Triangle Insight Meditation Community
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June 2022 Newsletter
triangleinsight.org
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We are still deep in the apocalypse, and while I am confident that we are moving in a direction of profound rebirth into a more compassionate and loving world, we still must do the work of meeting the intensity of the violence around us with an open heart that allows us to do the essential work of grieving and dreaming the world we most need to see.
- Lama Rod Owens
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Our home is the
Episcopal Center at Duke
505 Alexander Ave. | Durham, NC 27705
(when safe to gather in person)
Morning meditation: Monday and Thursday
Wednesday meditation with Dharma Talk, or as Insight Dialogue (below)
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Wednesday Evenings
6:30 - 8:00 pm (Insight Dialogue: 6:30 - 8 pm)
June 01 – Ron Vereen
June 08 – Scott Bryce
June 15 – Francesca Morfesis
June 22 – Daya Breckinridge (Insight Dialogue)
June 29 – Karen Ziegler
July 06 – Ron Vereen
July 13 – Scott Bryce
July 20 – Sarah Bryce
July 27 – Daya Breckinridge (Insight Dialogue)
Monday and Thursday Morning Meditation
7:00 - 7:45 AM (click here for more info)
Zoom locations to be emailed.
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Amitabha, Chinese, early 7thC.
[Exh. cat.] Embodied Wisdom: Chinese and Daoist Sculpture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art
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If you would like to know more about our meditation schedule or would like to sign up to receive a Zoom invite for Morning Meditation or Wednesday Evenings, visit the Schedule page on our website OR email us at info@triangleinsight.org, and tell us the Zoom list(s) you would like to join,
To receive this monthly newsletter, please complete the newsletter subscription on our Newsletters webpage, or send your request to the info email above.
If you would like to change any part of your subscription, please email us and we will make this change for you.
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The Practice of Insight Dialogue at Triangle Insight
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Insight Dialogue is an interpersonal meditation practice and is offered at Triangle Insight once monthly, usually on the fourth Wednesday of the month. It brings the mindfulness and tranquility of silent meditation directly into our experience with other people.
An excellent resource for learning more about the practice is the new website for Insight Dialogue: www.insightdialogue.org.
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The evening begins with silent meditation practice, followed by gentle mindful movement, and then shifting into dyad practice where interpersonal mindfulness is explored with a partner in response to a contemplation that is offered. The dyad practice is optional so that anyone who chooses to remain in silent practice may do so, rather than shifting into dyad practice. One can investigate the guidance of the contemplation internally, noticing the moment by moment unfolding of internal experience. Note that the ID practice goes from 6:30 to 8:00 pm while meeting on Zoom. When it is possible to resume in-person meetings the time will return to 8:30 pm, to allow for more spaciousness and time for questions. We hope you will be able to join us.
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Links to Wednesday Dharma Talks
Our Triangle Insight Meditation teachers support your continued exploration of the Dharma by offering the recordings of their talks for your review . Since the talks are now available, notes and references will no longer be requested of the teachers as these are often noted in the talks.
Please click on any specific date below and you will be directed to the recording of the talk for that date.
May 2022:
To find teacher notes for previous Dharma talks, go here, on the TIMC website.
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RETREATS and SPECIAL EVENTS
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Heart of Wisdom: Abiding Together
– An Insight Dialogue Retreat –
With Phyllis Hicks and Anna Brown Griswold
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Insight Dialogue brings together meditative awareness, the wisdom teachings of the Buddha, and the power of relationship to support insight into the nature, source, and release of human suffering.
We will practice the six meditation guidelines forming the core of Insight Dialogue: Pause, Relax, Open, Attune to Emergence, Listen Deeply, and Speak the Truth. The essence of the practice is to become aware of how the heart and mind function, how habits hold us captive, and what remains when those habits dissolve.
Meditating alone and, also in pairs and small groups engaged in dialogue processes, we will contemplate the interconnected nature of all experience and invite the wisdom of the heart.
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SUMMER 2022 – KORU TRAINING-CERTIFICATION WORKSHOPS
June 13-15 is in-person, in Durham, and July 18-22 is online
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Click on Pic! to Register for the Durham Workshop
Our Deadline is Extended until Friday, June 3!
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Please visit our website for information on these resources
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Welcome Committee
Sangha means spiritual community, and it is treasured because without it awakening cannot be sustained. –Jack Kornfield, After the Ecstasy, the Laundry
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The Welcoming Committee wishes to foster the experience of belonging to a diverse, tolerant community connected through mindfulness practice, where all feel welcome and safe. We seek to link all participants and newcomers to ongoing activities and to ensure the Zoom connection is available. You are welcome to Visit our Webpage!
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Having admirable people as friends, companions, and colleagues is actually
the whole of the holy life. - The Buddha
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When we see great harm and suffering in the world, the inner critic of judgmental mind can fill our thoughts with blame, shame, and ill will. As Christina Feldman notes in Silencing the Inner Critic, “...it is essential to mark the distinction between the voice of the inner critic and our capacity for discernment and discriminating wisdom.” It is discriminating wisdom, not judgmental mind, that “inspires us to act in ways that bring suffering and harm to an end.”
However, as Feldman points out, this doesn’t mean turning away from our judgmental mind. “We can begin to sense that the inner critic truly warrants compassion, as does any suffering and affliction. Instead of fleeing the painfulness of the judgmental mind we can turn toward it, sensing that everything we are invited to understand in the journey of awakening can be understood within the judgmental mind.”
Our Kalyana Mitta groups offer a special opportunity to bring judgmental mind into relational practice. Rather than suppress or shame our inner critic, we share it with trusted spiritual friends who hold it with tenderness and care, allowing us to move from aversion to understanding, from critique to compassion. A beautiful aspect of this process is that as the heart of the dharma is enriched in our own lives, we are contributing to the spiritual journey of others. This is the gift of the third jewel of sangha, a jewel that illuminates this path we travel together.
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KM Groups
We currently have openings in our Insight Dialogue, Raleigh and Sutta Study groups. Our Chapel Hill-Carrboro has a waiting list. Our Secular Dharma group in the process of reorganizing and will be open to new members in the near future. Details about each of our groups are on our "List of KM Groups" web page.
Information about our KM program and links to helpful resources are on our KM web page. If you’d like more information, or you want to join a group, be on a waiting list, or start a new group, please contact Sarah Tillis, KM Coordinator at sarah@triangleinsight.org.
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The KM Coordinating Team of Sarah Tillis and Tamara Share expresses deep gratitude for the dedication of our sangha.
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May our Kalyana Mitta groups be of great benefit to all.
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Known as RAGs, Racial Affinity Groups allow people to deepen self-awareness around issues of race in small, racially homogeneous groups. As we face our long history of systemic racism and violence against people of color, RAGs provide a safe space where participants can integrate the dharma into their exploration of racial belonging and racial habits of harm.
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A message from Triangle Insight Racial Affinity Group Coordinator, Kathy Shipp
Here, in June 2022, we continue to witness racially-motivated violence, this time the horrific mass shooting that killed 10 black people at the Tops grocery store in Buffalo, NY. Zeneta Everhart, the mother of Zaire Goodman who was shot but not killed in Buffalo, stated, “The first thing that we have to do is talk about it and stop acting like there is not racism in this country.” I want to let you know that Triangle Insight encourages talking about race and all types of “othering”.
[ed: As of this issue's publication, another event of mass shooting sears our consciousness with grief for lives lost and damaged through violence. The long nightmare at the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, a city in SW Texas, claimed 19 children and 2 adults from this largely brown and black community. Though not well understood at this point how racial conditioning played out in this explosion of hatred and self-loathing, we are witnessing another spasmodic expression of our collective separation from balance and equanimity.]
We have an opportunity to grow when we share with our TI spiritual friends about how race and “othering” affects us on every level: personal, organizational, and societal. We have Racial Affinity Groups in which you can discuss how racial conditioning affects your life. There are training sessions to attend, such as the Organizing Against Racism two-day on-line workshop.
I will be attending this workshop in August and would love for other TI participants to join me. Did you know that TI has a special scholarship fund for you to use to attend workshops or courses such as this?
Please contact me at kathy@triangleinsight.org if you are interested in exploring or joining a RAG, if you are interested in racial justice training, or simply would like to talk about your sadness and/or rage that now Buffalo 2022 and Uvalde 2022 have been added to the long list of racially-motivated shootings at Mother Emanuel AME church in Charleston 2015, the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh 2018, the Walmart in El Paso in 2019, and the spa workers in Atlanta 2021. And, as ever, may our efforts benefit all beings.
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RAGs Coordinator
Kathy Shipp, a long-time participant of the Triangle Insight community, is the coordinator of TIMC's Racial Affinity Groups. She is available to answer questions about RAGs formation and RAGs experience, and she is a resource of information about racial equity training and practice. Kathy maintains an up-to-date list of active RAGs, and connects people who are interested in forming a new group.
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Community Connections Committee
A TIMC Initiative connecting and strengthening the bonds of our shared practice.
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As an expression of our heart practice and generosity, the Community Connections Committee will recommend one Wednesday evening per season be designated as a dana night for a specific local nonprofit organization, in lieu of dana to TIMC on that evening.
Please watch this space for the Summer dana suggestion.
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When we resume meeting together at the Episcopal Center, dana baskets will be left out on those evenings, so members have the option of where they want to donate.
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Financial Support Is Available For Training Programs and Workshops
in Racial Justice and Diversity
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Our goal:
To help individuals and our community deepen the understanding of how unexamined views of race can limit the mind and human systems.
A Scholarship Fund for this purpose exists through donations from the TIMC General Fund and the generosity of several Triangle Insight participants.
If Triangle Insight sangha participants would like to receive scholarship support for training with OARNC, White Awake, or other programs addressing racial injustice, please email us at: board@triangleinsight.org.
We invite the community to join this initiative by contributing directly to this scholarship fund.
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For your convenience, you may use the dedicated PayPal portal here:
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TIMC BOARD | NEWS AND REPORTS
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Please note we are planning a "Hybrid Test Day 2" at the Episcopal Center and online. A specific date has not been set as yet, but it will likely be in July.
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Look for further announcements. Volunteers will again be needed for this second test. More information will be shared as planning develops.
We offer our deep appreciation to those who gave their time and energy to volunteer for the first test, and it was only through this test that we were able to determine that the Owl cameras were not suitable for our setting. We are inspired by the community to find a successful hybrid model for everyone on site and on zoom. Stay tuned!
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Board Meetings
Cornelia "Kip", Cynthia, Leah, Marian, Martin, and Ron convened an Open Meeting of the Board of Directors on May 21, 2022, on Zoom. No Sangha participants were present.
Here's a summary of the meeting.
The board convened at 9:30 a.m. and began with a 10 minute meditation and recitation of the Communication Guidelines.
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Approval of Minutes for TIMC Board meeting on April 09, 2022.
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Hybrid Technology Report: A new search for a tech system to better fit the large space of the Episcopal Center's Great Room (our meeting area) is underway, one with a higher quality visuals and more consistent, flexible audio production. Ron contacted Custom Light and Sound (CLS) in Durham, who are experienced with setting up meetings similar to ours. The suggested system would involve a PTZ (pan-tilt-zoom) camera for greater depth precision, range, and versatility; the audio system would use independent microphones and amplifier, coordinated by a mixing board that would capture the sound and send it through the computer hosting the Zoom participants.
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Report from the Editorial Committee on the web redesign project: Further discussion with Carol Tompson from Firestream Media about what a basic package for updating content on a regular basis would include, and what would constitute additional work for a prorated hourly fee. Training of individuals from TIMC on how to use DIVI, their preferred webpage builder, is part of the contract.
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TIMC website: Current list of pages is under review for reorganization, consolidation, abbreviation. Board members each will examine individual pages and report on what changes may be most helpful or needed.
The Board adjourned at 11:30 a.m.
Join us for the next open board meeting, on Zoom, Saturday, June 11. Time:
12 p.m.–2 p.m. You can join us at any time. A Zoom invite will be sent to newsletter members in the week prior.
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Newsletter Submission Pointers
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At least two weeks prior to the month in which you wish your announcement to appear, submit new items to info@triangleinsight.org.
- Include in your request a short statement of your relationship to TIMC.
- New requests submitted in the last week of any month may not be accepted if time is a factor in preparing a final copy.
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Changes to existing entries may be incorporated if submitted early in the last week of any month.
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All authors are encouraged to update their newsletter entries and to resubmit, clearly indicating all changes in text and lay-out to minimize error and design time.
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Keep the text crisp and short, but include important details and attachments. Instead of longer texts, refer the reader to websites for additional information.
- Indicate how many months you want your entry to be published, and
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Stay in touch with updates if any specific details change. You are responsible for calling in any changes in time, special dates and/or end dates for ongoing classes, groups or other continuing entries.
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Special circumstances may require adjustment of the deadlines indicated here; early submission is a best practice and helps the newsletter editors determine where, how and if the item submitted shall be published (please see #1 in the Guidelines).
Please contact us through info@triangleinsight.org, and include "Newsletter" on the subject line. We will help you get your item published. Thank you for helping us!
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The Triangle Insight Board is looking for interested sangha participants to help us build a Communications Network for our whole practice community
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Newsletter Editorial Committee
To all interested sangha participants, we are forming a Newsletter Editorial Committee and hope you will volunteer to help develop and maintain the Newsletter. Email www.board@triangleinsight.org. noting Editorial Committee in the subject line.
Website
Plans are in the works for refreshing the website with advice from. a professional website designer. If you are interested in working on planning the website, send us an email: ww.board@triangleinsight.org.
Thank you!
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You are welcome to contact me directly with any comments or suggestions to improve the newsletter and website.
In humor and good intention,
Leah Rutchick, leah@triangleinsight.org
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