Dear Common Ground Friends,
At our recent annual Board of Directors Retreat we took turns reading out loud Common Ground's Guiding Principles and Practices as a way of rooting ourselves in the shared values that guide us in our leadership responsibilities. In our trembling world, with all its beauty and goodness, and all its suffering and self-centered ignorance, there are innumerable ways to contribute to the healing and liberation that the Buddha teaches. This is the inherent potential of every heart. We as individuals and as a community that has formed around the Buddha’s teachings and practices must decide how to show up in our world that we are collectively creating together. In 2016, Common Ground’s Board of Directors approved this addition to our Guiding Principles and Practices:
Responding directly to the suffering in our world with compassion
We are devoted to walking alongside each other with interest and compassion as we wake up to the unequal, and yet interrelated, experiences of privilege and oppression in our relationships, institutions, and communities. We understand that this wise and fearless opening to the real pain and confusion in our world is a difficult and necessary process in addressing the roots of suffering.
Common Ground Meditation Center exists to support the awakening of suffering beings through the development of an ethical life, the cultivation of a pure heart and quiet mind, and through a deepening of insight into the way things are. This specific and focused mission might seem to be an insufficient response given all that is moving in our lives and in our world. But the teachings and practices of the Buddha are designed to awaken a tender and potent wisdom that supports a nimble engagement. This capacity is grounded in a deepening insight into the deepest roots of suffering. I am repeatedly inspired by the creative and courageous ways people are responding to suffering. It is this wise love that keeps reminding me of our great potential for healing and liberation.
If you are interested in more reflections on this topic, I recently gave a talk at Portland Insight Meditation Center on this subject: The Intersection of Dharma and Social Action.
May the deepest wisdom and love guide and protect us all – no one left out.
Mark Nunberg
Co-Guiding Teacher
Weekly Guiding Teacher Reflection
Thursday, Oct 1st, 5:12 p.m.