Honey Locust Sangha
Omaha Community of Mindful Living
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Minutes of Care-Taking Council (CTC) for Honey Locust Sangha
Agenda for Zoom meeting 9/20/20
All Present: Dave W, Gina M, Jim C, Juanita R, Mark W, Mike McM and facilitator Patrice W
​


1. Update on facilitation of dana income for sangha: Dave W will show Mark how to download the Venmo app and Mark has authority to connect the sangha bank account.  Once that is done, an email to the sangha will be drafted and circulated, then sent out.  After that, we will make dana announcements at Sangha meetings, both live and virtual.


2. How to take Minutes. Juanita confirmed her commitment to take minutes regularly,  The minutes do get posted to the website for sangha and discussions are mostly summarized and relatively brief.  Mike McM, former note-taker, offered to help and advise.
 
3.  Update on December retreat with Sister Terry planned for Carol Joy Holling Center.  We canceled plans for a residential retreat as well as a one-day Core Community retreat.  Many of us will attend the Virtual retreat next weekend led by Sister Terry.  She is willing to do a virtual December retreat for us and we will discuss a plan for it once we have the direct experience to evaluate what we’d like to do.

4. Update on May retreat at Creighton University Retreat Center planned with Brother Michael Ciborski.  The Creighton Retreat planner has already notified us that they are cancelling plans for all retreats through next May.  Dave gave us a summary of what medical science foresees for the coming months, and said that any large indoor gatherings are unlikely to be safe unless and until a good vaccine is found and distributed widely.

     Given that information, although we briefly thought of finding an alternative space, we conceded that it is probably not going to happen.  Therefore we discussed several ideas.
            A. We will investigate with Brother Michael what kind of virtual event he might envision.
            B. We have a report that the Thich Nhat Hanh Foundation which supports the monastics at a number of international locations is running short of funds. In lieu of the income derived from residential retreats at the monasteries, money is short that is needed to maintain the grounds and shelter, clothe, and feed our dear brothers and sisters.  Therefore, in the absence of a Honey Locust residential retreat, perhaps we should encourage sangha members to seek out some of the rich virtual retreats, Days of Mindfulness and Videos of our respected ** monastics.We suggest this with the understanding that what members would spend for residential retreats could be sent instead to the TNH Foundation.  This would also have the advantage of helping our members experience the joy and deep understanding the monastics provide.
            C.  However, we recognize our simultaneous need for “Honey-Locust Glue”  (should we call it Honeycomb?) – in other words, our need to share with each other a deep teaching experience and the Compassionate Dharma Waters of small Dharma Sharing groups. 
             D.  And also, a desire to have the continuity of our relationship with Brother Michael.
    Like all wise committees, the CTC delegated the thinking-through these factors to a sub-committee of Mark, with the help of Jim and Juanita.
 
5. Discussion of current practice of simultaneous zoom and outdoor in- person meetings
            For the last couple weeks nice weather has enabled an in-person sangha gathering at Elmwood Park in Omaha, socially distanced and mask-wearing.  For those unable or unwilling to join in, Zoom-enabled meetings are also continued.  With reflection we realized that the meetings in the park have met a deep longing for in-person contact and should continue, but that there is also a need for the virtual alternative. In the face of ‘separation anxiety’ (so-to-speak) it was resolved that the Park section will take a Selfie photo each Monday night and send it to Gina to show at our Zoom gathering, and that both groups will make efforts to connect in awareness each week.


6. Discussion of possible future relationship  with Chan Huy—continuation of last meeting’s thoughts,  We came to the decision that Brother Chan Huy, as both the teacher who facilitated the founding of Honey-Locust Sangha and as a distinguished senior Dharmacharya (ordained Dharma Teacher)—offers his rich closeness to our venerable Thich Nhat Hanh and a lived intimacy with long practice history.  When he returns to North America from his extended time in Asia (most recently Vietnam), we intend to invite him to visit us.  We do this both in gratitude for his past contributions to our growth, but also to set up something like a Day of Deep Mindfulness for the OI, Aspirants, CTC and practitioners with a long experience with the Dharma.  And also perhaps a more public event some evening for the sangha-at-large and the wider community.
     We know there have been some incidents where mutual understanding failed. We can perhaps benefit from increasing our awareness of ‘different strokes’—based on a wider inclusiveness, of language, ethnicity, practice style, and history. We must acknowledge that Brother Chan Huy’s long practice may give his traditions a distinctive flavor.  Intersectionality is sometimes based on age and history…


7. Discussion of inclusiveness – As the CTC we acknowledge an obligation to profit from the society-wise impetus for understanding and mending racialism in our society’s past and present.  There is widespread acknowledgment of the need for conversations and insights into the tragic misunderstandings, needless suffering, and lack of sharing we inherit.  We are also “Called forward” by the efforts of the ARISE sangha in the Thich Nhat Hanh tradition, or Awakening through Racism, Intersectionality and Ethnicity.  We have read and tried to listen deeply to their meditation on the Five Mindfulness Trainings.  We want therefore to actively bring up a consistent commitment to recognizing and alleviating the ways mainstream (white heterosexual) society is segregated and isolated from the sufferings caused by these divisions.  We recognize that there are many ways to be marginalized as well as many nuances that call for constant  deep listening and seeing.  When we speak of inclusiveness, we do not merely mean we wish we could ‘recruit’ people to our sangha that would make us look less segregated. We want to expand all aspects of our lives to be unsegregated.  We want to learn to value difference in all its nuances, including but not limited aspects of appearance or style or tradition.  
     Gina and Juanita volunteered to undertake a campaign of sharing information and resources on the website and the listserve that will help us all open our hearts and minds, educate ourselves and open our hearts more and more.  We start with Gina sharing information about a virtual gathering with Kaira Jewel Lingon and Larry Ward, Dharma Teachers, to introduce Larry Ward’s new book America’s Racial Karma. It will be held October 1 and information went out today from the
Thich Nhat Hanh Foundation.

 
8.  Zoom Sangha Facilitation Schedule..  Gina suggested that Aspirants should be added to the rotating schedule of OI’s who are responsible for each week’s meeting facilitation.  The new roster is a little complicated by the split meetings now, but it was approved as a guide for the time being and was sent out today.  There are three Order of Interbeing members-Gina, Mark & Mike McM—and three Aspirants to OI—Dave, Jim & Juanita. The designee for a given meeting may facilitate it personally or secure someone else from a number of able and experienced sangha practitioners.

The meeting was adjourned with unanimous acclaim for our new CTC ‘chair.’-Patrice

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.