The Mission Circle and eight members of the sangha who currently participate as space holders met at the end of August in an effort to better support community-wide organizing for Bhumisparsha in 2024 and beyond. These space holders are those outside of the lamas who lead, sub for the lamas, and tech host Bhumisparsha programs. The meeting was an important first step towards clarifying what is required to maintain the current schedule of offerings and how to match organizational needs to resources and volunteers. The intention of this blog post is caring transparency.
The meeting began with a brief sit, introductions, and community agreements; especially inviting folx to practice stepping up/stepping back and encouraging the voices of folx from the Global Majority to speak first to ensure equitable sharing. Attendees shared about what inspires them to be in Bhumisparsha and what values might guide the sangha into 2024. Reflections included radical openness, connection, trust in each other as teachers, fearlessness, powerful teachings, queerness, and the power of practice.
To reiterate what Lama Justin and Lama Rod have shared, both lamas will continue teaching, including maintaining their offerings that are currently on the Bhumisparsha platform. Whether or not their offerings will stay on the Bhumisparsha platform is still unknown. Whether or not Medicine Buddha, for example, continues via Bhumisparsha could be affected by circumstances such as a pricier Zoom license required for a larger number of participants. In that case the practice might be offered via Lama Rod’s website.
Facilitators and space holders affirmed their availability to support many of the current offerings, including maintaining the Google calendar, monthly Tara practice, monthly Holding Space, weekly Community Dharma Sharing, and Daily Practice. In addition, Community Chaplain Raf Diaz will continue offering spiritual care sessions until August 2024. Ms. Ayesha will continue teaching and offering Community Weaving. It is possible that her practices may be hosted elsewhere depending on financial resources. Potential upcoming community offerings include a book club for New Saints, a monthly sharing and visioning space, monthly shamata practice, a cross-racial communication study sangha, ajikan, and the Seven Homecomings.
Questions regarding financials, fundraising, and organizational status (incorporated or 501c3) were raised and discussed. The Mission Circle shared what information they had available, welcomed the feedback, and suggested continuing the conversation. The Mission Circle reiterated that the financials are available on Open Collective and offered the brief overview of operating expenses shared at the July 20, 2023 meeting.
Since this meeting, the Mission Circle, Sesalli, and Eric have compiled a list of tasks needed to keep the sangha functioning.
Any questions and comments are invited and encouraged. Please email Shoken (Alex Nelson) at alex.g.nelson@gmail.com. In an effort to give voice to all beings in the community, A private jamboard has been created for all community members to use to reflect on the questions posed at the Mission Circle/space holders meeting linked here. The questions are:
What inspires you to be a part of Bhumisparsha?
Are there any particular values that feel most important to you to elevate as Bhumisparsha moves into the next phase?
How do you hope to practice in Bhumisparsha in 2024? What do you need to be able to do so?
To participate, open the link and choose the sticky note icon from the list of icons on the left side of your screen (it is the fourth icon from the top right below the arrow), and create a sticky note with your share. In order to make space for many shares, there are three pages per question (all beautiful background imagery is from the Bhumisparsha blog lovingly curated by Eric B, Sesalli, and other community members). With awareness of the importance of giving a voice to all dharma siblings, and the impossibility of everyone having a turn at a community-wide meeting, the intention of the jamboard is a space for sharing experiences collectively. Please engage as it suits!
Anita, Leigh and Shoken of the Mission Circle express deep gratitude to daily sit facilitator and tech host Elizabeth Parks Kibbey for contributing this blog post, and the inspiration of the jamboard.