Called 'Wesak' in Buddhism, the full moon of May is a time when the veils between this world and the realm of Buddhas & Bodhisattvas is thin. It is an auspicious time for resting the heart in the grace of deep silence. After fellowship and dinner we will chant Om Mani Padme Hum and do deep meditation in the Longhouse Cedar Room.
Sat-Sang(5/30)
'Laugh, Sing & Meditate'
5:30 Student Potluck
6:15 Chant and Meditation
A traditional Indian proverb says: 'Laugh, Sing & Meditate.' After
delicious student potluck and joyful fellowship, we will chant and
meditate together, opening the heart with healingbreath, then making candle offerings of peace.
'Angel Wash' & Final Gathering (6/06)
5:30 Student Potluck
6:15 Angel Wash and Final Song Circle
Come say goodbye for the summer, and farewell to some. Wash each other in Beauty as we sing and perform the ritual known as the 'Angel Wash'. Friends from Olympia's 'Singing Alive' are invited too!
* A Crossroad of Spiritual Paths * Guest Speakers from Diverse Wisdom Traditions * Good Food and Friendship * A Trusting Space to Share Your Journey * Song, Poetry, Meditation, and sometimes... * We Dance!
Common
Bread is a crossroad of the spiritual paths, Eastern and Western,
ancient and modern, and a contemplative space for The Evergreen State
College community. We meet weekly in the Longhouse for
potluck dinner, fellowship, wisdom and meditation, often with a guest
speaker. We honor each person's unique journey and welcome all sincere
faith traditions, as well as those seekers who have no traditional
faith. In our circle, there's a place for you.
Explore
connections between spirituality and healing, social justice,
community-building, art and peace-making. In this trusting space, we
invite you to meet your Self in the Other.
"...Filled with genuine open-heartedness for the unique individual." "...Nothing quite like it. There is no judgment here."
"...A space to connect with your heart." "...A
nurturing place that lets you step out of name, title, pressure,
expectation, to enter the joy that encourages our true light to
shine." Welcoming Veterans
Common Bread extends its warmest invitation to the Student VeteransOrganization at Evergreen and the folks at Coffee Strong. Please be part of our healing community, and educate us about your journeys from war to peace.
Yarrow,
Cedar, Madrona, Dogwood: just a few of the Healing Spirit-Beings called
"plants" that we sang to on a May night at Common Bread, led by Leah (center) and the drumbeat of Michael (far left), followed by deep meditation in the Long House. Thank you, Leah!
On a beautiful New Moon in May, we enjoyed Sufi-inspired 'Dances of Universal Peace' in Red Square.
Dances were led by Evie Fagergren (left), long-time friend of Common Bread.
Philosophy Prof. Joe Tougas plays guitar for the Dances.
Our table at Club Fair, May 8, with Joe Briggs, Fred LaMotte and Liz Atkins-Pattenson.
Liz (l) & Emma Jane (r) light up our lives at Common Bread.
Nick and Joe, two Evergreen community leaders, at Common Bread.
Prof. Sean Williams, director of the Ireland Program, shared the wisdom of ancient Irish holy days, Samhain, Imbolc, Beltane, Lughnassadh. This brilliant song-teacher and ethnomusicologist, author of six books, taught us to sing a Gallic Beltane song, and revealed insights into the Gallic imagination through language and song. What a gift she is to Evergreen! Pictured here with student leader Joe.
"Non-violence is the essence of the spiritual
path. But we cannot end violence in the world outside us until we end conflict inside us, conflict between our thoughts and desires, violence
against ourselves." ~Anam Thubten at Common Bread, 4/19/2013
Sixty townsfolk and students attended the talk by Tibetan Buddhist Master Anam. Common Bread is grateful for our longtime friendship with Dharmata Foundation and Anam Thubten.
Jody Kesten (center) taught the wisdom of Shaivite Blue Throat Yoga to Common
Bread, with chant, mantra, asana, pranayama, and stories from the
Puranas, sacred scriptures of India. Thank you, Jody! Pictured to her left, her son
Ricky and Lucia; right, Adam and Rascal.
At potluck, Ash and Rascal attempt to describe Chaplain Fred's split pea soup with seaweed and Swiss chard. Below, Common Fred with Yogini Jody Kesten, April 11.
A beautiful green parrot named Phoebe regularly attends Common Bread. When we chanted with Jody Kesten, Phoebe sang really loud! March 8-9, Common Bread hosted a weekend retreat with Llyn Roberts and Mick Dodge, 'The Barefoot Sensei': spirit-body skills for living in an age of environmental responsibility. They called us back to harmony with the earth, from their marvelous EarthWisdom Circle in the Hoh River Rainforest (LINK).
Above and below, the Barefoot Sensei (center) leads students in Barefoot Earthwisdom.
While Mick taught outdoor skills, his partner Llyn Roberts (Below center) author of three books on Shamanistic transformation, taught the skills of "shapeshifting to higher consciousness."
Below, tools and offerings for a session in Barefoot EarthWisdom...
On February 28, Mike Mercker (below left) an old friend of Common Bread, well-known Olympia musician, and energy healer, gave a gentle but profound evening of chakra-toning and attunement to divine love: 27 attended.
Below, students as well as graduates and Olympia townsfolk love our Song Circle, with Singing Alive Olympia. Picture below, Lucia Whelan (l.), Song-Holder Drewhissimo (c.) and friends.
On February 22, Open Heart Open Mind performed their healing music for 70 people in the Longhouse, featuring one of the nation's greatest collection of Tibetan Singing Bowls and Burmese temple bells. Picture below, Karl Black and Dave Ermantrout, the bowl masters; between them, Donia and Scott Berry, didgeridoo specialists with student leader Joe Briggs, Fred LaMotte in background.
After the bowl and didge healing sound meditation, students and townsfolk from Olympia explored the bowls, some of which are over 700 years old.
On January 31, over 40 attended an Agape gathering hosted by Quakers from Olympia, with a profound Quaker Meeting for Worship.
Above, James chats with Nakki Stevens, a lifelong Friend. Below, students learn of the Quaker Peace Testimony and Environmentalism.
An elder tells Ricky that Quakers find the Light of the Divine in all living creatures.
After Meeting, Friends and Greeners continue to mingle for tea.
On January 24 Mary Solberg and friends from St. Michael's Catholic Church led us in Centering Prayer. Mary, 2nd from left, between our student leader Joe Briggs & Emma Jane Garcia.
Centering Prayer is an elegantly simple, graceful meditation rooted in the Christian mystics. Thank you, Mary and friends!
Greener & wisewoman Chelan Weiler (2nd from left below) gave a profound talk & experience of 'Inner Spirit Hypnotherapy' after potluck. Mike Mercker (with guitar) provided music.
Thank you, Chelan for renewing us with inner joy! Chelan is pictured below witt Common Bread chaplain Fred LaMotte.
The amazing Scott Huckabay performed for over 200
guests from Evergreen and the Olympia community on November 2 in the
Longhouse, Common Bread's largest event of 2012.
Our gratitude also to Lisa Diane of Olympia and Evergreen's Sean Williams for helping with this event.
Scott creates healing energizing landscapes of sound using guitar in unique ways.
Common Bread gathering are always most magical when led by Evergreen
students. Above, Sayre and Joe with plant medicine teacher and singer of
plant songs, Leah Bodenhamer.
In the Longhouse Cedar Room, Leah teaches us the Cedar Song. She blessed us with prayers, herbal tinctures which she made, and smudging smoke from yarrow and sage.
We honor Common Bread leader Sayer Herrick '12, a wisewoman, herbalist, poet, singer and now Reiki healer, hoping she will keep returning to Common Bread to teach us!
Above, leader Joe Gibbs with Teekani (which means 'Wolf' in Athabascan) after singing plant songs with leah. Below, Scott Barry and the Vibe Tribe performed unique sound therapy using the most ancient musical instrument in the world, the didgeridoo, a profound evening of meditation and healing music.
Ari, Chani and Sayer lead us in song.
Llyn Roberts taught shape-shifting to higher consciousness to 27 Evergreen students and townsfolk in the Farm House, a Common Bread intensive retreat.
Llyn pictured below with Sayer, her daughter, Joe and Joav.
One student wrote: "I had a very profound experience these past two days. I
discovered that my spirit guide is the very energy I had thought was my
biggest obstacle or blockage. I feel so healed, empowered
and infinitely grateful." ~Megan W.
Sayer, Ari & Chani singing at the Llyn Roberts workshop.
Thanks to Ari and Chani for leading Common
Bread tonight, exploring the power of the Divine Feminine.
"Meditate on what it feels like to
open your Heart without fear of judgment, in complete trust."
Thank
you, Dharmata Foundation, and Anam Thubten, for gracing Common Bread
with your wisdom, humor and deep presence on February 3 in the Evergreen
Longhouse, where 75 gathered to listen. Thank you, Sayer and Joe for
your student leadership.
Below, Rinpoche meets Sayre Herrick after his talk. "The quintessential goal of our path is surrendering to reality each moment, then seeing and loving all as divine."
Satsang: Sayer and Ari, and below, McKenzie and Joelle.
Satsang is a Sanskrit word meaning "Truth Community." It is a circle where people can be authentically themselves, sharing their spiritual journey with an open heart.
Zach welcomes Emir, our guest from Ocuppy Olympia, to Common Bread.
Laughter Yoga with Miss Kate (Greener '08) for health and end-of- term stress release. Here's a LINK to an article on Laughter Yoga from the Washington Post. Student leaders Joe and Sayer tabling in the student center. Come visit us Tuesdays at noon! Thursday, November 10, Sean Johnson's Wild Lotus Band from New Orleans returned to Common Bread.Greener alum Johnson led us in Yoga kirtans with a cajun spice!
Evergreen
professors Sarah Williams and Sean Williams with student leader Joe
Briggs and Sean Johnson, who was a student of Sean Williams in
Irish Studies. Common Bread cultivates lasting relationships between
Evergreen's students, alumni, and teachers.
Common Bread potluck: Vegan lentil soup, spinach salad, bread, veggie lasagna, pumpkin pie and tea. Our Samhain alter, celebrating the Celtic New Year, when the Light of the World begins
its inward journey to the Heart, rekindling in the
Winter womb of the Great Mother.
Jordon Paige leads Common Bread in chanting kirtans and toning.
Common Bread welcomes Joelle and Megan.
Student leaders with Ryan, a new guest at opening potluck.
Tabling in Red Square: student leaders Ian, Crystal and Sayre.
Common Bread's Singing Bowls concert and meditation each year with Karl Black and partners: one of the
finest collections of Tibetan bowls in the nation.
Ari Moshe, Yoga Teacher and Evolutionary Astrologist, gave a workshop on the Journey of the Soul, October 13.
Student leaders Ian and Crystal at the center of our annual Spring Labyrinth on Red Square.
At our final meeting in May, Daphne shared her writing/painting. Student leader, Joe Briggs, sharing poems by Rumi.
Evergreen's Administration invited Common Bread to gather diverse faith leaders in the inauguration of the new Student Center. Below with student leader Ian, Fred LaMotte (Common Bread Chaplain),
Mustafa Mohamedali (Olympia Islamic Center), Rev. Rachel Wagen-Hoch (St.
Mark's Lutheran Church), Koro Kaisan Miles (Open Gate Zendo), Rabbi
Seth Goldstein (Temple Beth Hatfiloh), Leslie Edwards (Olympia Bahai
Assembly).
Muslim Americans met with students and townsfolk in the Longhouse to share the topic, 'What Does It Feel Like to be Muslim in America Today.'
It was an evening to stand against bigotry and religious prejudice, and share the common spirit of humanity with our Muslim brothers and sisters of Olympia Islamic Center.
On Feb. 2, meditative musician Christine Gunn returned to Common Bread, performing 'Imbolc Music' to awaken the energy of Spring with her electronically over-looping mystic cello.
Dairun Zenzi, head monk of the One Drop Zen Monastery on Whidbey Island, explained Rinzai Zen Buddhism to 50 students & led meditation.
Art Night : celebrating student art, poetry, music & photography.
We created an interactive poem LINK HERE and group mandala to express our images for the Spirit.
Below right to left: Chelan, Sayre and Lillian sing spirit songs.
Quaker chaplain Fred LaMotte leads meditation. Common Bread welcomed Zawadi Nakuze, co-sponsored bythe Office of Sexual Assault Prevention Awareness & the President's Diversity Fund. From
the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zawadi shared her work restoring
hope to rape victims in the world's most violent civil war. To hear
her speak to Olympia Quakers, LINK.
Common Bread leaders Crystal & Ian attend a national college conference on Interfaith Spirituality at U. of Puget Sound.
A trio of musicians perform Hindi devotional songs and explain the mythic stories behind them, brought by Shon Murphy's leadership.
One of nine world leaders of the Baha'i faith, guest speaker Erica Toussaint was welcomed by Common Bread's Bahai leader, Chelan Weiler. Dr. Mohammad Ayub helps us understand Islam.Dr. Ayub's wife, Amy Aisha (below), spoke to Common Bread on 'Women In Islam." Over 30 attended. Dr. Ayub is a Muslim peace activist, master gardener & member of the Jewish-Muslim Compassionate Listening Group.Dr. Ayub shared Muslim evening prayers with us. We cherish our connection to Lacey Mosque!
Krishnammal Jagannathan, winner of the 2008 Opus Award for world service, a disciple of Gandhi and Ramana Maharshi, addressed 90 seekers at Common Bread in the Recital Hall (Link to article).
Evie Fagergen leads Sufi-inspired Dances of Universal Peace twice a year. Guitar player is Professor Tugas of Evergreen faculty.
Evie (left) leads dances with her fiddle, helped by dedicated musicians. Below, our annual Samahim-All Saints-Halloween feast.
Quaker Deric Young spoke on 'Nature as Sacred Text.' Quakers visit Common Bread yearly to share Quaker Meeting.
Grandfather Cedar, Grandmother Fern, this is where we worship in the Evergreen forest. We thank you for making this Long House from the bone and marrow of your ancestors.
Grandfather Cedar, Grandmother Sage, you make our planet green and give us a sweet fragrance of prayer. We thank you for the gift of silence. Grandfather Cedar, Grandmother Berry, root us deep in the Earth as you are rooted, so that we may breathe down the stars and plant them where our feet walk. Thank you Grandfathers. Thank you Grandmothers. Thank you, Raven.
~Common Bread interfaith chaplain Fred 'Forget every touch or sound that did not teach you how to dance.' (Rumi) Common Bread hosts contra dancing. Talcott Broadhead, Director of Evergreen's Sexual Assault Prevention Awareness Program, pictured with activist Jenna Wes at her Common Bread workshop.
"Common Bread is a great student organization and an amazing spiritual community. Many students who are searching, find a comfort and warmth with this group that is so supportive and real." ~Leslie Johnson, MSW, TESC Counseling Center (Thanks for the kind words, Leslie!)
Scott Huckabay, Guitar Alchemist (Click to hear)
Scott Returns to Common Bread November 8!
Wild Lotus Band, Sean Johnson (Click to hear)
With your help, Wild Lotus Band will return next April. Sean Johnson, a Greener, loves to come to Evergreen! Here he chants Vedic Mantra with poems by Hafiz & Rumi.
Student leaders Joe Briggs '14 with Sayer Herrick '12
The Longhouse
Where we meet for food, friendship, wisdom & meditation, in a sacred space gifted by the Indigenous People's Program at Evergreen.
"Walk as if your feet are kissing the earth." ~Thich Naht Hanh
"Let every step you take upon the earth be as a prayer." ~Black Elk
David White: the World as Conversation
"There is no self that will survive a real conversation." (click to hear)
"Too much energy in your country is spent developing the mind instead of the heart." ~Dalai Lama
"Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it." ~Maya Angelou
"The worst enemy of creativity is self-doubt." ~Sylvia Plath
"Never worry about numbers. Help one person at a time, starting with the person nearest you" ~Mother Theresa
“At the center of the universe dwells the Great Spirit. And that center is really everywhere. It is within each of us.” ~Black Elk
"There lives more faith in honest doubt, believe me, than in half the creeds." ~Tennyson
"What we are looking for is what is looking." ~Francis of Assisi
سبحان الله
"There is a polish for everything that takes away rust; and the polish for the heart is the remembrance of Beloved."
"Why are you so afraid of silence! Silence is the root of Everything." ~Rumi
"If you are troubled by external circumstances, it is not the circumstances that trouble you, but your own perception of them, and they are within your power to change at any time." ~Marcus Aurelius
Chant Om Namah Shivaya (clik pic)
SECRETS OF LOVE
"O my Lord, the stars glitter and the eyes of men are closed. Kings have locked their doors and each lover is alone with his love. Here, I am alone with you." ~Rabi'a
"It is foolish to think that we will enter heaven without entering into ourselves." ~St Teresa of Avilla
"At a distance you only see my Light. Come closer and know that I am You." ~Rumi
"If, by seeking the source of the doubter, the doubter is found to be really non-existent, then all doubts will cease." ~Sri Ramana Maharshi
“I beg you to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves... Live the questions now. Then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing, live your way into the answer.” ~Rainer Maria Rilke, ' Letters To A Young Poet'
Hildegard of Bingen, Chants of Ecstasy (clik pic)
“The seed of God is in us. Pear seeds grow into pear trees, nut seeds into nut trees, and God-seed into God.” ~Meister Eckhart, 14th C.
"I was happy enough to stay still inside the pearl inside the shell, but the hurricane of experience lashed me out of hiding and made me a wave moving into shore, saying loudly the ocean's secret as I went, and then, spent there, I slept like fog against the cliff, another stillness" ~Rumi
"We know that every moment is a moment of grace." ~Eli Wiesel, survivor, Auschwitz, Buchenwald
Holy Company, Yoga Vashista
‘The blessings that flow from the company of holy saints are incomparable to any other blessings. The holy man’s nature is cool and peaceful, his behavior and actions are pure. Therefore his company promotes peace and goodness in everyone who seeks it. In his company one loses fear. Sinfulness comes to an end and one grows in purity. Even the love and affection that the gods and angels possess are nothing compared to the limitless love that, flows from the holy ones.’ ~Yoga Vashistha
Singing Plants at Damanhur (click pic)
Singing plants make music for human meditation is the spiritual community of Damanhur, Italy, dedicated to re-connecting humanity with the green earth.
"It is miraculous to be in that state of not waiting for the next thing to happen." ~Eckhart Tolle
"Treat the soil as your own skin, the streams as your veins, the rivers as your arteries, the air as your own lungs, all living beings as your own family, and all will be well." ~Drew Clendening, Greener '12
"I regard consciousness as fundamental. I regard matter as derivative from consciousness. We cannot get behind consciousness." ~Max Planck, quantum founder
"From a single pair of a man and a woman We made you into nations and tribes so that you may know and learn from each other (not so that you may despise and fight each other)." ~Qur'an 49:13
"God is not a Christian. God is not a Jew, a Muslim or a Hindu. All of those are human systems that humans have created to help us walk into the Mystery of God. I honor my tradition, I walk THROUGH my tradition: My tradition does not define God: it only points me to God." ~Bishop J. Shelby Spong
"When you’re blind to your own nature, the Buddha is an ordinary being. When you’re aware of your own nature, an ordinary being is the Buddha." ~Zen Master Huineng
"Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves... Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now." ~Rainer Maria Rilke
Your heart is a center of wisdom & radiance
"The heart’s electromagnetic field, by far the most powerful rhythmic field produced by the body, not only envelopes each cell of the body but extends in all directions into the space around us. IHM Research suggests that the heart's field is an important carrier of information." (Institute of Heart Math, clik pik for video)
awakening the heart with thich nhat hanh (clik pic)
".Just breathe in and you touch the miracle of being alive. That is why the Buddha said, the Dharma is lovely at the beginning, the middle, and at the end. The Dharma can bring joy and peace and happiness right away: you don't have to wait."
"Meditation could be said to be the Art of Simplicity: simply sitting, simply breathing and simply being." ~Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
Yoga Vashista, text and time lapse video (clik)
❝There are beings in this universe whose winking is of the duration of an epoch. Space and time have no fixed span, both are appearances, both imagination. Because the substratum is real; space too appears very real. Giving illusions of separateness between elements within itself. Time too arose as a notion (another dimension). Time is threaded and animated by the power of this reality. It is the finite space of individual consciousness that creates the divisions in time. ❞ ~ Yoga Vashishta
"Logic will take you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere." ~Albert Einstein
"I do not cease swimming in the seas of love, rising with the wave, then descending; now the wave sustains me, and then I sink beneath it; love bears me away where there is no longer any shore." ~Al-Hallaj
'When you see the Beloved, the knots in your heart open and tears come. All doubts and questions vanish from the mind, and all bad karmas vanish.'
"In humility is the greatest freedom. As long as you have to defend the imaginary self that you think is important, you lose your peace of heart. As soon as you compare that shadow with the shadows of other people, you lose all joy." ~Thomas Merton
"You should sit in meditation for twenty minutes every day - unless you are too busy; then you should sit for an hour." ~Zen Proverb
Sanskrit Names of Mother Divine (click to hear)
"In meditation, silence is the Mother." (Ammaji) "Silence is the mother of creation." (Sri Sri Ravi Shankar)
"The main impediment of many seekers in the path is that they want to surrender. Don't say that you want to surrender; know that you already are surrendered. "Wanting to surrender becomes an impediment on the path. This is like a child saying to the mother, I want to love you. No child ever tells the mother, I want to love you. Love is already there. Surrender is not an act, it is a state of your being. Whether you acknowledge it or not, it is there. "The wise wake up and see: You have no choice, you are in a state of surrender deep within you." ~Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
'Say yes to what is': brilliant Eckhart Tolle talk (clic pic to hear)
Orthodox Christian chant: the Jesus Mantra
Ukrainian Sisters of the Most Holy Redeemer (clic to hear)
"The least movement is of importance to all nature. The entire ocean is affected by a pebble." ~Blaise Pascal, 17th C.
"When the electron vibrates, the whole universe shakes." ~Sir Arthur Eddington, founder of quantum physics
Rock Edict of Ashoka, Indian Emperor, 300 BC
“It is best not to criticize but to honor other religions. Thus one's own religion benefits, & so do other religions. But whoever praises his own religion while condemning others, only harms his own religion. Therefore contact between religions is good. One should respect the doctrines professed by others. The King desires that all should be well-learned in the good doctrines of other religions.”
'OMG': Louis Schwartzberg's 'Ted' Talk (click flower)
"Let everyone you meet on this day be blessed by you, just by your eyes, by your smile, by your touch, just by your presence. Let the gratefulness overflow into blessings all around you. Then it will be a really good day."
"People do not seem to realize that their opinion of the worldis a confession of character."~Emerson "First realize that your world is only a reflection of yourself and stop finding fault with the reflection." ~Nisargadatta
Kyrie, Hildegard of Bingen: Clik Pic to Hear
'In order to change an existing paradigm, do not struggle with the problematic model. Create a new model and make the old one obsolete.' ~Buckminster Fuller
"If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people together to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea. ~Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
"Don't walk in front of me; I might not follow you. Don't walk behind me; I might not lead you. Just walk beside me, and be my friend." ~Albert Camus
"You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist." ~Nietzsche
Walking Meditation Video (click picture)
"The real miracle is not to walk on water. The real miracle is to walk on the green earth." (Thich Nath Hanh)
Unity
Ekam sat vipra, bahudah vedantihih: "Truth is One, the wise have called it by many names." (Vedas)
"The heart of every religion is the religion of the heart." (Brother David Stendhal-Rast)
“So powerful is the light of unity that it can illuminate the whole earth.” (Baha'u'llah)
"The lamps are different but the light is the same: it comes from beyond." (Rumi)
"I am a Christian, I am a Hindu, I am a Muslim, I am a Jew." (Gandhi)
"There is only one Road. It is like a great river: its springs are at every doorstep, and every path is its tributary. It's a dangerous business, going out of your door. You step into the Road...." (Bilbo Baggins)
"I love you when you bow in your mosque, kneel in your temple, pray in your church. We are sons and daughters of one religion and it is the spirit." (Kahlil Gibran)
"Do not be confused because you hear many voices. Know that I am One and the same." (Talmud)
"Though we may not think alike, may we not love alike?" (John Wesley)
"If people but knew their own religion, how tolerant they would become, and how free from any grudge against the religion of others." (Hazrat Inayat Khan)
"Re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem." ~Walt Whitman
True Renunciation
"Renunciation does not mean outward divestment of clothes or abandonment of home, or leaving the world. No, one who truly renounces actually merges in the world and expands his love to embrace All. It would be more correct to describe the attitude of the devotee as universal love than as abandoning home to don the ochre robe." ~Ramana Maharshi
Common Bread leaders Ian & Crystal O'Donnel at interfaith conference. Thanks for 2 great years of leadership!
'O Sacred Head'
From Bach's St. Matthew Passion, painting by Rembrandt (clic to hear)
"There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle." ~Albert Einstein
Be Maladjusted!
"There are some things in our social system to which I am proud to be maladjusted... I never intend to adjust myself to segregation... I never intend to adjust myself to the tragic inequalities of an economic system ... which take necessities from the many to give luxuries to the few.... I never intend to become adjusted to the madness of militarism... I call upon you to be maladjusted." ~Martin Luther King, April 25, 1957
"If God said, 'Rumi, pay homage to everything that has helped you enter my arms,' there would not be one experience of my life, not one thought, not one feeling, not any act I've done, I would not bow to."
"The world needs more sages than anything else right now - more prayer wheels, more visions, more poems, more magic." (Zen poet Philip Whalen to Gary Snyder, 1955. Photo: from Desolation Peak, North Cascades)
"Good People, most royal greening verdancy, rooted in the sun, you shine with radiant light. In this circle of earthly existence, your shining surpasses understanding. God hugs you. You are encircled by the arms of the mystery." ~Hildegard of Bingen, 11th C.
"The truth you believe and cling to makes you unavailable to hear anything new." ~Pema Chodron
“Today you are you, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is youer than you.” ~Dr. Seuss
"It's more interesting to live by Not Knowing than to live by knowing what might be wrong." ~Nobel Physicist Richard Feynman
Nothing is more Godlike than dancing! (clic pic)
"An undercurrent of stillness in which everything happens..." ~Eckhart Tolle (Clic to hear)
"When you’re blind to your own nature, the Buddha is an ordinary being. When you’re aware of your own nature, an ordinary being is the Buddha." ~Zen Master Huineng
"Peace is not merely a goal that we seek, but the means by which we arrive." ~Martin Luther King, Jr.
“All of you are perfect just as you are and you could use a little improvement.” ~Suzuki Roshi
"Perhaps love is my leading you gently back to yourself." ~Saint-Exupéry
'The paradigm is no longer left-right: it's creative-destructive.' (Steve Jobs)
"Don't wait for great leaders. Do it yourself, person to person." ~Mother Theresa
"Let us rather love one another, and work, and rejoice. I don't believe in this world-sorrow." ~E. M. Forster, 'A Room With A View'
"We can build a community of true seekers. We cannot build a community of true believers." ~William Sloan Coffin
"You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist." ~Nietzsche
"Now is the time to turn your heart into a temple of fire." ~Rumi
"In the end we shall have had enough of cynicism... & we shall want to live more musically." ~Vincent van Gogh
"Every one who is seriously involved in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that a spirit is manifest in the laws of the Universe, a spirit vastly superior to that of man, and one in the face of which we with our modest powers must feel humble... Life and death flow into one, and there is neither evolution nor destiny- only Being." (Albert Einstein)
“People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within.” (Elisabeth Kubler-Ross)
"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." ~Maya Angelou
"Live life in a state of radical amazement... Get up every morning and look at the world in a way that takes nothing for granted." (Rabbi Abraham Heschel)
Mahamrityunjaya Mantra (clik pic)
"In the West, surrender implies giving up power. But surrender to the guru or the Beloved doesn't mean giving power to another human being: it's letting go of the stuff that keeps you separate. Eventually, its surrender to that place in yourself that takes you beyond form." (Ram Dass)
Our very center is a sacred place: eternal, immovable, self-luminous. It is pure love. Name it Christ, Buddha, Shiva, Allah, Wakan Tanka or Mother Divine. But whatever we name it, isn't it time for us to stop looking for that place and start looking from that place?
Called 'Wesak' in Buddhism, the full moon of May is a time when the veils between this world and the realm of Buddhas & Bodhisattvas is thin. It is an auspicious time for resting the heart in the grace of deep silence. After fellowship and dinner we will chant Om Mani Padme Hum and do deep meditation in the Longhouse Cedar Room.
A traditional Indian proverb says: 'Laugh, Sing & Meditate.' After
delicious student potluck and joyful fellowship, we will chant and
meditate together, opening the heart with healing breath, then making candle offerings of peace. 
Come say goodbye for the summer, and farewell to some. Wash each other in Beauty as we sing and perform the ritual known as the 'Angel Wash'. Friends from Olympia's 'Singing Alive' are invited too! 
