June 27, 2014
Dear Sangha,
Such a garden of wildflowers along my early morning trail! Whole big patches of Mariposa Lily! The profusion of bright yellow daisies, Prickly Pear, bright flags of Paintbrush, and everyone else….all seeming to bloom at once! What an early summer we are having, after our rough spring.
And there’s a profusion of practice opportunity, too. Visit our website for current listings.
In the midst of this, Springs Mountain Sangha has an opportunity for reflection and creative conversation. This Monday, June 30, is the fifth Monday of June. On a fifth Monday, we usually have a Wayfaring Mind Talk: a talk by a sangha member or friend about their own practice, their life, their path.
As it happens, this Sunday, just a day before, your sangha steering committee will be holding our annual retreat day, a day to reflect on the current “state of the sangha.” We’ll be presenting for each other our individual perceptions of the sangha: What is it? What is its special place in this community? How is it going and how isn’t it going? What is most important to you about it? And then, we’ll be sharing our individual visions of the sangha’s possible directions from here: How does this Dharma, and this community, continue to mature and flourish? What will support and strengthen our practice and our community? Where do we go from here?
Perfect! Because this Monday, we can continue the conversation in the wider context of the whole sangha. In other words, we can have a Wayfaring Mind conversation as a whole, of everyone who is there. How do you see this sangha? What do you notice about it, that matters to you, right now? Where would you like to see it go as we move onward?
We very much hope you can come.
Sarah Bender, Sensei