Friday

Getting Through the Election with Our Goodness Intact - comment

Photo by Tiffany Tertipes on Unsplash

by Jane Heyer, Interim Governing Council, Shambhala Meditation Center of New York

Four years ago, our sangha gathered for the weekly dharma gathering that happened to be on election night, and then stayed for an extended session of group sitting. I was there, and I remember the shock of watching the projected results on the television screen in the big shrine room. Nobody anticipated the results, nor did we expect the hard times that hit the Shambhala community two years later, nor the loss of our center, nor the pandemic.

Who knows what’s to come? But four years after that election night, we are still a community, still sitting and studying together, and still leaning in to the question of how to give birth to enlightened society. The karmic seeds we sowed four years ago and many times since — our group practice and community gatherings — have kept us together. They’ve helped us to remain resilient. We have not given up.

In the coming weeks, as the next presidential election approaches, we have the opportunity, once again, to sit down and make our stand for resilience, heart, and community. We have the opportunity to support one another when the world is scary. Please (virtually) join the Shambhala Meditation Center of NYC for any or all of the programs we’ve created for this historic time. Continue…