://wavesandwater.org/site/sangha/about/thursday/

Please feel free to email us at wwsangha@gmail.com.

Dear Friends

Due to impermanent causes and condition, we have had to change our Zoom link one more time.  We hope this will be the last.

Please join us for a virtual sangha gathering this Thursday.

Time: Thursdays, 07:00 PM (Pacific Standard Time) beginning Apr 16, 2020.

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89551327240

Meeting ID: 895 5132 7240
Password: 891639

If you are joining by phone :
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kcJTaAG3iR

Good afternoon dear friends
Please note: For security reasons, we have added a password for our Zoom gathering.

Link :https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89551327240
Meeting ID: 895 5132 7240
Password: 891639

If you are joining by phone :
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kcJTaAG3iR

 Thursday, April 09, we will have two periods of sitting and walking. The first will include a guided meditation from Joanna Macy’s World as Lover, World as Self. Br Phap Ho from Deer Park Monastery will offer the guided meditation, A Time  Of Collective Turning, in the first period of sitting.

Follow our sitting and walking meditation there will be a break to get tea and then we will break into groups for Dharma sharing.

Online practice resources to keep you sane during times of crisis.

One of the key aspects of Thich Nhat Hanh’s teaching is the importance of community and at a time of crisis, it is particularly important to be able to turn to each other for support.So we are very happy to showcase some of the resources that Plum Village offers to help guide your practice during this time.

1. To stay in touch with Plum Village and our practices, you can join some of our daily activities like sitting meditation and dharma talks. Please bear with us as these resources are still in an experimental phase: live from from our different practice centers

2. “Let’s be alone together” – Brother Phap Linh shares his thoughts on how to deal with isolation from his quarantine room: video blog

3. Moving your Sangha online? With much of the world in lockdown or practising social distancing, Sanghas are having to adapt and be creative as they move meetings online. Here are a few tips for making the transition

4. We have also compiled an article for you with: 10 tips from Thich Nhat Hanh to stay sane in challenging times

5. You can listen to all the recent dharma talks in the Plum Village tradition on your favourite  podcast platform:

6. And the free Plum Village app can bring our practice to you wherever you are.

7. Plum Village dharma teachers around the world are offering new dharma talks each week. You can find them on our YouTube channel

8. Would you like to exercise at home? Please enjoy these: Qi Gong exercises led by Brother Phap Dung.

 EARTHOLDER SANGHA PRACTICE

Embodying Racial and Ecological Justice in the Face of the Climate Emergency https://academy.earthholder.org/

“Just like the first offering, we’ll explore the interconnection, the intersectionality, the interbeingness of ecological-social-racial justice. We will nourish ourselves with Earth-based mindfulness practice, connect with the beauty and safety of the present moment, and gain fresh insight on how to be and do at this time of profound societal and climate disruption.”

Good morning dear friends,

Waves and Water Sangha will gather to recite the Five Mindfulness Trainings as we do every first Thursday of the month — this month, via Zoom.  The text for the recitation is available HERE

We have a new Zoom link so please be sure to use this, not the one from last week.
Join Zoom Meeting https://zoom.us/j/289941770

If you think you may need technical support, please email us at wwsangha@gmailcom as soon as possible.

We look forward to practising with you tonight.