Thoughts on the recent election from Dharma Zephyr community
The recently-concluded election year has been hard on the country. No matter who we voted for. Here are some offerings from Dharma Zephyr community members. They are alphabetical by last name. If you want to contribute something, please use the curated comment section below. Let’s have a conversation. Struggling At…
Old Age, Sickness, Death and the Sangha
Old age, sickness, death. Not what we really want to think about, right? But the Buddha urges us to think about them anyway. First, because it lends an urgency to our practice. We just don’t know how much time we have left, so we’d better get on…
Training a puppy is like training the mind
Meet Sammy. She’s the newest addition to our family. It has been a very long time since I’ve trained a puppy, longer than I’ve been practicing meditation so I was surprised how training a puppy is very much like training the mind and not only because of how they…
“Touching the Earth”
There is a story of what took place on the night of the Buddha’s enlightenment. Prince Siddhartha, who had left his home and palace three years earlier to become a wandering ascetic, finally sensed that his mind and heart were ready for liberation from all suffering, so he sat down…
Tired of cynicism, denial and despair?
Dharma Zephyr’s earth care sangha has been meeting now for over a year, so we thought we’d share with you what we’ve been doing – and invite you to take part. Partnerships and action Janet Melander and David Zahrt have started the first Nevada chapter of Citizens Climate Lobby, a…
Bringing the Dharma to newcomers
This spring Dharma Zephyr offered a 5-week class on basic techniques of insight meditation according to the early teachings of the Buddha, co-taught by Christy Tews and Steve Swartz. Here is some of what Steve had to say about the class: On the first night around 24 people showed up. That…
Hooked and unhooked – Buddhist approaches to greed and aversion
This summer Dharma Zephyr’s Beginners Mind group is going to consider “the hook” – that moment we all experience of grasping, tensing, tightening, and closing down. What are our hooks? An annoying coworker? Our partner’s behavior? Political views? Shopping? Finances? We’ll look at wise and unwise approaches to the hook,…
Report from Nepal: a child safe place
Here is a report from one of the Nepal nonprofts mentioned in the previous post Healing Earthquake Anxiety By Cathy Clifton – Communications Director, Ama Foundation One of the most difficult things about living after two giant earthquakes – the one on April 25 and the 7.3 “aftershock” that occurred…
Nepal earthquake – what to do?
A lot of us at Dharma Zephyr have been talking about how we can best respond to the devastating earthquake in Nepal. Many of us have traveled to that beautiful, gracious country, and have friends and family there, so we have been thinking about earthquake damage and responses. We thought…
Dharma Zephyr’s new “Mentor Council”
On March 1 sixteen longtime Dharma Zephyr members met at Christy’s house to talk about how to better offer dharma teachings to our community. Lots of ideas emerged from the meeting: adding meditation to existing yoga practices; continuing to develop earth-centered practices like the Earth Care Group; continuing our prison work;…