Mindfulness Practice Group of Annapolis - Meditation

All events in this series may be attended separately. All Thurs. sessions are 6:30-8:30 in the sanctuary. All Sunday sessions are 9-10 AM in the UU Sisterhood Rm.
Thurs. Oct. 24: Silent Meditation & Reading in parts of Ikkyu's Zen Poem "Skeletons." Ultrazen.
Sun. Oct. 27: Meditation on Buddhism's Five Remembrances of death & loss, Discussion.
Thurs. Oct. 31: Meditation on the Dissolution of the Body. Cremation version. Discussion follows including of choice of version.
Sun. Nov. 3: Annual Hungry Ghosts Ceremony from our practice book. Participants are invited to bring a token of a person now continued in another form.
Sun. Nov. 10: Veterans Day Observance

Every Sunday in the Young Room of UUCA. Beginners always welcome. We start with 20 mins. of guided meditation, followed by a dharma discussion of the week. Sometimes the topics come from books we have made available, Sometimes we do another meditative practice after the initial sitting meditation, such as meditative walking. Plenty of time for questions. Ask to be on our e-mail list to receive notices of both Sun. & Thurs. topics.
All Sunday sessions are, as noted in Meetup, 9:00-10:00 AM Sundays in the Young Room on the lower level of UUCA. Please leave extra time for finding your way around construction. After we are all downstairs at start time, there won't be anyone to guide you at the door. At the moment construction is going on at the main entrance to the church & sanctuary. When you arrive do NOT park at the main entrance & try to reach the side door of the main building. Drive past the main entrance to the church & park in the rectangular lot in front of the Fahs House, a 2 story frame building behind the church. Please walk past the Fahs House on a paved walk toward the main church to the side door on your left. On Sunday mornings walk downstairs to the left as soon as you enter, then turn left in the lower floor's hallway.

Sensei Bob Ertman leads Reading & Writing Haiku (& other forms of short poetry) as the practice of attention & connection. This is not a class but a peer group of writers/explorers who may like to share something with the group or may simply sometimes like to encounter haiku. Beginners are welcome. You may enter at any time, since it is not a class, but your questions are welcome. Message us for the link & password. Time is actually the Zoom 40 min.

2 sessions, noon & 6:30 PM 6 Mondays from Oct.- Dec. 16. We will need your e-mail to send you the Zoom links. Facebook will not let us show all these dates. You can message us with that or -mail uubuddhist@live.com. We'll send the links to everyone who's signed up c. Oct. 25.
Mr. Lowery is definitive in his denial that there is any permanent or separate self, & he offers sociological, psychological, & historical evidence for continuous construction of & efforts to maintain a self-identity which is not only in a constant state of flux but expanded or shrunk or modified by every social contact we have face to face or via impersonal information every single day. He never discusses Zen per se nor uses its terminology, but he is perhaps harder core on the depth of Interbeing than is Thich Nhat Hanh, the founder of the Order of Interbeing. He describes an emptiness of identity without using the term. Another word which may describe part of the continuous process he lays out is Zulu ubuntu, which he does use in one chapter. He discusses the power of stories we share to maintain identity but notes that no adopted part of identity is cost-free. At the end, however, he argues that hope for humanity & society lies in recognizing how we benefit from our construction of each other. Pro-tip: It really does matter who your friends are.
Sessions of the MBC will observe Thich Nhat Hanh's 4th Mindfulness Training on Loving Speech & Deep Listening. "Aware of the suffering caused by unmindful speech and the inability to listen to others, I am committed to cultivating loving speech and compassionate listening in order to relieve suffering and to promote reconciliation and peace in myself and among other people, ethnic and religious groups, and nations." In action, that will encompass such standard practices as refraining from repeated speech until at least a few others have spoken, addressing the whole group & not a single person, using "I" language, etc. We will also have opening & closing words & ring a bell pausing for 3 breaths at opening & closing. You are invited to bring opening & closing words from what we are reading or something related. Zen Peacemaker Council Practices are also a good guide (based as they are on Thich Nhat Hanh's practice!)