Connections Present
Recently I volunteered to update the Dharma Centre’s participant contact list. Over the years many email addresses, street addresses and phone numbers have changed and the Centre was losing touch with many of the people who had contributed to the Centre and benefited from retreats and courses there for over fifty years. I began to review the names of about a thousand people – your names. A deepening feeling came over and into me. I read the names of people I knew well, some of whom I had not seen for years and felt the connections present. I read the names of people who had died recently or long ago. I paused at each name and felt connections present even though the people had passed on. Then with reverence I said good bye and thank you and deleted the name from the list. Impermanence!
The feeling deepened further as I paused at each name, including people I did not know – your names – people who share interests and who would be friends if we were to meet. I had a new appreciation of Sangha, a circle of aspirants to accelerated awakening. We have heard that the upward evolutionary spiral is the birthright of all beings. In 1993, I heard Namgyal Rinpoche say, “The enlightenment process is going on within you in spite of your feeble attempts to thwart it.” I was thrilled and relieved by the realization that our awakening is inevitable and that moment has stayed with me since. Epiphany!
I passed some quiet time with the list of names, feeling connections present among us all. Each of us at different times or the same time, a few times or many times, have found our way to the Dharma Centre. It is a sanctuary of wild natural beauty, peacefully distant from the bustle of daily life and infused with decades of teaching and practice of awakening. It reverberates with many years of calming down, of noticing, of spontaneous interactions with the wooded paths, the lakes, swamps and living beings that dwell therein: fox, beaver, bear and wolves howling on a cold winter dawn. We have each dealt with our mixed feelings about black flies, mosquitoes, deer flies and horseflies. Transcendence!
In that wild place, we have heard uplifting teachings, entered energizing ceremonies, and encountered ourselves on cushions in quiet meditation rooms or “having gone to the forest.” And here we are again. Connections present!
I’m happy to be a member of this circle. Did I say member? I just contacted the Dharma Centre to be sure my membership is up to date. Isn’t it surprising how many of us don’t get around to renewing our membership until we are about to do a retreat? On the Dharma Centre website, https://www.dharmacentre.org images, on-site and online program listings, and videos make it clear that our Centre is thriving. On that website you can renew your membership. Our Dharma Centre is thriving because it is propelled by the support of the staff, the volunteers, the board, the committees and the members. Energy!
We’ll soon launch an exciting major Temple project. You’ll be hearing much more about this. The Dharma Centre’s Temple team manager has been reaching out to ask our experiences of the Temple and how it can better serve and support us all. I want to be part of this great step for the Dharma Centre. I hope you will be part of it too. Community!
David Berry