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Notes from the Monthly Zoom Meeting
May 21, 2022
"Suffering & Growth"
For the date of the next monthly meeting, see Zoom meeting page
[ For other months, see Notes from previous monthly meetings ]

The Three Marks of Existence
Suffering.
Impermanence.
No Separate Self

"Street" version by Jon Kabat-Zinn
Shit Happens.
Everything changes.
It's not about you, anyway.

From The Dark Pieces (2019 graduate meeting):

Growing with Suffering - Ram Dass video

Life is Tough: Six Ways to Deal With It - Norman Fischer article

"In spiritual practice, which is our life, there are no breaks and no mistakes. We human beings are always doing spiritual practice, whether we know it or not… To practice this… is to know that no matter what is going on, [you] have the ability to take all negativity, bad circumstance, and difficulty and turn it into the path." - Norman Fischer

Humanitarian organizations which have Ukrainian aid programs:

World Central Kitchen
UN World Food Program
Global Empowerment Mission
KIND - Kids in Need of Defense
Direct Help for Ukraine
Mercy Corps
International Medical Corps
Save the Children
From CNN: How to Impact Your World
Emergency help to animals in Ukraine (IFAW)
Animal Protection Organisations in Ukraine (Eurogroup for Animals)

Community does not necessarily mean living face-to-face with others; rather, it means never losing the awareness that we are connected to each other.
     - Parker Palmer

You are whole and also part of larger and larger circles of wholeness you may not even know about.

You are never alone.
And you already belong.
You belong to humanity.
You belong to life.
You belong to this moment, this breath.
     - Jon Kabat-Zinn

When all that we understand of self and world comes together in the center place called heart, we are more likely to find the courage to act humanely on what we know.
     - Parker Palmer

In Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut, in the center of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed by the realization that I loved all those people . . . even though we were total strangers. It was like waking from a dream of separateness.
     - Thomas Merton

You are not a drop in the ocean,
You are the entire ocean in a drop.
     - Rumi

We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.
     - Martin Luther King

I would say that there exist a thousand unbreakable links between each of us and everything else, and that our dignity and our changes are one. The farthest star and the mud at our feet are family; and there is no decency or sense in honoring one thing, or a few things, and then closing the list. The pine tree, the leopard, the Platte River, and ourselves – we are at risk together, or we are on our way to a sustainable world together. We are each other’s destiny.
     - Mary Oliver

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Community does not necessarily mean living face-to-face with others; rather, it means never losing the awareness that we are connected to each other.
     - Parker Palmer

You are whole and also part of larger and larger circles of wholeness you may not even know about.

You are never alone.
And you already belong.
You belong to humanity.
You belong to life.
You belong to this moment, this breath.
     - Jon Kabat-Zinn

When all that we understand of self and world comes together in the center place called heart, we are more likely to find the courage to act humanely on what we know.
     - Parker Palmer

In Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut, in the center of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed by the realization that I loved all those people . . . even though we were total strangers. It was like waking from a dream of separateness.
     - Thomas Merton

You are not a drop in the ocean,
You are the entire ocean in a drop.
     - Rumi

We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.
     - Martin Luther King

I would say that there exist a thousand unbreakable links between each of us and everything else, and that our dignity and our changes are one. The farthest star and the mud at our feet are family; and there is no decency or sense in honoring one thing, or a few things, and then closing the list. The pine tree, the leopard, the Platte River, and ourselves – we are at risk together, or we are on our way to a sustainable world together. We are each other’s destiny.
     - Mary Oliver

more    
quotes