We are excited to welcome Vance Pryor to Bozeman in April! Vance will offer several opportunities for practice. First, save the date for Thursday, April 6 when Vance will be the guest speaker at the Bozeman Insight Community.
Get to know Vance as he introduces himself to our community, sharing some stories of his journey in the dharma and taking questions of all sorts.
All are welcome! No prior experience or registration necessary. This will be a hybrid event offered in-person and via Zoom.
We’re excited to announce our next book study group led by Katie Arnold beginning Tuesday, April 4th. Each session of this six-week series will focus on a different portion of Pema Chodron’s book, When Things Fall Apart, Heart Advice for Difficult Times. No need to have read any chapters before the first meeting. Great for beginners or for more experienced practitioners. Please pre-register as in-person space is limited.
From the publisher:
In this most beloved and acclaimed work, Pema shows that moving toward painful
situations and becoming intimate with them can open up our hearts in ways we never
before imagined. Drawing from traditional Buddhist wisdom, she offers life-changing
tools for transforming suffering and negative patterns into habitual ease and boundless
joy.
Pema Chodron is an American Buddhist nun in the lineage of Chogyam Trungpa and
resident teacher at Campo Abbey in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, the first Tibetan
Buddhist monastery in North America.
This Dharma thought brought to you by Steve Allison-Bunnell, leader of Joining Rivers Sangha.
“Could a brain in a vat meditate?” I posed this question to students in the Psychology of Consciousness course at MSU this last week. One thought so, because the brain would still have memories and thoughts to contemplate. Another thought no, because the brain has no body to actually experience the world with. That was my answer. The Buddha understood and taught that for a human at least, meditation is an embodied practice. Coming home to ourselves through Mindfulness is in its essence living in our own body in a particular moment. We now also know that many aspects of our feelings come from our bodies and do not arise only in the brain. When do you feel like a brain in a vat? How to you get back in touch with your body?
Apart from this website, our monthly newsletter is one of the best ways to find out what’s happening at the BDC. If you missed the March edition, click here to catch up! (You’ll need to click on this post’s title for links to work.) If you haven’t subscribed to the BDC newsletter, you can do that here!
This is a new feature showcasing thoughts and musings about the dharma in our everyday lives by BDC leaders, teachers and community members. You can find these categorized as “Dharma Thoughts.” This contribution is from Steve Allison-Bunnell, leader of Joining Rivers Sangha:
Dear Friends,
Even with noticeably longer days, this latest cold spell has made it hard for me to get up in the morning to sit. When I have, it seems like my mind is everywhere else. Lofty goals of great concentration and wonderful insight while meditating fall away as I rehearse my day and mentally solve problems.”Sit still!” my inner adult admonishes. I open my eyes and look at my altar, seeing Thay’s serene face there next to the Buddha. Or I feel my hands tightening in my lap. The cats are outside the bedroom door begging for breakfast. I am back in the present moment. I may not be sitting still, but I am still sitting. And that quantum of patience I muster carries me out into my day.
Joining Rivers meets on Mondays from 7-8:30 PM and practices in the tradition of Plum Village & Zen Master the Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh.
This three week dive into the heart of Buddhism begins February 15 and will offer central teachings of our 2500 year old tradition. Great for those new to meditation and Buddhist practice. Seasoned practitioners are warmly encouraged as well. Prior registration is required. In-person attendance limited to 30 participants, online Zoom participation is unlimited. Register here.
We are grateful to the Bozeman Dharma Center community for participating in our Maha-sangha/Community meetings in November 2022. Between the conversations and the worksheets, the Board of Directors gathered great information about our community feels we are doing and where you see the BDC going. Using this information we created a three year vision for the BDC and first steps to take in 2023 to get us there.
As part of our commitment to transparency, these goals for the BDC are on the website. Click here to view!
You can volunteer to help out at the BDC! Volunteers donated over 1800 hours of their time in 2022– the equivalent of $49,000! Being in our own space and ramping up programs means we need volunteers more than ever. If you are interested in bell ringing, helping keep the center tidy, providing and arranging flowers and many other tasks, please contact Karen at karen@bozemandharmacenter.org.
On Feb 3-5, join visiting Zen priest, Michael Mugaku Zimmerman and the Bozeman Zen Group for an open-to-all Friday night talk followed by a weekend retreat. Practice the Zen aspiration to continually approach all of life, people and situations with “beginner’s mind”– that is, with curiosity, openness, and receptivity to whatever may emerge, free of expectations or prejudgment. Limited space, pre-registration requested.
On Saturday, January 21, enjoy the warmth of shared practice, while savoring the stillness and quiet of the season. Led by Suzanne Colón & Karen DeCotis, this day includes poetry, meditation, female companionship and mutual support for our collective journey through winter.
