Awakening Together: The Spiritual Practice of Inclusivity and Community

In the book Darkness Sticks to Everything the poet Tom Hennen vividly describes this tendency: Like people or dogs, each day is unique and has its own personality quirks which can easily be seen if you look closely. But there are so few days as compared to people, not to mention dogs, that it would be surprising if a day were not a hundred times mo

All men [sic] are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be, and you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be. — REVEREND DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.

all human. We all want to feel safe, to feel we belong, especially in the vulnerabilities at the beginning of our spiritual paths. In the service of this, it is helpful to see ourselves reflected in the teachings, reflected in the teachers who share them, and reflected in the spiritual community surrounding us.

After I ate my fill, the opportunity for me to be generous appeared. Excess food was usually given to the monastery kitchen to be incorporated into regular meals for the larger temple community — but I figured that our temple was very well supported: it had grants from the government, not to mention offerings from generous lay supporters. So I chos

The Dalai Lama has observed, “In the West, you have bigger homes, yet smaller families; you have endless conveniences, yet you never seem to have any time. You can travel anywhere in the world, yet you don’t bother to cross the road to meet your neighbors.”

When we are not paying attention to someone, we are not turning the fullness of our mind-hearts toward them. In response to this nonattention, a person might feel disrespected, ignored, not cared for, or unimportant. Paying attention — mindfulness — is a direct act and experience of love.

Samyutta Nikaya as follows:

meditation does not so much change our lives as it changes our relationship to our lives.

The new teachers of wisdom in the idiom of the people will not be recognizable by their robes but by their hearts. This