Dear friends.
How are you?
Such a common everyday question,
but how often do we take the time to really answer it truthfully?
How are you?
Dharma sharing is the practice of looking deeply into our minds, our hearts,
and answering that question completely wholeheartedly.
How are you?
What are you going through?
What's alive for you in this moment?
You may like to think of Dharma sharing as truth sharing.
What is your truth?
What brings you to this moment in the here and now?
So typically in Dharma sharing, we have between 10 and 20 people and we sit in a circle
so that we can all see one another as we share, and as we listen to one another sharing.
And maybe you don't have the conditions to sit in person in a circle,
but you can still on a zoom call, create that energy of connection with one another,
just by looking deeply into that person who's sharing,
just by looking deeply into the eyes in these little windows on the screen.
We still have more than enough conditions
to build Sangha to connect with one another.
We hold that spirit of being all together in the present moment,
and maybe one person will share the time going around the circle.
Or perhaps you like to share spontaneously as you're ready.
So when you're ready, the person sharing will join their palms and bow in.
This indicates that they're beginning their sharing
and they share for as long as they need in order to express themselves fully.
But we're also aware of how many people are in the circle and how much time there is,
and we try, if possible, to allow time for everyone to share.
And then when we're finished sharing, we join our palms and we bow again.
And then we leave a little space, two or three breaths, and then someone else can bow in with their sharing.
Dharma sharing is a meditation practice with broad focus.
As we share, we're aware of our body in space
and we're aware of our heart, the feelings that come and go as we share.
And as we listen.
The object of our meditation is the person who is sharing, we practice deep listening.
We place the entirety of our attention on that person sharing, and we listen with our whole heart.
And we're awared when we're distracted by our thinking
by whether or not we resonate with that person's experience.
And then we come back, we quiet our thinking and we place our attention back on that person.
We become one with the object of our meditation.
We become one with that person who is sharing.
And as we answer this question, how are you?
How am I?
What am I going through?
What are you going through?
And as we listen to others answer that question, we create connection.
We build community.
And this is very rare.
This is very precious.
So we practice not to give advice.
We practice not to teach or interrupt.
We practice to share to the entire circle, not to one person or another.
And we also share in the spirit of confidentiality.
And if you'd like to approach someone after the sharing to ask them a question
or to offer a comment, then you can ask permission and do it discreetly.
And in this way, we build trust.
And when we build trust, we deepen this connection.
We deepen this feeling of family bond with the circle
of holding one another's experience as a collective.
As we share,
it's not uncommon for strong emotions to come up.
And so you have full permission to take a break,
to pause your sharing and just breathe,
come back to yourself so that you're not carried away by your emotions.
Breathing in.
I calm my body. Breathing out.
I smile.
Breathing in.
I'm aware of this present moment.
Breathing out.
I know this is a wonderful moment.
And I come back.
And I can observe my feelings without being caught by my feelings.
I can have my feelings without my feelings having me.
I can communicate my feelings to the group.
And together we can hold them.
[BELL]
From time to time.
The facilitator may like to invite the sound of the bell to allow us to come back to this present moment,
to come back to our inbreath and outbreath.
And to clear our minds, clear our hearts so that we can be fully present
for the next person who shares.
And of course, sharing about challenges, sharing about suffering is
so wonderful.
And how lucky we are to be able to share, to have this container, to be able to share.
But our suffering is not separate from our happiness and our freedom.
And when you share about your joy in the practice, when you share about the happiness
that you cultivate in the practice, this is also an inspiration.
And this is also very valuable to these circles.
So please, if you want to offer your happiness in the practice to the circle, your insight, by all means, share.
Just not from that point of view of trying to teach or show off.
Just from the sheer joy of transformation through the practice.
For me.
Dharma sharing was a revelation when I came to the monastery.
I think many people come to the monastery expecting silence.
Many people coming.
Many people come to the monastery thinking that they'll be left to their own devices,
to work through their own challenges, difficulties and questions.
But they leave the monastery feeling connected to others.
And Dhamma sharing at its heart is the practice of connecting to others.
It's a very rare and special practice.
And maybe you don't have an opportunity to practice like this
outside of your Sangha or outside of this retreat.
But maybe you can create circles like this.
Maybe you can still find ways to sit with others to hear their experience.
Because this is really meaningful medicine for the world right now.
How can we hope to heal others
if we don't have the capacity to listen deeply to them?
How can we hope to heal ourselves if we don't have the container
to be able to look deeply into our feelings, into our challenges?
So I wish you a very meaningful and connecting Dharma sharing practice.