Honey Locust Sangha
Omaha Community of Mindful Living
  • Home
  • Our Practice
    • Weekly Meditation
    • Monthly Half Day of Mindfulness
    • Days of Mindfulness
    • Annual Retreat >
      • Retreat Sign Up
    • TNH Quarterly Video Series
    • Monthly Calendar
  • Practice Resources
    • Gathas (Mindfulness Verses)
    • Beginning Anew
    • The Five Remembrances >
      • November 2022 CTC Minutes
    • Mindful Breathing (Meditation 101)
    • Touching the Earth
    • 5 Contemplations (Eating Meditation) >
      • August 2022 CTC Minutes
      • CTC Minutes April 24 2022
    • 5 Mindfulness Trainings (Guidance for Mindful Living)
    • Deep Relaxation
    • Meditating with Difficult Feelings
    • Peace Treaty (A Practice for Dealing with Anger)
    • Outdoor Walking Meditation
    • Indoor Walking Meditation
    • Meditation on No Birth, No Death
  • Articles by Thich Nhat Hanh
    • The Heart Sutra
    • Flames of Prayer
    • March 2021 CTC minutes
    • On Reincarnation
    • Mother Earth Is Inside Of Us
    • Walking Meditation
    • The Story of a River
    • Why Do We Have to Die One Day?
    • Impermanence
    • Poem: In Praise of Mother Earth
  • Dharma Talks by Some of Our Teachers
  • Sangha Musings - Poems, Prayers, Reflections
  • Videos
  • Christian/Buddhist Dialogue Articles
    • Richard Rohr- Unitive Consciousness
    • Thich Nhat Hanh- Home is the Way: A Christmas Message
    • Paul Knitter- God/Love: the compassionate energy of the interconnecting spirit.
    • Katherine Fransson- Eyes of Thich Nhat Hanh
    • Mike McMahon- An Introduction to Christian/Buddhist dialogue
    • David Stendl-Rast- A Catholic Monk Practicing Buddhism
    • Thich Nhat Hanh- The Holy Spirit and Mindfulness
    • Thich Nhat Hanh- Going Back to Our Religious Roots
    • Anthony de Mello, SJ.- Conversations with the Master
    • Mike McMahon-A Lotus Blooming in the Catholic Church
    • Mike McMahon- Buddhist Approach to Doctrine (Teachings are relative truth)
    • Joan Chittister- Practice Compassion and You Will Become It
    • August 2022 CTC Minutes
    • Notes from Thomas Merton's Asian Journal
    • Paul Knitter
  • Caretaking Council
    • February 2023 CTC Minutes
    • January 2023 CTC
    • December 2022 minutes
    • November 2022 CTC Minutes
    • October 2022 CTC Minutes
    • August 2022 CTC Minutes
    • July 2022 CTC Miinutes
    • June 2022 CTC minutes
    • April 24 2022 CTC Minutes
    • April 10 2022 CTC Minutes
    • March 2022 CTC minutes
    • February 2022 CTC Minutes
    • January 2022 CTC Minutes
    • December 2021 CTC Minutes
    • November 2021 CTC minutes
    • October 2021 CTC Minutes
    • September 2021 Minutes
    • August 2021 CTC Minutes
    • July 2021 CTC Minutes
    • June 2021 CTC Minutes
    • April 2021 CTC Minutes
    • February 202CTC Minutes
    • January 2021 CTC Minutes
    • November 2020 CTC Minutes
    • October 2020 CTC minutes
    • Sept 2020 CTC minutes
    • January 19, 2020 CTC Minutes >
      • November 2022 CTC Minutes
    • October 2019 CTC minutes
    • September 2019 CTC Minutes
    • August 2019 Caretaking Coucil
    • March 2019 Caretaking Council Minutes
    • October 2018 CTC minutes
    • September 2018 CTC minutes
    • August 2018 CTC Minutes
    • July 2018 CTC minutes
    • April 2018 CTC Minutes
    • January 2018 CTC Minutes
    • November 2017 CTC minutes
    • August 2017 CTC Minutes
    • July 2017 CTC Minutes
    • May 2017 CTC Minutes
    • April 2017 CTC Minutes
    • March 2017 CTC Minutes
    • September 2016 Minutes
  • Adventures in Buddhist/Christian Spirituality
  • Sangha Directory
  • March 2023 CTC Minutes
​Honey Locust Sangha Caretaking Council Meeting
Sunday, August 18,  2019
Present: Gina Matkin, Colleen Brown, Dave Watts , Mike McMahon, Mark Watson, Mike McGann
Absent: None

We began, as always with meditation, TNH reflection on holding a meeting, and check-in.

1) We noted that future items we need to discuss include: a) what we might do with the $9000 balance in our account; b) consideration of bringing new people into the roles of sangha treasurer, and CTC facilitator and secretary. 

2) This was our first meeting after a summer hiatus.  We did a brief Sangha check in.  How do we think things are going with the sangha? 
We noted many positive things: there are quite a number of practice opportunities beyond the Monday night gatherings and they seem to be doing well: Weekly Friday Night Noble Silence Meditation, Monthly half- DOM, Monthly Women's group, monthly book club. Some of our members have begun other meditation practices that are not exclusively in the Thich Nhat Hanh tradition including a Weekly Saturday and Sunday morning meditation at the Yoga Path, a weekly meditation at the Unitarian church, and  a weekly meditation group for at risk youth at the Omaha Bike Club.
One of the challenges with more people and different offerings is keeping ourselves grounded in Thay's teachings and practices, making sure new people are receiving good instruction in our practices especially for sharing in sangha. 

3) Discussion of our current policy regarding the composition of CTC, balance of OI vs at-large sangha members, and possibility of rotating OI in and out of CTC.

4) Discussion of process for bringing new at-large sangha members into the CTC. Concerns were expressed over previously approved method of accepting all volunteers from among qualified sangha members, then randomly selecting from among them.  It was proposed that the CTC knows the sangha well and that we seek out new CTC members we think might best serve the sangha.  Brief discussion of this and decision to table action until next month's meeting. 

5) Discussion of whether to continue check-in at Monday night sangha.  With the number of people attending Monday nights (usually 20-30), check in can take up to half and hour.  Is this the best use of our time? Two views: a) the "talky" atmosphere of Monday night stands in contrast to the Noble Silence atmosphere of our retreats.  Since we consider silence so nourishing, wouldn't it be better for the sangha to feature more of it in our Monday night practice?; b) the check in and sharing that happens on Monday night is particularly welcoming to new comers and people who have not meditated before.  There are other opportunities for practice besides Monday night including the Noble Silence meditation on Friday nights. This discussion has been with us for some time and probably will continue. 

Closed with Mike McMahon reading the poem, "Mindfulness" by Mary Oliver
The Honey Locust Sangha / Omaha Community of Mindful Living is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. All funds donated help to fulfill the mission of practicing and raising awareness of the mindfulness practice in the Thich Nhat Hanh / Plum Village tradition.

​You can donate (provide Dana) using the PayPal link at the left (you do not need a PayPal account) or send via Venmo to @HoneyLocust. Please indicate General Dana or specific event (December DoM, for example) in the text via Venmo.