Dear friends,
Thanks to all those who joined us this past Sunday night, and all those who joined in spirit. It was a pleasure to dive together into the Buddha's advice for his son to "meditate like the earth / water / wind / fire / space." Here's the whole sutta if you'd like to see for yourself - including different translations and the pali if you click near the top at "views" and "parallel."
TLDR? Meditating with these five elements can help us be less attached to this seemingly solid self, and help us connect with the more-than-human world from which we are truly inseparable. Natural images or experiences in nature can also be medicine to help infuse our lives with much-needed energies - gazing at or picturing the vast sky when we feel narrow-minded, grounding ourselves by meditating like mountains, or whipping up the ferocity of a tornado. If you bring any of these into your practice, please let me know how it goes!
Thanks again. Wishing you peace, ease, and the gorgeous impermanence of fall foliage.
Shawn
On Thu, Oct 22, 2026 at 9:24 PM Shawn Shafner <shawnshafner@gmail.com> wrote:
Dearest Sangha,
Wishing you so well as this week nears its close. I had the good fortune of spending the past week on retreat in the Arizona desert. Held by the breathtakingly beautiful mountains of the Cochise Stronghold, it was easy to feel integrated into the earth - as if we meditators were just another boulder rooted in the landscape. What a joy!
Then the retreat ends. The phone turns back on. Ding! Buzz! Bloop! The unnerving news, the unending tasks, the infinite distractions in ten second tik toks threaten to steal all peace and fill the mind with judgmental chatter.
But what if all that could be included in our practice? What if we didn't have to disappear into nature to feel whole, but could access our innate and integrated wholeness just as we already are? This Sunday, we'll explore these ideas through the instructions the Buddha gave his son Rahula. Roughly: "Meditate like the earth, water, fire, wind and space, all of which accept the clean or unclean - even feces, urine, saliva, pus or blood - without feeling horrified, humiliated or disgusted." Cultivating this quality not only helps us develop equanimity in the face of all the dings, buzzes and bloops, but also connects us with our vast more-than-human nature.
I hope you're able to join us for meditation practice, a little dharma, and community connection.
- Please arrive 5-10 minutes early and register in advance here; it's the last Sunday class and listed under: "FREE (14th St.) Insight Meditation @ 1910 14th St"
PS Looking for more ways to connect with the earth this weekend? Join me at the US Botanic Gardens this Saturday morning to learn all about eating acorns - an easily foraged food that connects us to Indigenous lifeways. Then Sunday afternoon, we'll honor the humble toilet - which also accepts the unclean items above with equanimity - as I host the 5th annual World Toilet Day Comedy Fundraising Craptacular. Enjoy brunch, hilarious stand-ups and musical comedy, a sweet-a$$ raffle, and help raise money for the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation.--
Body-positive movement classes, meditation, group facilitation and more! ShawnShafner.com
The POOP ProjectHomepage! 💩❤🌈Get my 📕, Know Your Sh!t, at Barnes & Noble or order online! Published by Cider Mill Press, distributed by Harper Collins.
Body-positive movement classes, meditation, group facilitation and more! ShawnShafner.com
The POOP Project
Homepage! 💩❤🌈
Get my 📕, Know Your Sh!t, at Barnes & Noble or order online! Published by Cider Mill Press, distributed by Harper Collins.
https://www.downtowndharmadc.org/
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "IMCW Downtown Dharma social/volunteer listserv" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to downtowndharma+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/downtowndharma/CAA8kSOVub9mLEUyP4Df5Qwj2U3mLSdoZa7aqfV3cc6GbuyUpcQ%40mail.gmail.com.
0 comments:
Post a Comment