Poem by Wendell Berry

THE PEACE OF WILD THINGS

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

— Wendell Berry

Oct. 4 Interview with Wendell Berry by Bill Moyers:

http://billmoyers.com/segment/wendell-berry-on-his-hopes-for-humanity/

Editor's Note: Wendell Berry is not a Buddhist, but he says many wise things!

Secret History

Per request, here's the quote I read to the group from Jack Kornfield's book The Art of Forgiveness, Lovingkindness, and Peace:

"If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should see sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility."  -Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Upcoming Schedule

Here's the schedule of facilitators coming up for this group:

August 20: Walt Opie

August 27: Walt Opie

September 3: Kevin Griffin

September 10: Jeff Lindemood
September 17: Walt Opie

We meet every Tuesday from 7:30 - 9 pm at the Northbrae Community Church (941 The Alameda, Berkeley, CA) in Room #1 upstairs.

Humility Quote from Noah Levine

Per request, here's a quote on humility from Noah Levine's book The Heart of the Revolution (pg. 96) that I read at the Berkeley group recently:

 

"Humility is at the core of the path of love. The more loving and wise we become, the more the ego will want to lay claim to the experiences of wisdom. Humility is not a state of egolessness; it is a wise relationship to the ego. Humility does not mean that conceit doesn't arise in the mind; it means that conceit is met with the wisdom of not taking the inflation personally. Usually when we are feeling inflated or conceited, we believe the ego's insistence that we are better or worse than others. Humility is a practice that allows us to override that insistence and arrive at a wise relationship to the ego. It takes constant vigilance, because the mind is constantly creating (and attempting to give permanence to) a self out of that aspect of our experience that we call ego, constantly creating conceit."

Upcoming Schedule

Here is the upcoming schedule for this group (we meet every Tuesday night at 7:30 pm unless otherwise noted):

July 16: NO GROUP (Reading for Inquiring Mind Journal @ Diesel Bookstore, 6:30 - 8:30 pm)
July 23: Walt Opie
July 30: Walt Opie
August 6: Walt Opie
August 13: Walt Opie
August 20: Walt Opie
August 27: Walt Opie

Here's the upcoming schedule of teachers for this group (which meets weekly on Tuesday nights in Berkeley from 7:30 - 9 pm):

June 4:  Walt Opie
June 11:  Walt Opie
June 18:  Shahara Godfrey
June 25:  Kevin Griffin
July 2:  Jeff Lindemood
July 9:  Walt Opie

From "A Conversation with the Elements" by Mark Nepo

(Note: Last week I read this excerpt from a piece by Mark Nepo published in the Winter 2012-2013 issue of Parabola. Photo by Walt Opie.)

Moving Through the Dark
In nature, we are quietly offered countless models of how to give ourselves over to what appears dark and hopeless, but which ultimately is an awakening beyond our imagining. All around us, everything small and buried surrenders to a process that none of the buried parts can see. We call this process seeding and this innate surrender allows everything edible and fragrant to break ground into a life of light that we call spring. As a seed buried in earth can't imagine itself as an orchid or hyacinth, neither can a heart packed with hurt or a mind filmed over with despair imagine itself loved or at peace. The courage of the seed is that, once cracking, it cracks all the way. To move through the dark into blossom is the work of the soul.  -Mark Nepo