Watering Seeds For The New Year

Dear friends,

Happy new year! May 2023 begin anew beautifully, as each day grows longer with increasing light as we move toward spring.

Our in-person weekly practice resumes this Friday, January 6th.

We look forward to continuing to gather weekly, to support one another and to take refuge in one another’s mindfulness practice on Fridays from 7-9pm at Yoga Within (#302 - 8135 102 St NW).

Throughout the month of January, we will resume our practice with the Putamansa Sutra, The Sutra on the 4 Nutriments.

We will continue to follow Brother Phap Hai’s 4-part course on what nourishment means in the Buddha’s teaching - looking deeply into the 4 different areas of our spiritual life and seeing how they can be informed by nourishment.

Remembering the Buddha said “ all things exist on food,” we will continue directly experimenting with how everything exists through nutriment: our joy, peace, happiness, liberation, depression, anger, jealousy, etc...

What happens when we practice with knowing that our physical body, thoughts, feelings and emotions all exist through nutriment and are ultimately fed in some way?

So far, we have touched on the first 3 nutriments: Edible foods, Sense impressions, and Volition. We will continue our practice with these 3 nutriments, and also explore Consciousness - the 4th Nutriment.

January 22nd marks the beginning of the lunar year of the Water Rabbit. We will take the opportunity to contemplate what seeds we are watering, as we begin anew in this next lunar cycle. Watering Seeds is a Plum Village Buddhist Psychology practice, and we will explore how it relates to the 4 Nutriments.

Here is this month’s practice schedule:

Jan. 6
Formal Sutra Ceremony Service to recite the 5 Mindfulness Trainings

Jan 13
Dharma talk video by Brother Phap Hai on the 4th Nutriment – Consciousness

Jan 20
Recitation of the Putamansa Sutra on the 4 Nutriments

Jan 27
Watering seeds for the year of the Water Rabbit - Buddhist Psychology in relation to the 4 Nutriments

Please take a moment to review this Practice Orientation Guide, which outlines what you need to know about practising with the sangha in person. Please also note that we are currently asking sangha members to wear a mask for in-person meetings.

Feel free to reach out if you have any questions!

In gasho,
Alda, on behalf of the Caretaking Council

UPCOMING EVENTS:

January 18th  |   5:30pm MT
This is a rare opportunity to have an intimate discussion with a senior monastic!

Our sister sangha, The Wild Rose Sangha in Calgary, is delighted to announce that Brother Phap Hai (Dharma Ocean), senior monastic disciple of Thich Nhat Hanh will be sharing, in an intimate zoom chat, about his latest book on January 18th at 5:30pm Mountain time.

Author of the Book, The Eight Realizations of Great Beings, Br. Phap Hai will share wisdom from his writing which explores the sutra: The Eight Realizations of Great Beings. This profound Buddhist sutra illuminates how we can touch the deeper truths of life and learn to relieve our own suffering.

To learn more and to register please visit 
https://wildrosesangha.ca/brother-phap-hai-talk-january-18th/

SAVE THE DATES

May 5-8
National Residential Retreat (with 8 Plum Village monastics)
Toronto, ON
Registration info TBA
Expression of interest form: https://bit.ly/2023PublicRetreat 

May 26-28
Regional Residential Retreat (with Plum Village lay Dharma Teacher)
Canmore, AB
Registration info TBA

INTERNATIONAL EVENTS:

In-person retreats -
https://plumvillage.org/retreats/retreats-calendar/

Online events –
https://plumvillage.org/live/