Resources
With session seven, we come to the close of this EcoSattva Training.
Having explored the three-fold path of ethics, practice and wisdom, we can step back to review and also to look forward. Guided by two remarkable teachers with deep history in engaged Buddhist practice, we’ll explore how that territory has evolved for them individually and for their communities. We’ll then invite everyone here to set the direction, an evolving relationship with the calling in our our hearts, and explore some of the guideposts that will help us to stay true and truly responsive. How are we finding that the three pillars of the Bridge to the Other Shore support each other and how might they one day be left behind?
Session Leaders
Donald Rothberg is a member of the Teachers Council at Spirit Rock and teaches regularly at East Bay Meditation Center. He has practiced Insight Meditation since 1976, and has received training in Tibetan Dzogchen and Mahamudra practice. Since he was in his early 20s, he has been deeply committed to connecting social change and spiritual practice, and has written extensively on socially engaged Buddhism, including The Engaged Spiritual Life: A Buddhist Approach to Transforming Ourselves and the World. He has helped to guide six-month to two-year training programs in socially engaged spirituality through Buddhist Peace Fellowship, Saybrook Graduate School, and Spirit Rock.
Spiritual ecologist Heather Lyn Mann is a practitioner of Buddhism, sailing, and mindful advocacy. After earning a Master’s in Environmental Science from University of Wisconsin’s Nelson Institute, she founded and led Wisconsin’s Center for Resilient Cities—a not-for-profit mobilizing inner-city residents to restore natural beauty and function in damaged neighborhood landscapes. A mindfulness practitioner in the Plum Village tradition, Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh ordained Mann into his core community of practice — the Order of Interbeing. She authored Ocean Of Insight: A Sailor’s Voyage from Despair to Hope, co-founded and led the International Plum Village Earth Holder Sangha — a mindfulness community working to awaken humankind’s great togetherness with the earth — and recently co-launched Higher Ground — a collaborative of spiritual and thought leaders, scientists, artists, and others organizing to transform climate consciousness.
Homework for Session Seven
As we move toward the final session of the EcoSattva Training, we want to invite you to reflect on your experience. The container of the training will soon dissolve, but the insights that have emerged for you are portable. With care and intention, they can be allowed to take root in your life. We offer the following questions to guide your reflection. Feel free to engage with them in whatever way seems useful: journaling about them, discussing them with a friend, bringing them into your meditation practice, etc.
- What emotional states have been predominant as you’ve moved through the training?
- What have you been surprised by?
- What have you found particularly difficult, frustrating, or challenging?
- What insights or understandings have you found helpful or meaningful?
Access the Webinar
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- The live session begins [localize_time tz=”America/Los_Angeles” fmt=”l, F j, Y g:i a T”]Sunday, November 19, 2017 9:30 am [/localize_time].
- Add this meeting and the full the series to Google Calendar, Outlook or other .ics-compatible calendar.
- To prepare for the live session, ensure that you have downloaded and installed the latest version of Zoom to your PC, Mac, iPhone, or android device. This program is free and will allow you to see and hear the webinar. You’ll also be able to ask questions and interact with the session leaders. You might run the program and choose the option to test your audio and video (if you have a webcam) to make sure everything is working.
- You may join the session up to 30 minutes before the meeting begins. At that time, the link and further instructions on how to join the webinar will appear on this page.
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You’ll be taken into the live session once it begins.
If you don’t have a good internet connection, either for video or audio, you can still join by phone:
- One-click: +16468769923,,481234991# or +16699006833,,481234991#
- US: +1 646 876 9923 or +1 669 900 6833 or +1 408 638 0968
- Enter the webinar ID: 481 234 991
- International numbers are available here.
To raise your hand, ask a question, or connect by phone during the session, use the buttons provided on the zoom interface:
(Click the image to enlarge)
[/time-restrict][time-restrict off=”2017/11/20″]The live session has ended. The recording will be available here by [localize_time tz=”America/Los_Angeles” fmt=”l, F j, Y g:i a T”]Tuesday, November 21, 2017 1:00 pm [/localize_time].[/time-restrict]
To view the video in full screen, click the expand button 
on the lower right.
Poem recited inside the session:
It may be that when we no longer know what to do
we have come to our real work,
and that when we no longer know which way to go
we have come to our real journey.
The mind that is not baffled is not employed.
The impeded stream is the one that sings.
— Wendell Berry
Practices
Each session will feature inquiries that you can explore on your own in meditation or with others in dyads, triads or larger groups. We’ll post basic instructions and the inquiries immediately following the live session.
Here we offer some optional (but highly recommended!) exercises to help you integrate some of the ideas and practices presented in the session. Each inquiry may be practiced individually or in dyads, triads or even larger groups. If the practice of meditative inquiries or group inquiry is new to you, we offer some guidance and suggestions here.
Honoring and Embodying Change
- What am I no longer willing to do?
- What am I willing to start doing?
Setting Intentions, Finding True North
- As the training concludes, as I listen deeply, is there a core intention that is especially alive? Might I refine or develop the articulation of this intention?
- What further resources and knowledge do I need to support this intention?
- How can I manifest my core intention in the next week?
- How can I manifest my core intention in the next 24 hours?
- How might I express my core intention with one or two words? Please share your intention in the comments section below!
Share Your Experience
After you’ve done any/all of these inquiries, we invite you to share your experience and engage in conversation with one another in the community discussion below.[/time-restrict]
Follow Up Resources
- Mindful Resistance, July 2017 webinar featuring Thanissara and Heather Lynn Mann
- Heather’s book, Ocean Of Insight: A Sailor’s Voyage from Despair to Hope
- Donald’s book, The Engaged Spiritual Life: A Buddhist Approach to Transforming Ourselves and the World
- Thich Nhat Hanh’s statement on Climate Change for the United Nations (2015)
- Thich Nhat Hanh, Love Letter to the Earth
- Joanna Macy’s book, Active Hope written with Chris Johnstone
- Heather’s website
- Donald’s website
Engagement as Practice: Trainings and Guidelines
- EcoSattva Vows from One Earth Sangha
- [download id=”8827″] (PDF)
- [download id=”8829″] (PDF)
- Article in Anchor Magazine, The Weary Advocate’s Guide to Happiness
Dedication of Merit
Our prayer that any goodness generated here be extended out into the world
May all places be held sacred.
May all beings be cherished.
May all injustices of oppression and devaluation be fully righted, remedied and healed.
May those captured by hatred be freed to the love that is their birthright.
May those bound by fear be released to the safety of understanding.
May those lost in delusion find relief in the path of liberation.
May those whose comfort and safety are secured
welcome discomfort and risk on behalf of all beings.
May all wounds to forests, rivers, deserts, oceans,
all wounds to Mother Earth be lovingly restored to bountiful health.
May all beings everywhere delight in whale song, birdsong and blue sky.
May all beings abide in peace and well-being, awaken and be free.
Support Session Leaders
To maximize participation, we are offering this series at minimal cost. In addition, all of the teachers and leaders on these calls offer their gifts freely in this spirit of dana.
If you value what is offered here, we invite you to support these leaders and you may also wish to support One Earth Sangha. Dana, or generosity, is considered an essential part of practice and situates us in the unbroken line that seeks to bring the gifts of Buddhadharma, wisdom and compassion, to our world.
Any amount you offer, no matter how small, is greatly appreciated.
Community Discussion
We invite you to share with the community your reflections on any aspect of the session: the webinar, homework, practices, follow up resources or anything else!