Care Taking Council Minutes, Nov. 19, 2023
(note: the council had a "play date in October, so there are no minutes from that month)
Present Gina Matkin, Tina Ray, Jim Cox, Mike McMahon, Mark Watson, Dave Watts and Juanita Rice (notetaker) and Patrice Watson (facilitator). Absent: Mike McGann
After prayer for our intentions to practice peacefully and without tensions, we sat quietly before each “checking in,” bringing our lives into alignment, perhaps.
Agenda Item 1: Treasury update. The current balance is $5246. That’s up $100 from September
(PayPal $1543, US Bank $3703.)
Agenda Item 2: Zoom training update. We have set up a Zoom meeting with Gina for Zoom training in responsibilities for Hosting: Sunday, Dec. 10 as 12:30 pm.
Agenda Item 3: Meeting time. Changed to 12:30-2:30 (currently 1-3).
Agenda Item 4: Monday night meetings. Comments on the current format and suggestions for improvements.
We had some renewed discussion about the costs and benefits of offering Zoom sessions and may consider setting aside a given week each month to have the sangha sections meet separately. Again, the values of offering the Zoom extension and the values of media-free gatherings were evaluated. Some people who come to the Yoga Path weighed in again on the intimacy and connection of meetings in person, without the task of moving mikes & camera around and without the need for at least one person to stay close to the computer interface. At the same time, we all want to continue cultivating the spirit of connection among all sangha members, and we see that the zoom option has kept us together though these years of difficulty, and has extended our circle of sangha. This is a meaningful service to the dharma. Jim who is just back from a retreat at Magnolia Grove mentioned talking with people new to the practice who had not connected with sanghas and were invited to join us. We decided to set aside any thought of resolution while we hold space for thoughts and feelings about any changes. No one is proposing to separate the sections except perhaps occasionally.
Agenda Item 5. Lending Library. (This item was incorporated into discussion of #4). Juanita volunteered to renew our practice of offering a lending library at the Yoga Path Studio, starting with one week a month and asking for others to help. The library is diminished in number of books, it seems, and it was also suggested that display could be much simplified. We understand it may take some experimenting to be of best service most simply.
Item 6: Update from the retreat committee. Jim (the incumbent committee Poo-Bah) reported that for the December 2 Day of Mindfulness everything looked good so far with the addition of a few last-minute assignments from the CTC: dharma sharing groups, music for deep relaxation, etc. The retreat registration link will be sent out again today. We did not talk about future events.
Agenda Item 7: Discussion of Retreats and the Christian/Catholic imagery at Creighton University Retreat Center. We have learned that a few people find some of the most vivid of the icons bring back painful memories.
The Creighton Retreat Center is much beloved as a place for our retreats for several reasons: its setting in natural habitat, the cooperative staff including the dining room’s willingness to respond to dietary restrictions , the convenience of its closeness to Omaha, and the facility itself, the price, and many things about the rooms and layout. At various times some of us too have negative reactions to the explicit Catholicism of art and imagery in and around the Center. Since in some cases some people’s reactions may activate actual traumatic experiences of individuals, we must acknowledge these reactions, and the reality of the suffering caused by positions taken by the Catholic Church, and the Nebraska Catholic Church specifically.
Can we or should we as the Care Taking Council of Honey Locust Sangha take any actions to protect or comfort individuals who feel real triggering of trauma by the prominent and explicit Catholic imagery and signage at the Retreat Center?
First of all, we have to acknowledge there is really not much choice for retreat centers. Everything we know of in our area that could be used as a good place for us to go will be at least Christian, and probably Catholic. So the action we cannot take or will not take is to abstain from using the Creighton University Retreat Center.
Moreover, as a Plum Village sangha, Honey Locust guides our Dharma practice by the remarkable heart and footsteps of Thich Nhat Hanh, the revered founder of Plum Village tradition, and by the embodied wisdom of the Mahasangha (the larger collective of practitioners) throughout the world today: monastics and ordained Dharma Teachers especially, as well as the council for the Order of Interbeing. In the view and practice of Thich Nhat Hanh, we acknowledge that the spiritual roots of all cultures hold deep jewels of truth, prayer, compassion and ethics and that our Buddhism is not an exclusive faction with prejudice toward other deep faiths. In Thay’s view, Jesus and Buddha are historical brothers and we are encouraged to find agreements and not to hold to or against doctrines of faith. We do hold certain beliefs about social issues and may even disagree on some issues among ourselves, but we do not choose to condemn or champion “causes.”
We thus explicitly acknowledge that the path we follow is not an exclusive sect, but a collective of many individuals of many histories and many spiritual credos. We unite around an ethic (Five Mindfulness Trainings), an aspiration to alleviate suffering wherever it occurs, and a dedication to being open-minded about credos, faiths, churches, and traditions. Sectarian ideas about who’s right and who’s wrong, what credos are good and what are bad, whose cultural traditions are superior or inferior are, in this view, responsible only for more suffering and less kindness. We agree to disagree on many issues and to look for the benefits, the “jewels” of every cultural expression world-wide.
We decided that we may resolve to bring to dharma talks and discussions a careful and thoughtful emphasis on Thich Nhat Hanh’s leadership in seeing Buddha and Jesus as brothers, of honoring both deep traditions, and finding ways to defuse reactive triggers whenever and wherever we encounter reminders of our attitudes and opinions, our fears and resentments.
(And we even acknowledge that some of us sometimes in our own living units may “disappear” images that are particularly disturbing, something we do with respect for our hosts and without harming property.)
Tabled Items remain tabled.
NOTE: CONTACT ANY MEMBERS OF THE CTC WITH ANY ISSUES OR IDEAS YOU WOULD LIKE TO SEE US DISCUSS.
(note: the council had a "play date in October, so there are no minutes from that month)
Present Gina Matkin, Tina Ray, Jim Cox, Mike McMahon, Mark Watson, Dave Watts and Juanita Rice (notetaker) and Patrice Watson (facilitator). Absent: Mike McGann
After prayer for our intentions to practice peacefully and without tensions, we sat quietly before each “checking in,” bringing our lives into alignment, perhaps.
Agenda Item 1: Treasury update. The current balance is $5246. That’s up $100 from September
(PayPal $1543, US Bank $3703.)
Agenda Item 2: Zoom training update. We have set up a Zoom meeting with Gina for Zoom training in responsibilities for Hosting: Sunday, Dec. 10 as 12:30 pm.
Agenda Item 3: Meeting time. Changed to 12:30-2:30 (currently 1-3).
Agenda Item 4: Monday night meetings. Comments on the current format and suggestions for improvements.
We had some renewed discussion about the costs and benefits of offering Zoom sessions and may consider setting aside a given week each month to have the sangha sections meet separately. Again, the values of offering the Zoom extension and the values of media-free gatherings were evaluated. Some people who come to the Yoga Path weighed in again on the intimacy and connection of meetings in person, without the task of moving mikes & camera around and without the need for at least one person to stay close to the computer interface. At the same time, we all want to continue cultivating the spirit of connection among all sangha members, and we see that the zoom option has kept us together though these years of difficulty, and has extended our circle of sangha. This is a meaningful service to the dharma. Jim who is just back from a retreat at Magnolia Grove mentioned talking with people new to the practice who had not connected with sanghas and were invited to join us. We decided to set aside any thought of resolution while we hold space for thoughts and feelings about any changes. No one is proposing to separate the sections except perhaps occasionally.
Agenda Item 5. Lending Library. (This item was incorporated into discussion of #4). Juanita volunteered to renew our practice of offering a lending library at the Yoga Path Studio, starting with one week a month and asking for others to help. The library is diminished in number of books, it seems, and it was also suggested that display could be much simplified. We understand it may take some experimenting to be of best service most simply.
Item 6: Update from the retreat committee. Jim (the incumbent committee Poo-Bah) reported that for the December 2 Day of Mindfulness everything looked good so far with the addition of a few last-minute assignments from the CTC: dharma sharing groups, music for deep relaxation, etc. The retreat registration link will be sent out again today. We did not talk about future events.
Agenda Item 7: Discussion of Retreats and the Christian/Catholic imagery at Creighton University Retreat Center. We have learned that a few people find some of the most vivid of the icons bring back painful memories.
The Creighton Retreat Center is much beloved as a place for our retreats for several reasons: its setting in natural habitat, the cooperative staff including the dining room’s willingness to respond to dietary restrictions , the convenience of its closeness to Omaha, and the facility itself, the price, and many things about the rooms and layout. At various times some of us too have negative reactions to the explicit Catholicism of art and imagery in and around the Center. Since in some cases some people’s reactions may activate actual traumatic experiences of individuals, we must acknowledge these reactions, and the reality of the suffering caused by positions taken by the Catholic Church, and the Nebraska Catholic Church specifically.
Can we or should we as the Care Taking Council of Honey Locust Sangha take any actions to protect or comfort individuals who feel real triggering of trauma by the prominent and explicit Catholic imagery and signage at the Retreat Center?
First of all, we have to acknowledge there is really not much choice for retreat centers. Everything we know of in our area that could be used as a good place for us to go will be at least Christian, and probably Catholic. So the action we cannot take or will not take is to abstain from using the Creighton University Retreat Center.
Moreover, as a Plum Village sangha, Honey Locust guides our Dharma practice by the remarkable heart and footsteps of Thich Nhat Hanh, the revered founder of Plum Village tradition, and by the embodied wisdom of the Mahasangha (the larger collective of practitioners) throughout the world today: monastics and ordained Dharma Teachers especially, as well as the council for the Order of Interbeing. In the view and practice of Thich Nhat Hanh, we acknowledge that the spiritual roots of all cultures hold deep jewels of truth, prayer, compassion and ethics and that our Buddhism is not an exclusive faction with prejudice toward other deep faiths. In Thay’s view, Jesus and Buddha are historical brothers and we are encouraged to find agreements and not to hold to or against doctrines of faith. We do hold certain beliefs about social issues and may even disagree on some issues among ourselves, but we do not choose to condemn or champion “causes.”
We thus explicitly acknowledge that the path we follow is not an exclusive sect, but a collective of many individuals of many histories and many spiritual credos. We unite around an ethic (Five Mindfulness Trainings), an aspiration to alleviate suffering wherever it occurs, and a dedication to being open-minded about credos, faiths, churches, and traditions. Sectarian ideas about who’s right and who’s wrong, what credos are good and what are bad, whose cultural traditions are superior or inferior are, in this view, responsible only for more suffering and less kindness. We agree to disagree on many issues and to look for the benefits, the “jewels” of every cultural expression world-wide.
We decided that we may resolve to bring to dharma talks and discussions a careful and thoughtful emphasis on Thich Nhat Hanh’s leadership in seeing Buddha and Jesus as brothers, of honoring both deep traditions, and finding ways to defuse reactive triggers whenever and wherever we encounter reminders of our attitudes and opinions, our fears and resentments.
(And we even acknowledge that some of us sometimes in our own living units may “disappear” images that are particularly disturbing, something we do with respect for our hosts and without harming property.)
Tabled Items remain tabled.
NOTE: CONTACT ANY MEMBERS OF THE CTC WITH ANY ISSUES OR IDEAS YOU WOULD LIKE TO SEE US DISCUSS.