Triangle Insight Meditation Community |
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January 2022 Newsletter
triangleinsight.org
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...When day comes we step out of the shade,
aflame and unafraid.
The new dawn blooms as we free it.
For there is always light,
if only we’re brave enough to see it,
if only we’re brave enough to be it.
Amanda Gorman
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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)
January 05 - Ron Vereen
January 12 - Scott Bryce
January 19 - Sarah Bryce
January 26 - Mary Grigsby (Insight Dialogue)
February 02 - Ron Vereen
February 09 - Scott Bryce
February 16 - Emily Griffith Burke
February 23 - Mary Grigsby (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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Hedgehog in Torpor
-a brief hibernation-
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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(s), please email us and we will make this change for you.
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The Practice of Insight Dialogue at Triangle Insight |
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.
Happy New Year to All
An excellent resource for learning more about the practice is the new website for Insight Dialogue: www.insightdialogue.org.
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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Reference Notes for Wednesday Dharma Talks
Triangle Insight Meditation teachers invite us to consider these notes to the references they used for their Dharma talks. Please click on the link below to see teacher notes for the current month.
Dec. 01 - Ron Vereen
Dec. 08 - Scott Bryce
Dec. 15 - Ron Vereen
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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Planning for Hybrid Meetings |
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In the new year of 2022, we are looking forward to meeting once again at the Episcopal Center and eager to take advantage of the option for joining the meetings via Zoom.
Due to the uncertain health situation introduced by the Omicron variant, the TIMC Board has decided to take a wait-and-see approach toward initiating this new phase in the life of our sangha. At a later point, perhaps in the early Spring, we hope it will be possible to schedule a volunteer group of sangha members to set up and test-run an experimental hybrid meeting. While we are disappointed this change to hybrid meetings can't happen right away, a delay will ensure everyone's health and peace of mind. We also must abide the developing conditions for using the Episcopal Center set by both the Episcopal Diocese of Raleigh and Duke University.
When conditions allow us to start meeting again, we will actively call on you to help test the equipment, either at the EC or via Zoom/phone-in. In the meantime, if you know that you would like to be part of this volunteer tech-testing team, or if you have any questions about what is involved, don't hesitate to reach out to us at board@triangleinsight.org.
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A TIMC Technology Committee is now being formed. We are inviting anyone interested to serve on this committee to help us determine any additional technology needs and organize and implement our technology/meeting plans.
With gratitude for our community,
The Triangle Insight Board of Directors
(Cynthia Hughey, Marian Place, Leah Rutchick, Martin Steinmeyer, Ron Vereen)
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OPPORTUNITIES
Community Engagement
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Do you have an event or activity that you would like to share in this space? The newsletter welcomes ideas for volunteer activity to engage our Buddhist values and spirit.
Send to the newsletter any opportunities you may know about, or those in which you participate. Email your ideas to board@triangleinsight.org, and please include main details and relevant links.
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Please use these links to visit the website for this information |
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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
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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TIMC Community Connections Committee |
Please check our website for updates from this committee. Its webpage is under construction but you can find the announcement for this committee, as previously published in this newsletter, on our Programs 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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The New Year can be a time for reflection and renewal. During these challenging times, whatever our joys and sorrows, our hopes and fears, we can pause and connect with our heart’s deepest intentions.
As Jack Kornfield writes in The Heart’s Intention, “Becoming aware of intention is the key to awakening in moment-to-moment practice...In times of difficulty it is this repeated setting of our heart’s compass that determines the result….Our spiritual practice can be this simple: to see with eyes of compassion and act with our wisest intention….It is from our intentions that our life grows. It is in opening to one another that our path is made whole.”
Our spiritual friends groups offer a special opportunity for this practice. Supported by trusted friends, our understanding deepens, our hearts soften, and we move from contraction to compassion, from reactivity to wise intention. This is the gift of the third jewel of sangha, a jewel that illuminates our path as we journey together in the year ahead.
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Current KM Groups
We currently have an opening in both the Insight Dialogue group and the Secular Dharma group. Chapel Hill-Carrboro and Raleigh each has a waiting list.
Details about all our groups are on our List of KM Groups web page. If you would like additional information, or want to join a group, be on a waiting list, or start a new group, please contact Sarah Tillis, KM Coordinator: sarah@triangleinsight.org.
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The Kalyana Mitta (KM) Coordinating Team of Sarah Tillis and Tamara Share expresses deep gratitude for the dedication of our sangha. |
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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Announcing a New RAGs Coordinator
Kathy Shipp, long-time participant of the Triangle Insight community, is now the coordinator of TIMC's Racial Affinity Groups. Kathy will keep the sangha aware of on-going RAGs and the opportunities for practice that they offer, through newsletter, website and meeting announcements. She will be available to answer questions about RAGs formation and RAGs experience, and she will be a resource of information about racial equity training and practice. Among the coordinator's other responsibilites, she will maintain an up-to-date list of active RAGs, and connect people who are interested in forming a new group, To reach out to Kathy, email her at kathy@triangleinsight.org.
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Sangha Support: Caring Circles, Helping Hands
A TIMC Sangha Initiative connecting and strengthening the bonds of our shared practice.
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Caring Circles offers the Triangle Insight Meditation Sangha a simple framework for requesting and providing services to cope with the uncertainties and needs of everyday life.
Knowing there is a helping network for sharing and receiving is a great joy and safe haven. Requests for assistance from the TIMC community will be connected with TIM regular practitioners who are ready to volunteer their assistance as a form of dana service.
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Financial Support
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 send email to board@triangleinsight.org.
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We invite the community to join this initiative by contributing directly to this scholarship fund.
For your convenience, you may use the dedicated PayPal portal
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KORU Mindfulness 2.0, with Erica Alexander |
For people who have completed a Koru Basic class and want to continue to grow their practice.
Koru 2.0 is also a great introduction for folks who have some familiarity with mindfulness practice AND for people who want to restart a practice.
We review and enrich practices from Koru Basic, and add new practices to bring more ease, presence & contentment.
January 25 & February 1, 8 & 15
Tuesdays, 5:30pm - 6:45pm
Durham Arts Council online
Instructor, Erica Alexander
$105
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TIMC BOARD | NEWS AND REPORTS |
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Currently serving on the Board of Directors: Cynthia Hughey, Marian Place, Leah Rutchick, Martin Steinmeyer, Ron Vereen.
Board Meetings
Cynthia, Leah, Marian, Martin and Ron convened an open board meeting on December 18, 2021, on Zoom. Here's a brief summary of the minutes.
Decisions:
1) Given the rising Omicron variant, the board will wait a bit longer to pursue our test of the Owl hybrid meeting technology.
2) Marian will be secretary for the board (formal decision taken).
3) After a discussion on its function and capacity for digital storage, the Board decided to adopt a shared drive in the G-Suite system (enabled by Google Drive) as the repository for all Board documents. Access is securely restricted to current Board members.
Initiatives:
1) Ron will be in contact with the Episcopal Center regarding any changing Covid guidelines in light of the Omicron variant.
2) Leah will make a first draft of a step-by-step plan for the Hybrid Test day, and share it with the board prior to our next meeting on 1.15.22.
3) Marian will draft a letter for Ron re our awareness of Omicron and why we are moving our test of the hybrid system back in time.
Discussion:
1) Hybrid Meeting.
Martin reported details about acquiring the OWL video equipment on a trial basis for testing. A preliminary discussion took place of what steps will be involved in actually testing the equipment, and how test-day volunteers can help.
2) Core Technology Group
Leah, Ron, Martin & Robert are current members of the technology sub-committtee.
3) Website Redesign and the Web Redesign Committee
Mary Ka Powers, TIMC's long-standing webmaster, indicated she was willing to redesign the website, keep it running smoothly, and upload content to the website as part of a contractual agreement. An alternative approach would use a Contract Management System (CMS), like Wild Apricot (ex. IMCC, Charlottesville). This type of system offers proprietary design elements, background tech support (remote), and requires the owner (TIMC) to organize content and maintain updates. Mary Powers would not be available for this role if we choose a CMS.
- The Board briefly considered forming a website redesign committee of board members and possibly one or two sangha members.
4) Participant-Observation project: Asian Religious Traditions in NC
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Perry Sweitzer will attend the board meeting on January 15 to request TIMC's agreement to conduct a voluntary participant-observation study of the TIMC sangha. Mr. Sweitzer is working with a Duke research lab in their study of the presence and impact of Asian religious traditions in North Carolina (Joseph / Perry Sweitzer project)
- Questions from the audience on this topic will be answered at the end of the meeting, or will be addressed by email, if all scheduled time has elapsed.
--Martin has volunteered for the leadership role for the next meeting.
The next open board meeting will be held on Zoom, Saturday, JAN 15, 12 p.m. - 2 p.m. 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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Build a Communications Network around
the Newsletter & Website
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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