July Sangha News
6/27/24
July at IWM
This month, we’re happy to welcome Kate Johnson back for a half-day retreat, Five Spiritual Strengths: Fortification for Seeing and Meeting the Present Moment, on Saturday July 13, in person/hybrid at the center. We’re looking forward to Wednesday Night Dharma Talks with IWM Teachers Manny Mansbach, Nick Boutros, and Rebecca Bradshaw, and An evening of community, lovingkindness and taking refuge with Community Dharma Stewards Holly Bishop and Doug Kremm. After June 29, Saturday Sangha will be on Summer Break until the first Saturday in September. We continue to offer many Open Community Practice sessions throughout the week. Several Affinity Groups meet monthly, and we’re excited to announce that a new Affinity Group, 35 & Under, will be starting on Sunday July 14! More details on this and all of our offerings below.
Looking ahead, Michael Grady and Bernadine Mellis will both be offering 5-week courses in the fall. And registration is still open for the How to Breathe with a Tree with Gina Siepel and Bernadine Mellis on June 30. Thank you for being part of our sangha, we hope to see you soon!
From the Board
This spring, we welcomed two new staff members to IWM. Please join us in welcoming them!
Karen Clay, Administrative Director
Karen Clay (she/her) is a recent transplant to Northampton moving from the Boston area in 2021. She was drawn to the area’s beauty, culture, and its unique ability to embrace the many ways to be human. Karen has held leadership roles in different non-profit organizations including affordable housing, education, and community organizing. Additionally, she is a master gardener, a lover of Japanese food, and currently lives in co-housing. Working with a spiritual community such as Insight Western Mass (IWM) truly coincides with Karen’s own meditation path and spiritual journey.
Karen Clay (she/her) is a recent transplant to Northampton moving from the Boston area in 2021. She was drawn to the area’s beauty, culture, and its unique ability to embrace the many ways to be human. Karen has held leadership roles in different non-profit organizations including affordable housing, education, and community organizing. Additionally, she is a master gardener, a lover of Japanese food, and currently lives in co-housing. Working with a spiritual community such as Insight Western Mass (IWM) truly coincides with Karen’s own meditation path and spiritual journey.
Mara Poliak, Outreach and Administrative Coordinator
Mara Poliak is a dancer and artist who practices with the body as an uncontainable, collective presence. Alongside their role at IWM, Mara teaches dance, makes performance work, organizes collaborative projects, practices qigong, and studies herbalism. They lived on Ohlone land (California Bay Area), for 13 years and worked as a teaching artist at Creativity Explored and NIAD Art Center, both studios for adult artists with developmental disabilities. Mara is an anti-Zionist and anti-imperialist Jew committed to a Free Palestine, and committed to art and life practices as inseparable from the world we live in and the worlds we make together.
Mara Poliak is a dancer and artist who practices with the body as an uncontainable, collective presence. Alongside their role at IWM, Mara teaches dance, makes performance work, organizes collaborative projects, practices qigong, and studies herbalism. They lived on Ohlone land (California Bay Area), for 13 years and worked as a teaching artist at Creativity Explored and NIAD Art Center, both studios for adult artists with developmental disabilities. Mara is an anti-Zionist and anti-imperialist Jew committed to a Free Palestine, and committed to art and life practices as inseparable from the world we live in and the worlds we make together.
June Picnic
About 25 sangha members gathered recently on a cool rainy day to celebrate IWM's anniversary and express appreciation for all who steward our sangha. Jean Esther shared stories of the early days of IWM, which was originally run out of the home of IWM's founding Guiding Teacher Arinna Weisman. Jean also spoke about some of the changes she's witnessed over the past two plus decades. Cathy Repetti expressed heartfelt thanks to all who volunteer and make so much of what we do possible. All who gathered -- teachers, board members, staff, community dharma stewards, volunteers, new and long-time sangha members -- had a chance to bring our voices into the circle and to connect informally while snacking on tasty treats. As we were wrapping things up, Michael Grady, who has decades of experience with other larger sanghas, commented on how impressed he is by the commitment of this sangha’s members. Although some were chilled to the bone by the time we departed, all seemed pleased to have made their way to Nonotuck Park and to be a part of this little gem of a sangha called IWM.
Dharma Dialogue: The Thought That Follows
It seems to me that no matter in which direction I look: up, down, inside, outside, or sideways, it is always there. A thought, that is. As I continue my practice, “noticing” has become the biggest focus and aspiration I work with. I am not always able to see what’s happening in the moment. Usually a thought, although sometimes a body sensation or a heart sense, has whisked me away into somewhere else. Paying attention/“noticing” that that action has occurred then gives me the opportunity to return my awareness to the present.
The mind wanders; that’s just what it does. Sometimes the analogy of white clouds passing overhead in a blue sky is used as a way of practicing letting go of thoughts (the clouds) as they arise and pass away, which they will do. Sometimes it seems to me as if thoughts arise slowly and painfully and take forever to pass. If they are pleasant thoughts, I would like them to hang out for as long as possible; clinging chimes right in. If they are unpleasant, I want them to go away as quickly as possible. Sincere aversion.
How is it that thoughts “pull us away” from the present moment? I ask myself that question often. My suspicion, and more positively, exploration and curiosity, lead to me to believe that it is indeed a natural chain of events for those of us who practice fervently and imperfectly, as is the human condition for most of us. I have heard teachers use the phrase, “we must train our minds diligently.” It seems as if some of us react strongly to the context of training our minds. What does that really mean? What occurs to me are the highest intentions of the Eightfold Path; the tendencies towards wisdom (as in wise speech or wise effort,) harmlessness (as in harmless intention or harmless action,) compassion (as in compassionate view or compassionate livelihood,) awareness (as in mindfulness meditation or concentration.)
This is not to say that the mind is bad or wrong; there are times it certainly has good information for us about tasks like planning for the future, resolving conflicts in the past and in the present, and balancing our checkbook, just to name a few. And it can lead us down the paths of lacking wisdom, harming, being uncompassionate, or having a lack of awareness. And each and every time, our practice can and will bring us back to the present moment and what it is we need to see.
Being or becoming a steady and experienced practitioner allows for our innate capacity to ascertain the differences between the paths we choose to travel. But it often doesn’t seem like a choice. And who is “choosing” anyway? Being in the moment, being with what is happening right here and right now allows for deep, spiritual discernment about our life and what we want to put forth into our world.
**If you would like to respond to this topic, or to any other aspect of our practice, send your offering in an email to [email protected]. Anonymity is respected if you would prefer not to have your name used in the newsletter; otherwise just use your first name and last initial at the end.
Appreciatively,
Jennifer D.
Community Dharma Steward
Anonymous Dharma Dialogue submission:
The thought that follows
"Thought arising after contact, I notice. Meeting at its source, I follow it ever closely as it flows its way to fruition".
Downloadable Flyers
Feedback
If you have comments, questions, or ideas you’d like to share, please contact us: [email protected].
With much care and metta,
IWM Board
It seems to me that no matter in which direction I look: up, down, inside, outside, or sideways, it is always there. A thought, that is. As I continue my practice, “noticing” has become the biggest focus and aspiration I work with. I am not always able to see what’s happening in the moment. Usually a thought, although sometimes a body sensation or a heart sense, has whisked me away into somewhere else. Paying attention/“noticing” that that action has occurred then gives me the opportunity to return my awareness to the present.
The mind wanders; that’s just what it does. Sometimes the analogy of white clouds passing overhead in a blue sky is used as a way of practicing letting go of thoughts (the clouds) as they arise and pass away, which they will do. Sometimes it seems to me as if thoughts arise slowly and painfully and take forever to pass. If they are pleasant thoughts, I would like them to hang out for as long as possible; clinging chimes right in. If they are unpleasant, I want them to go away as quickly as possible. Sincere aversion.
How is it that thoughts “pull us away” from the present moment? I ask myself that question often. My suspicion, and more positively, exploration and curiosity, lead to me to believe that it is indeed a natural chain of events for those of us who practice fervently and imperfectly, as is the human condition for most of us. I have heard teachers use the phrase, “we must train our minds diligently.” It seems as if some of us react strongly to the context of training our minds. What does that really mean? What occurs to me are the highest intentions of the Eightfold Path; the tendencies towards wisdom (as in wise speech or wise effort,) harmlessness (as in harmless intention or harmless action,) compassion (as in compassionate view or compassionate livelihood,) awareness (as in mindfulness meditation or concentration.)
This is not to say that the mind is bad or wrong; there are times it certainly has good information for us about tasks like planning for the future, resolving conflicts in the past and in the present, and balancing our checkbook, just to name a few. And it can lead us down the paths of lacking wisdom, harming, being uncompassionate, or having a lack of awareness. And each and every time, our practice can and will bring us back to the present moment and what it is we need to see.
Being or becoming a steady and experienced practitioner allows for our innate capacity to ascertain the differences between the paths we choose to travel. But it often doesn’t seem like a choice. And who is “choosing” anyway? Being in the moment, being with what is happening right here and right now allows for deep, spiritual discernment about our life and what we want to put forth into our world.
**If you would like to respond to this topic, or to any other aspect of our practice, send your offering in an email to [email protected]. Anonymity is respected if you would prefer not to have your name used in the newsletter; otherwise just use your first name and last initial at the end.
Appreciatively,
Jennifer D.
Community Dharma Steward
Anonymous Dharma Dialogue submission:
The thought that follows
"Thought arising after contact, I notice. Meeting at its source, I follow it ever closely as it flows its way to fruition".
Downloadable Flyers
Feedback
If you have comments, questions, or ideas you’d like to share, please contact us: [email protected].
With much care and metta,
IWM Board