Teachers for February and March

Walt Opie will be away for February and March, so the following teachers will lead the group on these dates:

February 5 - Kevin Griffin

February 12 - Rebekah Laros

February 19 - Kevin Griffin

February 26 - Enrique Collazo*

March 5 - Kevin Griffin

March 12 - Rebekah Laros

March 19 - Enrique Collazo

March 26 - Rebekah Laros

*Enrique Collazo has been a sangha member of the Against the Stream Dharma Center in Los Angeles for many years and is in Facilitator training with Noah Levine and Vinny Ferraro.

Step One - Surrender

Kevin Griffin says in One Breath at a Time:

"Surrender is a traditional element of every spiritual journey. Before we can begin to realize our potential, we must break out of limiting concepts of who and what we are and what we think is possible. This may mean giving up long-held beliefs and comfortable behavior patterns... As we begin to surrender, we see that we will have to let go of these destructive habits of mind before we can move toward freedom."

Kevin Griffin (author of One Breath at a Time: Buddhism & the 12 Steps AND A Burning Desire: Dharma God & The Path of Recovery) is leading the Berkeley Dharma and Recovery group this week (Tuesday, December 4) from 7:30 - 9 pm at the Northbrae Community Church. This is a great opportunity to sit with Kevin and ask questions you might have about dharma practice as it relates to recovery. For more info on Kevin, you can visit www.kevingriffin.net.

Walt Opie will lead the group on December 11 and 18. We will not meet on Tuesday, December 25 or Tuesday, January 1 due to the holidays.

The Principles of the 12-Step Program

Step 1 - Honesty
Step 2 - Hope
Step 3 - Faith
Step 4 - Courage
Step 5 - Integrity
Step 6 - Willingness
Step 7 - Humility
Step 8 - Brotherly Love
Step 9 - Justice
Step 10 - Perseverence
Step 11 - Spiritual Awareness
Step 12 - Service

Jack Kornfield on Formal Confession Practices from "The Wise Heart"

Twice a month, at the full and new moon, the monks and nuns of the (Thai) forest monastery seek release from past misconduct through formal practices of confession. They ritually gather together under the canopy of trees to confess their mistakes, seek understanding, and ask for forgiveness. Each confession ends with a commitment to start anew... In this spirit, one of the common practices that Buddhist psychologists and teachers use to help students is to listen to their confessions. When we hear their misdeeds and regrets, we work with compassion, forgiveness, and letting go. We know that this unhealthy past is not who they really are. --Jack Kornfield, "The Wise Heart"

The Lanyard - A Poem by Billy Collins

The Lanyard - Billy Collins

The other day I was ricocheting slowly
off the blue walls of this room,
moving as if underwater from typewriter to piano,
from bookshelf to an envelope lying on the floor,
when I found myself in the L section of the dictionary
where my eyes fell upon the word lanyard.

No cookie nibbled by a French novelist
could send one into the past more suddenly—
a past where I sat at a workbench at a camp
by a deep Adirondack lake
learning how to braid long thin plastic strips
into a lanyard, a gift for my mother.

I had never seen anyone use a lanyard
or wear one, if that’s what you did with them,
but that did not keep me from crossing
strand over strand again and again
until I had made a boxy
red and white lanyard for my mother.

She gave me life and milk from her breasts,
and I gave her a lanyard.
She nursed me in many a sick room,
lifted spoons of medicine to my lips,
laid cold face-cloths on my forehead,
and then led me out into the airy light

and taught me to walk and swim,
and I, in turn, presented her with a lanyard.
Here are thousands of meals, she said,
and here is clothing and a good education.
And here is your lanyard, I replied,
which I made with a little help from a counselor.

Here is a breathing body and a beating heart,
strong legs, bones and teeth,
and two clear eyes to read the world, she whispered,
and here, I said, is the lanyard I made at camp.
And here, I wish to say to her now,
is a smaller gift—not the worn truth

that you can never repay your mother,
but the rueful admission that when she took
the two-tone lanyard from my hand,
I was as sure as a boy could be
that this useless, worthless thing I wove
out of boredom would be enough to make us even.

Heather Sundberg will teach on Tuesday, July 10

We're excited that Heather Sundberg will be leading the Berkeley Dharma and Recovery group on Tuesday, July 10. She has finished teacher training with Jack Kornfield and co-leads the annual Buddhism and the 12 Steps Retreat with Kevin Griffin at the Vajrapani Institute. Here's more info about her: http://www.heathersundberg.com/about.html