Category Archives: Uncategorized

March 15th – 22nd

 ““The art of living… is neither careless drifting on the one hand nor fearful clinging to the past on the other. It consists in being sensitive to each moment, in regarding it as utterly new and unique, in having the mind open and wholly receptive.” — Alan Watts

Question: What is your experience of finding this balance and/or stumbling in the present moment in the face of uncertainty?

Debi

March 8th – March 13th

Nothing ever goes away until it has taught us what we need to know.”  Pema Chodron

Questions:  Have you ever noticed a repeated theme in your life experience or in dreams?  Do you notice a shift in this experience/dream when you have an insight or an a ha! moment?

Debi Pais

Feb 23-29

“We must become intimate with anger to clear the way to our connectiveness, our vulnerability, and an aliveness with everything. In the end, our anger is transmuted to wisdom, which in turn gives rise to compassion.”

-Jules Shuzen Harris

This Week’s Discussion Topic
As the quote describes, discuss how you might “become intimate with anger.” From there, discuss how might you gain wisdom—and ultimately compassion—by becoming intimate with your feelings of anger.

Feb 16-22

“No single instant of physical pain is unendurable…Everything unendurable is in the head; the head not abiding in the present, but hopping the wall and doing a recon and then returning with unendurable news.”

–David Foster Wallace

This Week’s Discussion Topic
Discuss how the actual reality of the present moment is always far less painful and frightening than the stories you tell yourself about what is happening in the moment.

Jan. 26-Feb. 1

“Don’t give final authority to your own ideas. You have to test Buddha’s teachings, and your ideas, in the laboratory of your actions.”

-Larry Rosenberg

This Week’s Discussion Topic
Discuss how you’ve tested Buddha’s teachings in your own life and the results that occurred. Did any of the teachings turn out to work differently than you initially surmised? If yes, how so?

Jan. 5-11

“The key to developing tolerance is to separate the validity of an idea from the validity of the person holding the idea. Behind every idea is a motivation that is shaped by hopes and fears. If we are able to identify this underlying motivation, we will see the wish to find happiness and to be free from suffering.”

-Khentrul Rinpoche

This Week’s Discussion Topic
Discuss how you might apply tonight’s quote when dealing with difficult people. If you analyze whatever position or action they’re taking to find the underlying motivation behind it, how might that facilitate a more productive interaction?”

Dec. 15-21

“We assume that what we’re seeking isn’t already present. And of course, that’s why we’re seeking it: we believe that peace, happiness, and freedom aren’t already right here where we are right now. The assumption that what we’re seeking, some state of completion, isn’t here right now is what causes us to look for it, to start the search.”

-Adyashanti

This Week’s Discussion Topic
If peace, happiness, and freedom are available right here, right now, what gets in the way of you realizing this completeness and perfection that is ever-present?

Dec. 8-14

“Forgiveness is really not about someone’s harmful behavior; it’s about our own relationship with our past. When we begin the work of forgiveness, it is primarily a practice for ourselves.”

-Gina Sharpe

This Week’s Discussion Topic
Discuss what tonight’s quote means when it describes forgiveness as being “about our own relationship with the past.” What does the process of forgiveness actually entail? What needs to happen in order for you to truly forgive?

Dec. 1-7

“In terms of life, I think any of us can honestly examine our lives and see that lots of things turned out better for us because we did not get what we wanted.”

–Brad Warner

This Week’s Discussion Topic
Discuss a time in your life when what you were hoping would happen did not happen, yet the outcome was ultimately more beneficial for you than if your wishes had been fulfilled. What does this seem to imply about our expectations, and how might we adjust our perspective to account for this apparent paradox?

Oct 20-26

“Without cultivating love for ourselves, regardless of how much discipline we have, regardless of how serious we are about practice, we will still stay stuck in the subtle mercilessness of the mind, listening to the voice that tells us we are basically and fundamentally unworthy.”

-Ezra Bayda

This Week’s Discussion Topic
Discuss how the vast majority of your thoughts are subtle—and not-so subtle—judgments of yourself and how this constant negative reinforcement creates and affirms the belief that you’re inherently flawed and in need of fixing. Indeed, isn’t this the core reason most of us turn to spiritual practice?