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Sangha Speaks


Our Socially-Engaged Buddhism KM Group by Linda Capacchione March 2010

It was Fall 2005, the onset of Hurricane Katrina’s devastation and the related global climatic change reports, when I was propelled into motion to reclaim my environmentalist roots, which were abandoned a dozen or more years earlier after a frustrated stint with the Sierra Club. Indeed this time, I knew that to be involved again as an activist, it would be wise to be better equipped with a special tool-set to avoid the “burn-out” previously experienced. That is why I most gratefully initiated the Socially-Engaged Buddhism (SEB) KM-Group within our Insight Meditation Community of Charlottesville (IMCC). (If you are unfamiliar with the term, “KM,” it is an acronym for “kalyana mitta,” a Pali word meaning spiritual friends.) I knew that I could benefit and find solace when gathering with other like-hearted/like-minded friends who could impart the compassion and encouragement that I needed to sustain my energy and effectualness in serving our community. Our SEB KM-Group is unique in that it focuses on social-engagement as a spiritual path. We find that applying the Buddhadharma (spiritual teachings) is a valuable resource in supporting our personal commitment to service and social activism locally and globally. During our group meetings, we share our challenges, our interests, our reading and discuss the writings of Thich Nhat Hanh, Bernie Glassman, Joanna Macy, Joan Halifax, the Dalai Lama and others as topics relate to our chosen ways in making peaceful and positive social and environmental changes that may benefit all beings.

After over four years, I continue to find that this group of spiritual friends fosters and mobilizes my social-engagement which sustains great growth and authenticity in my life.

For me, being spiritually social-engaged provides a creative outlet to serve in various ways. I have actually integrated my visual/performing arts and yoga training to support various local causes. This includes four years of contributing to the development of more bicycle paths in Charlottesville, Earth Day and recently participating in our city’s Dialogue on Race as well as IMCC’s community-building activities, including our new teen meditation program. In serving others, I continue to realize that I am much more energetic when I engage in the spiritual practices of loving-kindness and compassion, as this allows me to serve more from the heart and less from the ego. Even though I falter at times, when I meet with our SEB KM-Group, I feel renewed, realigned, and re-energized to stay on the path of social activism and to do my part to make a difference.

This past November, our SEB KM-Group hosted a pot-luck dinner in honor of our visiting guest teacher, Bernie Glassman, and his extensive work in Socially-Engaged Buddhism. In honor of Bernie’s great societal contributions, our IMCC teachers invited us to collaborate with them in coordinating a month of socially-engaged activities that supported our local community’s homeless (with PACEM) and house bound (with Meals-On-Wheels). Our group was most influential in declaring November as “Socially-Engaged Buddhism Month” at IMCC.

Other SEB KM members share about their experience of this event and our group process as follows:

Judy Grismer, writes about her related experiences--

As we have met together monthly, we have explored a range of definitions of socially engaged Buddhism through reading and dialogue, and supported each other in our various ways of being socially engaged, learning from each other’s thought and practices. Through this process I have become more aware of what social engagement means for me at this time, and have therefore expanded my engagement into different areas.

The largest movement for me has been on expanding my awareness of how I practiced engagement both in meditation and in actions. Most recently, the readings and lecture of Bernie Glassman have introduced me to the three tenets that I have incorporated into both of these practices:

Attempting to be aware of conditioned mind and body sets as I approach meditation and engagement, and attempting to let go of fixed ideas and stances; bearing witness to what arises and allowing ourselves to be in relationship and to stay present to all that arises, and finally, taking healing actions that arise from this process toward ourselves and the universe. This process anchors me as I continue and expand my engagement.

Also, David Grismer writes--

The socially engaged Buddhism group was an invitation to begin a journey. The destination was not well-defined, but there was trust in the process of meeting regularly, meditation and discussion. Meeting once a month and sharing not only our desire to become more socially engaged, but also sharing the obstacles in our life that were in the way, helped to deepen my own thinking about how to make my life more socially engaged. However, I found few teaching resources that actually proved directly relevant until reading Bernie Glassman’s two books. His books provided for me a recipe for beginning to live life in a way that might lead to deeper social engagement. I also was struck by his practicality in meeting the daily challenges of life, and his attitudes toward entrepreneurship and managing businesses that struck a chord with me. For me it began to connect my belief in sound economic systems with Buddhism which for me had always been somewhat separated and problematical. I have been involved with micro-financing for awhile, and his work helped bridge my beliefs in the role of incentive based economic systems with my spiritual beliefs.

Dale Abrahamse states—

I started as a rather reluctant member of the SEB KM group. Since I am married to Linda, it was hard to decline the invitation to join. I am glad to find my participation rewarding. While I run a for profit business, I still strive to practice “right livelihood” and to make a positive difference in the world. This is a practice that pushes me against my constant avarice for more and better. The SEB KM group is a place that I can share my process and actually be understood that this could be a problem in finding peace of mind. I find it refreshing to share with my fellow travelers. I am grateful to them for showing up every month.


The Socially Engaged Buddhism KM group is a work in progress. We are open to new spiritual friends joining our meditation, sharing, and discussions. Most of us want to make a positive difference in the world. We are not blind to the suffering of our fellow human beings. Buddhism has a lot to offer to make action in the world a spiritual path. The sharing we do helps to steady our course and keep our energy positive and loving.



13 years ago, my good friend, Pat Coffey, convinced me that I really wanted to experience meditation.  Almost as a dare, I told him that if he could get me into an upcoming Shinzen Young ten-day retreat, I would go.  He did and I did. 

 

Vipassana meditation retreats are held in silence. This was the first time that I experienced an extended period of silence and it was the most profound aspect of my retreat experience. Since then, I have attended several retreats, some for an extended time, and silence is what I find the most healing and beneficial aspect of my meditation practice.   

 

There is real peace in the relief from the activity of discursive thinking.  During a retreat, I am, at times, able to approach a state of “no thought.” I am usually able to become aware of the spaces of silence between thoughts.  I am always aware that a space, free of thought, is available even if I am not in that space in the moment.  It is this space, this silence, which brings me back to the cushion and sustains my practice.

 

When I sit, and I allow my attention to rest with the breath, even when my mind is busily working away as it wants to do, I have an awareness of the silence and I feel at home.

 

 

Dale Abrahamse 2009

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IMCC is a nonprofit organization established in 1996. Its primary mission is to promote the instruction and practice of Buddhist Insight Meditation and related teachings that awaken an individual’s natural wisdom and compassion. IMCC is located in Charlottesville, Virginia.