Interconnection, Trust, Expansion
When I was an angry young feminist, I used to hang out with separatists. It’s not something you hear about much these days; women dealing with patriarchal oppression by opting out. In my deep unhappiness with life in my 20’s I explored all sorts of alternative ways of being in the world.. Not realising I was lost, I followed my nose. Through many acts of grace, it led me, eventually, to the Buddha Dharma. With deep gratitude meditation, contemplation and the ancient teachings carried me home again. Belonging to the intricate web of existence. Although separatism might seem radical, it’s not that different from hiding under the covers, groaning, not wanting to face the day. I’m going to guess we’ve all been there, especially on these winter mornings (or maybe that is just me!). And when we are there, we think we are there alone.
This is not the truth of our existence.
It can feel like a long road home, back to belonging, and trust. But there is a path. Others have trodden this way..
“You didn’t come into this world, you came out of it, like a wave from the ocean. You are not a stranger here” Alan Watts
Zoe and I practiced some meditation together the other day. Listening deeply to our inner beings, we spontaneously visioned our work together as teachers. Like trees sharing roots, we discovered the threads that bind us…. to ourselves, to each other, to all of existence.
When we rest into our interconnectedness, we can move into expanded ways of being in the world.
What does it means to Belong……
What is Sangha now?
How do we operate in the communities we inhabit?
Perhaps the Buddha could not have envisaged the internet, but does what he had to say about Sangha, one of the three jewels of the Dharma have relevance now?
What does it mean to “belong” in our digital age of “likes” and online communities?
Embodied Mind Evolved Heart builds a community of mental health professionals interested in being at the forefront of body mind interventions in our field.
many blessings
NeLi
“As our awareness grows, so does that of the web, for we are the universe becoming conscious of itself. With sensibilities evolved through millennia of interaction, we can turn now and know that web as our home. It both cradles us and calls us to weave it further”, Joanna Macy
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