IN THIS NEWSLETTER:
Steve McCurry, Kyoto, Japan, 2004
The first time I met with Michael Carroll, with what I thought was a secret yearning to have a dharma teacher in my life, was shortly after my mother had died. I couldn’t get her final, difficult, days out of my head. I told him my heart felt like it had broken, and I couldn’t pull myself together. And he said “that’s ok. We Buddhists love broken hearts.” It was a shocking thing to say, even more so because I believed him. That was not the view I had held for most of my life. I thought sadness was a weakness, and disappointment was something to ignore, or avoid, or move through quickly, gracefully and alone. But no, he has said to me over the years, in one form or another, disappointment is the most fertile ground for awakening.
Contests like the election leave some of us celebrating, defined by a victory, certain of a future that we believe we can control. Others are left with a sense of crushing disappointment, a weight of the loss of what could have been, but now feels out of reach. And others might be wondering “what just happened?” You might feel like “everything is going to be ok!” or “nothing will ever be ok again.” Or even, “nothing changes”. All are illusions, but they feel so real, don’t they? Maybe we can get a little curious about what’s going on with us, and challenge the cherished beliefs we have around winning and losing.
It’s the holiday season! Talk about fertile ground – expectations, busyness, excitement, depression, stress! Kritee Kanko, a climate scientist and Zen priest wrote in an email “let us belong to each other, let us belong to our bodies, our broken hearts, and Earth…Our sense of belonging will decide how we will not just survive and if we will thrive”. With the holidays, the climate, political chaos, life in general, I take refuge in my practice, not as a way of hiding, but rather as a way of being with whatever is. I take refuge in our teachers, formal and informal, in the ocean of dharma that is available to us (and Wisdom Seat can help with that!) and in our community of practitioners, and all the wise ones (and that includes the non-human beings) as we see how life continues to unfold. I hope we’ll see each other at Nyinthuns, teachings, gatherings and celebrations throughout the season and into the New Year.
Cheerful holidays to all,
Stephanie Tade
Notes from Bill
In a couple weeks, our next A Mindful Gathering will be with Jacqui Merrell, discussing what the path actually is, and how it unfolds. Please join us Dec 17th.
Our last few A Mindful Gathering recordings are now posted to watch in the forum, including Vajrayana & the 21st Century Paradox with Michael Carroll, and Align Your Body, Elevate Your Practice: Yoga & Posture for Buddhist Practitioners with Corina Benner.
Recordings now available to view:
Buddhist Legends to Live by
Noble teachings for offering wisdom and compassion to a brilliant and bewildered world.
A couple years back, The Wisdom Seat offered a program exploring how to lead a healthy Buddhist life in the 21st century. In this 8-part course, we explored how to work with the many brilliant and bewildering paradoxes offered by modern times and examined ways we can intelligently help others while cultivating our own well-being. We discussed together five ancient Buddhist legends:
The story of Siddhartha
The dawn of the dark age
The vision of the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara
The fierce skill of the four-armed Mahakala
The kingdom of Shambhala
For those who would like to revisit these discussions, The Wisdom Seat is making the program available as unlisted video playlist via our YouTube channel. Feel free to share these teachings with others who would like to bring this Buddhist wisdom alive in everyday life.
Finally, there is a new past event blog post about our recent The Wisdom Seat Retreat, along with photos by attendees.
take care,
Bill Moriarty from The Wisdom Seat
We would like to remind you to take some time and visit our Instagram page, @wisdomseat_stevemccurry. Here, you will find an array of enlightening teachings and breathtaking images that are bound to inspire and awaken your mind and spirit. We have curated these posts with utmost care and diligence to provide you with a source of inspiration and learning.
We are thrilled about our collaboration with Steve McCurry Studios, a partnership we believe will bridge our communities. Through the combined power of beauty and wisdom, we aim to create deep and meaningful connections among us all. We look forward to your continued support and engagement with our content.
The Unexpected Way: How the Path Actually Unfolds
A Mindful Gathering with Bill Moriarty and Jacqui Merrell
Tuesday, December 17th 7:00 to 8:00 PM EST on Zoom
Let's talk about the path...the fact that we don't always know what it is, what it looks like, and how it happens.
Wednesday Meditation
Ongoing offering: Online meditation every Wednesday evening 6:15 to 7:30 PM EST
Worldwide Wednesday evening online sitting meditation practice.
We, at The Wisdom Seat, invite you to meet on Wednesday evenings from 6:15 – 7:30 PM Eastern Time to practice the sitting meditation discipline as taught in the Buddhist & Shambhala tradition of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche.
Nyinthun: Everyone is welcome!
Ongoing offering: Nyinthun (in-person and online)
The first Sunday of every month.
All day sitting interspersed with walking meditation. The word nyinthun*, is Tibetan for “day session.”
In understanding dharma, Trungpa Rinpoche placed a strong emphasis on mindfulness/awareness meditation practice. This community practice of Nyinthun - all day sitting interspersed with walking meditation - gives us the opportunity to experience the full spectrum of our mind, make friends with our immediate experience and rediscover our natural sanity.
Please take a look, and sign up to join us for some nyinthun retreat days. It is ok to join for as much of the day as you can.
Collaborative practice undertaking with The Wisdom Seat & The Profound Treasury Retreat
The Wisdom Seat encourages as many opportunities for practitioners to engage in the discipline of mindfulness/awareness (shamatha/vipashyana) as one can engage in. We are happy to invite the Profound Treasury Retreat (PTR) with their offering of Sunday sitting.
PTR community is hosting a 2-hour sitting session from 9:30am to 11:30 am EST
There will be meditation instruction every third Sunday of the month, given by a qualified meditation instructor.
Dates: Dec 8th, 15th, 22nd, & 29th
Here is the Zoom link for this session: Sunday Sitting Zoom Link
All are welcome to attend.
WESTCHESTER MEDITATION CENTER
The WMC Annual Retreat at Garrison Institute
February 7-14, 2025
With Judy Lief and the WMC Senior Teachers
Open to all, and includes a separate track for vajrayana practitioners.
Scholarships are Available!
Meditation is meant to transform our experience not only "on the cushion," but throughout our entire life, encompassing the difficulties of the so-called real world. To do this, we cultivate an attitude of acceptance and imperturbability which is flexible and open, not tight and fixated. This year we will focus on fine-tuning our meditation practice to sustain us in all aspects of our experience, cultivating warmth and openness to bring to a world increasingly in need of those qualities.
The focus of the track for vajrayana students will be on the practice of Mahamudra, supported by studying the wonderful, famous and pithy Song of Mahamudra by Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Thaye.
An immersive retreat is a powerful way to settle one’s mind, deepen one’s practice, attune to one’s innate well-being, and open one’s heart. Surrounded by natural beauty and far from the clamor of our busy lives, Garrison Institute offers the ideal environment for contemplative practice.
“While you are continuing this practice, week after week, year after year, your experience will become deeper and deeper, and your experience will cover everything you do in your everyday life. The most important thing is to forget all gaining ideas, all dualistic ideas. In other words, just practice zazen in a certain posture. Do not think about anything. Just remain on your cushion without expecting anything. Then eventually you will resume your own true nature. That is to say, your own true nature resumes itself.”
- Zen Master Shunryu Suzuki (1904 – 1971)
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