Welcome to the Bhumi Garden newsletter + blog
The Bhumi Garden is central meeting place to learn about things brewing and blooming within our community.
Want to help us tend the Garden? We are always looking for volunteers to lend their creative style and pragmatic skills for future issues. If you’d like to help, email Eric B, Community Groundskeeper, at eric@bhumisparsha.org:
Want to help plant something in the Garden? We welcome contributions from the entire community! We’d love to highlight your art work, poems, practice reflections, programing (both within Bhumi and beyond), resources, and volunteer opportunities of all kinds. Email sesalli@bhumisparsha.org for more information.
Good Ground
Dear Community,
It is a joy to introduce the Spring 2023 issue of the Bhumi Garden!
For those who may not know me, my name is Eric (he/they) and I am privileged to serve as Community Groundskeeper for Bhumisparsha. On behalf of myself, all community organizers and teachers, Mission Circle volunteers, and the entire pantheon of beings and ancestors looking out for us, thank you for making all of this possible. Thank you for enabling whatever learning, healing, and love has been felt throughout this ecosystem over the past few months. Thank you for your donations. Thank you for watching a recording. Thank you for your presence. Thank you for your kindness in these bruising times. Thank you for having the courage to behold your own body-mind; to feel your heart breaking for the world again and again and yet you still muster magic from the depths to touch this Earth and continue caring for beings with dignity and maybe even some joy. Amazing!
My sincere hope is that everyone in this community is able to regard their own practice as being worthy of honor and respect. You all inspired me to compose a bhumi-altar as an offering and heartfelt expression of my love for Bhumisparsha, for everything we care deeply about, and for all the beings we are praying for. May all creations experience themselves as the Beloved, just as they are. May brutal dualities be released. Ma Harriet, please hold this community close! Let rainbow light reign.
Sincerely,
Eric
Image courtesy of Eric
Celebrating Community Dharma Sharing
Bhumisparhsa Community Dharma Sharing, Co-facilitated by Brenda Collins, Mary Ganzon, Karen NelsonOur Community Dharma Gatherings are comprised of people who join together to support each other on their spiritual path. We form authentic relationships. We support each other through meditation practices, movement and co-bodying prompts, dharma discussion and sharing. We share how we move in the world, particularly how and why we suffer. We apply Dharma teachings to meet our challenges and to inspire us to see wisdom unfolding. All welcome, always.
Community Dharma Sharing is held every Wednesday from 8:00 - 9:30pm EST. For more information and to hop into a session, check out our public calendar.
Weaving Community: Invitation and Offerings
What do we mean by "community", and what does being in community call us to do? In the video below, Ayesha Ali (she/her/Majesty) shares her intentions as Community Weaver and invites everyone to check out Bhumi’s numerous opportunities for exploring the possibility of community life as an affirming, joyful path toward our shared liberation. See the section below for descriptions, dates, times, and links for these offerings. Stay tuned for info about January’s schedule coming soon!
Whenever possible, Ayesha’s monthly community-wide offering will be recorded and shared for those unable to join. Subscribe to our Youtube channel to stay up-to-date as new recordings are added to the Weaving Community Archive. These offerings are made possible through support from the Bess Family Foundation.
Announcing new weekly Global Majority Sit
This weekly practice session with Ayesha Ali is offered weekly on Thursday mornings from 8-9 am EST for all who identify as BIPOC +/ People of the Global Majority. Click here to join Global Majority Sit every Thursday morning on Zoom.
Global Majority Hangouts
Global Majority Hangouts are offered as a way for global majority +/ BIPOC folks to connect. Join us for our brunch/dinner time together where we might share the gifts of the Dharma, food, song, and poetry. The next North American edition Global Majority Hangout will be March 24th from 7pm – 8pm EST. Click here to join Global Majority Hangout (North America edition) on Zoom
photo of Ms. Ayesha welcoming you with flowers
Weaving Community: Holding On
The winds of the world blow us away from ourselves and each other. This month the focus will be on the difficulty and the ways to stay connected in light of this reality. ALL are welcome to join our next beloved Weaving Community offering with Ms. Ayesha Ali on March 23rd from 7pm – 8:30pm EST ft. music and spiritual friendship. Click here to find out more and join!
Welcome to the Bhumiverse!
Join us on the second Tuesday of each month from 5:30 - 6:45 pm EST to learn more about Bhumisparsha including info about what’s available, how to connect, and where to find helpful resources. Next month’s session will be held on Tuesday, April 11th
Everyone—newer or elder— is welcome to come hang out in community while sharing wisdom and practical information about how Bhumisparsha has (or has not!) supported spiritual practice and creative awakening. Click here to join Welcome to the Bhumiverse on Zoom.
Monthly Holding Space
Though “Holding Space” monthly Saturday gathering programs have been happening since November 2020, every month, care and wisdom in the sangha blossom anew within our 90 minutes together.
Each month Ms. Brenda Collins and Leigh Rosenberg host Holding Space as intimate gatherings of Bhumi community members, anchored by a fresh topic for silent or guided meditation, plus discussion around the topic. We’ve visited topics like compassion … to skillfully relating to teachers … to practicing in conversation … and more. We are always inspired by how our sangha learns together and holds space for authenticity with one another as we deepen in our practices.
All are welcome, whether you are new to practice or Bhumisparsha or have been around a while. We meet on the 3rd Saturday of the month at 11am ET/8am PT (but be sure to check the calendar for occasional schedule changes). And if you have a topic suggestion for a future Holding Space, or any questions or feedback, let us know! You can reach Brenda at bcollins12@hotmail.com or Leigh at larosenberg@gmail.com.
Community Chaplaincy
A short sermon offered at Union Theological Seminary’s Field Education chapel
By Rafael Diaz, Bhumisparsha Community Chaplain intern
As chaplains and spiritual professionals we’re called to hold people in the fullness of experience—in the darkness and the light, no matter how much we’re tempted to cling to binaries: to be lost in our suffering, to reject and ignore it by only looking at the bright side, or to try to escape from our suffering as soon as possible, reaching for the nearest quick fix. But our role, I think, is to hold our people through all of it. Because the other side of the pain and suffering we’re so averse to is healing. And alongside that healing is the realization that everything in our experience and in ourselves, including the things we don’t want to look at, are all part of a greater whole.
But thankfully, the very reason I think we’re all here, in this particular place, at this particular time, is that we have faith that we’re not on our own: that we can be held, every part of ourselves, the darkness and the light, in the loving arms of Great Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, of God and her saints and prophets, in the ongoing revelation of nature itself.
Because we know that when we’re quiet, in our moments of solemnity and sincerity, or even in the greatest despair, love is constantly offering itself to us throughout and within every moment, holding us in the crucible of suffering, leading us toward transformation.
And we know that if we just continue to discipline ourselves toward surrendering to that perfect love, we can be cradled in our suffering always, and not be attached to the light and averse to the darkness, instead bringing them into union for us to walk through our experience free of grasping and clinging. We can create a firm, yet flexible, and tender foundation to help us serve others and hold them in their suffering, to be companions walking through the vast mystery of being. We can build the beloved community we need to heal and lead each other through the multiple crises we know are facing us, to build a world without hunger, homelessness, cages, or borders; someday to be liberated both in our communities and the depths of our very hearts, resting in the primordial purity of mind and the vast spaciousness of love.
Book a 1-on-1 spiritual care session with Raf at www.calendly.com/bhumicare These spaces will currently only be available up to May 10th.
Rafael also has an upcoming event you can join on March 22nd at 7pm ET. More details on the flyer —->
Youtube Archive
Transitioning away from Crowdcast for the time being has given us an opportunity to transfer the treasury of all of our earliest recordings into our new Youtube Archive. To stay up to date as recordings are added, please subscribe to our Youtube channel. We hope you enjoy perusing these incredible resources!
Shape Our Practice Philosophy
What makes it a Bhumisparsha practice unique?
“Microbial Love”, painting by Sesalli Castillo
Join our three part creative container where we as a community will work on a community led draft of our Bhumisparsha lineage statements and practice philosophy. This container will be active April - June on the first Thursday of each month at 5pm ET.
If you are unable to attend but would like to include your voice in the project, please email sesalli@bhumisparsha.org by May 1st with an answer to the questions:
What makes a Bhumisparsha practice?
What is unique about the way we practice together?
Your answers will be shared with the group as we go through the process of creating this draft together.
April’s meeting we will be looking at Bhumisparsha’s current and historical writing (like the Vision & Values, Love & Rage, etc) to pull the pieces that resonate.
May we will review the submissions from the community (emailed to Sesalli) and talk together about what makes practice unique, identifying key themes.
June we will work in groups to take all the themes and juicy pieces we have pulled from the previous meetings to write our draft together!
You can join by from the Bhumisparsha calendar, click here to view the calendar page. Also feel free to email Sesalli@bhumisparsha.org with any questions
Support + Connect
We created this Support + Connect bulletin as a resource for gathering all of the various links and other helpful information that make it easier to navigate through the Bhumiverse, and maybe meet new friends along the way!
Bhumisparsha is always in need of volunteer support! If you are interested in helping out in any aspect of the Bhumisparsha ecosystem, please check out the “Bhumisparsha Volunteer opportunities” document (also included in the Support + Connect bulletin) to get a sense of where we need help and how you might like to offer support in a way that feels good for your current capacity. All help is deeply appreciated! May all beings benefit from the wealth of generosity emerging from this community in myriad ways.
Community Creations + Reflections + Shoutouts
This section of the Bhumi Garden is dedicated to sharing reflections, artwork, dance, poetry, photography, or any other mode of creation and reflection. If it feels good to share, you are very welcome to do so. We look forward to including contributions from the community in next month’s issue of the Bhumi Garden! To submit materials and/or proposals, email sesalli@bhumisparsha.org
A message & poems offered by Mary Ann N.
I recently made a channel on Slack called Mudita, and I'm welcoming all to join it. It is a space to share our joys with one another, large or small, so that we can celebrate with each other. A space where we can pause to be glad of all the good things that are arising in each other's lives.
Sometimes I ask questions, but really anyone can post any joy there at any time so that we can all show up to be happy for you and with you!
Poem #1: Practice
I want to wax poetic a bit
about the joys of doing less, whenever possible
having time to admire the setting sun
being awake enough to appreciate the birds
isn't this what we're alive for?
isn't this essential?
And yes I know
Soon we have to go and put on our big boy and big girl, our gender non conforming pants
And do so many different things all day long
in order to care for ourselves and others
Still
Isn’t it nice to sit here for a while?
And I want to tell you, too, my Friend
The other day,
Walking up the stairs to my workplace
the walls cinderblock, painted white
Joy arose in me
spontaneously
for no reason at all
As precious and unexpected
as a blue jay
cawing
Poem #2
Precious Sangha,
I'm sitting waiting for a poem to land
a jewel to bring you
from ether.
This precious day know where you are right now
so you can share that with me too.
What love is sustaining you through the darkness of your nights,
the noise and tumult of your days?
What breath breathes through you,
alighting on cells fueled by the dust of ancient Stars
animating bones adorned like coral?
Dear Sangha, if I gave you my heart on a silver platter
would you swallow it whole in one gulp?
I in you and you in me?
Today I celebrate our aliveness
Earth, whose waters sparkle blue and white and green from space
these bodies built from the ashes of worlds long passed,
our first encounter with Dharma.
Precious Sangha,
do you know what a miracle it is you are alive, breathing, as vibrant as you are today?
Teach me to hold you like the goddesses hold you
infinite presence in infinite space.
Taste my heart
Tell me if it's sweet or sour or tough or tender
How does my heart sit with you today?
Notes From the 92805: Is That Sour Cream on your Sandwich?
by albert rodriguez
There is an event from my 5th grade class that has stayed with me till the present day. I recall the day being windy, and as a result having to remain inside for lunch. When lunch began, I took out a sandwich from my lunchbox, like I usually did, without thinking much of it. Next thing I know, my teacher, Mrs. ******* asks me, or rather, shames and castigates me remarking: “is that sour cream on your sandwich? Ill, gross.” I was jolted into a frozen, constricted, and confused position. My shy, introverted, 10-year-old self did not understand what was happening. What did she mean when she said that sour cream on my sandwich was gross? I had never thought that sour cream on a sandwich was gross, or gross in general. In fact, I loved sour cream on many of my foods during my childhood (still do to this day). I would have sour cream, otherwise known as crema on my arroz, fidello, tacos, and sandwiches to name a few things. How could this creamy, salty, and delicious condiment be gross? Mrs. ******* was trippin’ hard and I did not then have the tools to tell her that she was. As a child I thought: “you must have never had a sandwich with sour cream on it.” To me, it was the bomb.com
After the initial effects of her comments seeped into my consciousness I became meek and slumped into my chair. I did not know how to respond. I simply answered her question by saying “yes.” I didn’t have the words or bravery to stand up to her and this unjust experience at the time. As bell hooks tells us in All about Love children are at the whim of adults. I was belittled, teased, and experienced a micro-aggression from a teacher that should have known that this was no way to talk to a child, that should have embodied the fact that she was a teacher to a 98% Latinx population that would have different cultural “norms” than she; she should have known better. And yet, sadly, she did not.
I remember on my walk home from school thinking about how I could find the “answer” to my “problem,” that is, how I could keep her from making fun of me—to fit in with the dominate, normative, white culture that controlled my life five days a week, 6 hours a day. Those were obviously not the words I used at the time; I just remember that I wanted to fit in.
My remedy: I would make the switch to mayonnaise! Excited about this prospect I came home and told my mom that I wanted to have mayonnaise at the house from now on. She said “ok mijo, vamos a Sam’s Club este Viernes.” Friday couldn’t come sooner. My brother Jose took my mother and I to Sam’s Club in his dilapidated 1985 Chevy Nova.
We bought the mayonnaise and brought it home. I couldn’t wait to try it, so I decided first to have un sándwich de jamon with mayonnaise. I quickly made my “white sandwich” with two ingredients, ham and mayonnaise in anticipation of what it would feel like to be “normal” in America. I took a bite of the sandwich and immediately had a visceral rejection of the mayonnaise. I was chewing and could not bring myself to swallow what I deemed to be disgusting food. My throat experienced a gag reflex and I headed to the trashcan to spit out my food. I thought, “how could people like this?” My mother saw my response to the sandwich. She obviously understood that I didn’t like it. However, she didn’t understand why I wanted the mayonnaise in the first place. She must have thought that I had tasted someone’s sandwich with mayonnaise and liked it I suppose though I am not sure. What I did know was that I did not want to tell her how Mrs. ******* had made me feel about my brownness, my culture, my Mexican roots, that is, about me. My parents like the parents of Cathy Park Hong (Minor Feelings) had no agency in this white country, were never taken seriously, and were consistently made fun of.
Perhaps I knew that she felt powerless being an immigrant, non-English speaking, blue-collar worker. Perhaps I knew that she would not be able to do anything to make my life better, if anything it could make my life worse (my teacher could have it “out for me”). Perhaps I knew that her passivity would lead to no action and would only make her feel bad for me. Perhaps I knew that if one was broke and “illegal” one had no power in this unjust society. So I stayed quiet. Has this not historically been the situation for los de abajo?
Maitri
Regular practice opportunities:
We have a robust list of regular offerings hosted by our beautiful community of volunteers. Click here to subscribe to Bhumisparsha’s calendar for the most up-to-date schedule information. You can also click here to view the calendar page on our website.
Additional opportunities for study + practice with Lama Rod and Lama Justin
Lama Rod
MARK YOUR CALENDAR!
Lama Rod Owens will teach at Heartwood on April 1 from noon to 2p. An author, activist, and authorized teacher in the Kagyu tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, Lama Rod calls himself a "Black Buddhist Southern Queen." A leading voice in a new generation of Buddhist teachers, he is the co-founder of Bhumisparsha, a tantric practice and study community that is helping shape a new and vibrant American Buddhism. Lama Rod will teach on "Tantric Practices for the Apocalypse." We will send out more specifics about this exciting visit early next week.
Lama Rod will teach at Heartwood in conjunction with a visit and talk at Northwestern University. We are grateful to Dr. Sarah Jacoby and the Khyentse Foundation for helping to make this opportunity possible. Register & find out more here!
Lama Justin
NEW ONLINE CLASS!!! The Death Process and Dharma Practice: for Self and for Others - 9 Week Online Course with Lama Justin Von Bujdoss
THURSDAYS MARCH 16TH - MAY 11TH 2023
9 - 11am Los Angeles
12 - 2pm New York
6 - 8pm Rome
In every faith tradition and every culture, death and the mysteries surrounding it holds a tremendous amount of energy and meaning. In the Buddhist tradition this is also the case. In fact, one of the most profound places of practice that we find in the Vajrayana tradition is bringing the process of death and the bardo experience into the spiritual path.
In this class we will journey together into this unique and powerful way of bringing insight and wisdom into our own eventual experience of death. We will also develop skills around caring for loved ones who may be entering into the death process, and hone skills that are useful for professional caregivers including chaplains, social workers and other clinicians who wish to go deeper into the intersection of Vajrayana spiritual formation and their respective caregiving modalities.
There will also be an additional optional in-person retreat at Pure Land Farms centered around an intensive practice of the meditation practices which serve as time-tested spiritual training and intervention for self and other when it comes to bringing death on to the path.
This class is a wonderful way to deepen the relationship of dharma into caregiving and how we can understand caregiving to be a profound spiritual practice. Click here for more info or to register
Monthly In-person gathering in Brooklyn with Lama Justin:
Our next gathering will be April 15th from 11:00am to 1:00pm EST
Location: Greenpoint Church - 136 Milton Street, Brooklyn, NY 11222
Join us by just showing up! See you there :)
In-Person teaching!! at Fire Lotus Temple in downtown Brooklyn!
April 7th:
Death and Resurrection: The Practice of the Recognition of the Clear Light of Awareness in the Face of our Inevitable Death: Fire Lotus Temple is delighted to welcome Lama Justin for this Good Friday dharma talk at Fire Lotus Temple, where he will share reflections from the Vajrayana tradition on death, dying, the bardo—the intermediate state between this life and the next—and the practice of Clear Light meditation a meditation that can be taken up here and now to help us experience liberation in the bardo state. More info & register here
April 8th:
Working with our Humanity: Engaging the Expression of Kleshas and the Spaciousness Within Them - In this day-long retreat we will explore methods through which the intensity of our kleshas, the reactive emotions that contribute to our experience of suffering – can be brought directly into meditation and similarly, how the view of the various forms of mediation that we will be exploring from the Dzogchen, Mahamudra and Zhije Vajrayana lineages can aide us in bringing our ordinary mundane reactivity to the path. More info & register here
SAVE THE DATE!!!! NEW PROGRAM AT THE RUBIN MUSEUM!
Join me for 2 workshops centered around the dark retreat at the Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art!
What is dark retreat? See my recent interview with Lion’s Roar about dark retreat: https://www.lionsroar.com/what-is-a-darkness-retreat/
I will be leading 2 workshops one on Saturday, April 22nd and the other on Saturday, May 6th which will begin with a tour of the museum’s Lukhang mural exhibition followed by an introductory talk on dark retreat followed by a dark retreat simulation in the museum’s auditorium followed by discussion and Q&A.
Join me for this first-of-it’s-kind program at the beautiful Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art EVER on dark retreat. More info & register here!
Generosity: every dollar helps
Our hope is that this community can be sustained through the heartfelt contributions of those who feel connected to Bhumisparsha and share visions of personal transformation, beloved community, and collective liberation.
One-Time donations are just as vital to ensuring we can meet our budgetary needs for the year. Your gift now will helps fuel Bhumi's practice. Click the button to the right to offer a One-time contribution:
Through our fiscal hosting partnership with Open Collective Foundation (OCF), all donations made to Bhumisparsha are tax deductible as charitable contributions. Click here to learn more.