Resonant Reading (Wednesday)

An exploration of ideas, feelings, and our life experiences, using a different short reading as our springboard each time. The sessions are on Saturdays, 4-5, and on Wednesdays, 12-1. All are wide open and you are welcome to come twice a week or once in a while.

The participants over the years have found that the approach we take, and the respectful, affectionate community of inquirers in which we read and converse, are as important as the reading itself. While many small groups begin with a check-in, with a session only an hour long, Resonant Reading jumps right in to the conversation. Those who are frequently in the group get to know each other very well this way, and those who are new will soon find they are among friends.

Facilitators use a light hand, posting the reading in the chat and calling on whoever’s Zoom hand is up. Suggestions for readings* come from group members, who also take turns facilitating, if they want to try that role.

The reading for this session is from Dani Shapiro in the book Devotion, p. 200, recounting a conversation with Sharon Salzberg:

“It’s painful and unskillful to compare,” Sharon said, “No matter what conclusion we draw. Comparing creates agitation in the mind.” I felt Sharon’s words go through me like a shock. There was the lesson and the internalizing of the lesson all at once. Comparison itself was the problem. Whether I was up, or down, or sideways was incidental to the very act of comparison, which was agitating. I understood this to be absolutely true. I thought of how I felt when I compared myself–whatever the result. It was diminishing, slightly sickening. Unskillful, that perfect Buddhist term.

Questions? Drop an e-mail to resonant-reading+owner@uucpa.org.