Sacred Text Reading Group (Saturday)
Kornfield
Date(s) - 04/16/2022
4:00 pm - 5:00 pm
A twice-weekly online sacred text reading group. We meet on Saturdays, 4-5, and on Wednesdays, 12-1. All are wide open and you are welcome!
Using a spiritual-practice approach, in each session we will explore a different brief scriptural text in depth. The aims of the sessions are educational (learning something about the texts and traditions), spiritual/moral (discovering what the texts ask of us), and community-building (getting to know each other better). Our practice usually follows this version of Lectio Divina.
The facilitator will have a version of the text available to share; “bring” your own if you like. All are welcome, as are your suggestions of future texts. Group members also take turns facilitating, if they want to try that role.
Our text for Saturday, April 16, 2022, is this passage from Jack Kornfield’s book After the Ecstasy, the Laundry. Kornfield is a Buddhist teacher, one of the leaders of the Theravada Buddhist movement in the US.
The true task of spiritual life is not found in faraway places or unusual states of consciousness: It is here in the present. It asks of us a welcoming spirit to greet all that life presents to us with a wise, respectful, and kindly heart. We can bow to both beauty and suffering, to our entanglements and confusion, to our fear and to the injustices of the world. Honoring the truth in this way is the path to freedom. To bow to what is rather than to some ideal is not necessarily easy, but however difficult, it is one of the most useful and honorable practices.
To have check-in time, or if you are new and would like a brief orientation, arrive ten minutes early. And all are welcome to stay ten minutes after as well, for more getting-acquainted time.
How to join:
- Join this class from your Web browser: https://zoom.us/j/578882781
- Join this class using the Zoom app: Meeting ID: 578 882 781
- Join this class by phone: 669 900 9128 US (San Jose), Meeting ID: 578 882 781
- Join this class by on-tap on mobile phones: +16699009128,,578882781# US (San Jose)
- Phoning in, but not in the bay area? Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/abL8clvIYT