Coogee Buddhist Group

A Place of Refuge

On Mon, 12 March, 2018 - 23:31
Dhammalata's picture
Dhammalata

A spiritual practice can be an island, a place where opening to uncertainty and doubt can lead us to a refuge of truth.
—Joan Halifax, “The Lucky Dark”


Last night I rode to the Sydney Buddhist Centre on my motor-bike. My journey there was under clear, benign skies but as I exited the building at the end of Men’s study there was light drizzle. ‘This’ll be okay’ I thought, ‘Nothing much to worry about’. But it quickly turned to rain and by mid journey to Coogee it was bucketing down. My goggles covered in spots, my clothes soaked and concern for the well-being of my laptop in my shoulder bag escalating. 

But what came to the forefront of my mind were the words of our senior order member Sona who had given the talk that evening on the continual movement in our experience between chaos and order. Chaos being everything in life that is unexpected and often unwelcome. But this chaos is also a profound trigger and motivation for growth and expansion. Without it life would actually become meaningless ……

And so I sat at the traffic lights, held up by road-works and lolly-pop girls with water streaming down my face and smiled. ‘This is chaos’ I thought …. ‘This is life just doing its thing …. so how am I going to interact with it? Will I resist it and rail against it or will I just let go into the chaos?’    …… ahhh freedom ……..

Meditation helps us find a really wonderful way to work with life’s inevitable chaos

Hope you can join us:

Thursday   7 - 8 pm

Sunday     8- 9 am

Metta

Dharmalata and Padmadakini


PS: If you’d like to come and see Gina’s and my play this week click on this link for ticket purchase

https://shortandsweet.org/festivals/shortsweet-theatre-sydney-2018

NB: We are week 7

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