Dhamma Dena Meditation Center

Metta Monday with Dear Mel 6 to 7 pm Pacific Time Always Donation Based, Open 2 Everyone. Link in bio or at dhammadena.org/drop-in . . . Here’s an excerpt from Mel’s February message to the @dhammadena newsletter... . . . I have been living at Dhamma Dena in grandma Ruth’s kuti since September 2020, and had previously come for retreats with Arinna, and a long work retreat where I helped start affinity groups for people of color and got the ball rolling for POC retreats to happen here. Arinna empowered me to teach last year and invited me to be the guiding teacher of the center as she goes into long retreat for 2021. Before I returned to Dhamma Dena, I was living at monasteries in Myanmar/Burma for a little under twoyears doing full-time meditation practice in the Pa Auk and Panditarama/Mahasi lineages. I lived for part of that time ordained as a nun, called a Sayalay. . In 2018, the call to do nothing but focus my life on Dharma practice and study had grown so great that I left my long time home in Oakland, let go of nearly all of my personal possessions, and invited myself to let go of the perceived need to accumulate and pursue conventional trappings of lifee.g. career/money, partner, property, car, insurance, etc. I was experimenting with the Buddha’s invitation to go against the stream of societal and familial conditioning that tells us that our safety, security, value and happiness comes from these kinds of worldly accumulation, and turning towards the Dharma as refuge at a deeper level than I had previously realized was possible. With internally tumultuous vacillation between trust and doubt, fear and joy, confusion and clarity, I jumped off the Dharma deep end into traditional Burmese monastic life. I intended to be there for a minimum of a year with no maximum, with curiosity and openness. The faith I had to take that leap was experientially based in the transformation that had happened in my internal quality of life from my previous years of meditation practice, sitting and serving retreats with increasing frequency and duration over a 10-year period. I didn’t know what would happen and it was scary [continues in comments]

[ID: stargazing party at Dhamma Dena to observe the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn. Five adults and a child are around a fire] . . . We are happy to share this message from the land written by sangha members Dorene Quinn & Yvonne Buchanan.... . . . . From early September 2020 through early January, 2021, we took up residence at Dhamma Dena as a refuge from a very difficult neighbor situation. The months of relative silence, meditation practice and study of the Dharma with teachers and other residents on the land has changed our lives forever. We are overwhelmed with gratitude for this healing opportunity and the growth we experienced in our practice. I can’t think of a more perfect way to spend the long fall months of the pandemic, and while the situation that pressed us to take refuge was very challenging, it brought us to the center and a season of personal growth. The Buddha’s path is certainly the way to transforming life’s arrows into flowers. . . . Yvonne and I took up residence in the Dukkha House and transformed two of its bedroom spaces into art studios. Both of us were able to continue our artistic practices of drawing and I am now compiling a daily photographic project into a finished work about the landscape of Dhamma Dena. . . . Thankful for the comfortable and spacious shelter, we made it a point to leave Dukkha House improved by our stay, sprucing it up with some deep cleaning and organizing and repairs. Everyone who came to the center found a place where we could help maintain and improve the many buildings and the ongoing work of programming. Yvonne focused on the website and technical support for online retreats and I used my experience of household maintenance and repairs and history of DIY home improvement skills to focus on fix it needs and some more ambitious building projects. Everyone shared basic chores, and personal and community practice was always prioritized. . . . The fluid, intergenerational, multi racial community was like a functional family, all working with good will for all the beings and structures on the land. . . [continues in comments ]

E V E R Y M O R N I N G E V E R Y O N E W E L C O M E Group sits open to all every morning, every day of the week, 7:30-8:15AM PST. You are invited to begin your mornings with us. Link in bio~ This is the regular 45 minute silent sit that residents at Dhamma Dena join in together every morning and we are happy to be able to open it up virtually to all of our sangha friends, near and far.... Every Morning Sit Meeting ID: 671 987 4346 DM or email [email protected] for passcode

Metta Monday with Mel is tonight We are thankful for volunteers in supporting us in becoming more accessible. Thank you @alicia.reads @rabbit_wire @cynicalpinay . . .... We are currently an all volunteer run organization. If you would like to volunteer to support with accessibility, and outreach, please get in touch at [email protected] . . . Hope to see you at metta monday or any sit soon. All programming is donation based. You are always welcome to come. [ID 1: Mel with eyes closed and half smile, with the closed caption reading "for a minute, it's valuable. Over time, increasing the frequency of loving kindness pra... ID 2: Mel with eyes open, with the closed caption reading "wholesome mind states. Returning to this practice, once a week or daily, or through the day, or at the grocery store, sitting in... ID 3: Mel looking downwards, with closed caption reading "kindness practice also diminishes the mental states that are inflictive, painful, suffering, diminishes our fear our anger Mondays with Mel 6:00 to 7:00 pm, PST Meeting ID: 819 0999 8887 Please register in advance . . . A 40-ish minute guided sit for cultivating the skillful quality of metta/loving-kindness followed by sharing, conversation, inquiry. . . . Register once through zoom and you'll be sent the link & info to join all future sits. Link in bio or at dhammadena.org/drop-in . . . @trilliumm