02/24/2025
Reminder: Tonight
CYPRESS IN THE GARDEN ZENDO
MONDAY EVENING MEDITATION
The meditation group will meet this Monday (February 24) as usual. Please enter through the side gate, which will open at 7:15PM. Meditation will start promptly at 7:30PM and end at 8:00PM. We will have tea and discussion from 8:00PM to 9:00PM.
We will continue our discussion of the meaning of sangha or wise and compassionate community, and of the ways of creating deep, meaningful, and engaged community. We will discuss real-world examples of communities of wisdom and compassion. Feel free to come for meditation, discussion, or both.
The Beloved Community is a matter of life and death. With it, one can be fully alive, physically, psychologically, and spiritually. Without it, or when one loses it, one can suffer, to varying degrees, physical, psychological, and spiritual death. Here is another personal account of a Beloved Community:
Antball came into being out of necessity. There was a desire to have something other than run of the mill AA and NA. what makes it different is the liveliness. It’s attractive to certain types of people. Super-duper hearty laughter. Cutting down a tree but it seems like a game, dancing the night away. We put ourselves in self-imposed prison all of a sudden, we find a way out and celebration is in order. We started with things like a trip to Manchac and a day on the water. One day we saw an antball in the water. There had been some flooding and the ants formed an antball and floated on the water, turned around so they could take turns breathing, until it reached a dry place, and everyone survived. Then we started doing dinner parties, and we shared ideas and theories about how to survive in sobriety. We got together and had powwows, rituals, dinner, and riding bikes together. We like to share from the heart secrets. When we’re riding we seem like we’re high, laughing, screaming at the moon. At the beginning, I had a spiritual experience on the bike, riding with the group. I started laughing. It triggered some Jing in the mind. I started to feel alive again. It was unlike anything I have ever experienced before. It was very special. We have had up to 32 people riding together and over 40 at a meeting at the house. We meet every Wednesday and Saturday. We usually have 16-18. some people come and go. There is a core of long-time members. They help the newcomers and keep the ball rolling. There is always a new face looking for help. Right now, it’s really hot so we’re doing boating on lake Pontchartrain instead of riding sometimes. I take six people at a time out into the lake and they all get on rafts together. We call this “Hope Floats.” We also usually have a group of 16-18 doing this. We’ve now been meeting for 2 ½ years on wed and sat. We’re all invested in what we’re doing. People are always coming with ideas and cupcakes. Jeremy brought a big old chicken last time. Our motto is “We can do together what I cannot do alone.” We took from AA the idea that there is a three-part solution to three-part problem. It’s about “body, mind, and spirit,” and the solution is “unity, service and recovery.” We took these ideas and put them into a mold of what we feel about family. Fellowship is the attractiveness of Antball. – Sean Wilkerson
We meet in the Carrollton neighborhood of New Orleans. For information, please contact surregionalist@bellsouth.net
