February 2021 Newsletter for Boundless Compassion Facilitators

There has been a change to the Zoom meeting ID for the meeting on Thursday, Feb. 18^th (5:00-6:00 p.m. PST, 8:00 – 9:00 p.m. EST)

 https://us02web.zoom.us/j/5511764614    Meeting ID: 551 176 4614

All BCF’s are invited to join Wendy Mospan & Colleen Shepard who are coordinating and leading the first facilitators’ Circle of Compassion. This informal one-hour Zoom will include a self-compassion meditation, a brief presentation on one aspect of compassion, and time for personal sharing. No advance preparation is needed – please just come as you are! The plan is to gather quarterly, and rotate the brief compassion presentation time each quarter among interested group members.  Please RSVP to Colleen Shepard

(Occasionally, I will include various items as a reminder and a strengthening of what BC comprises. Also, consider using these as material when you share BC with others.)

With our new president and climate change returning to a more prominent position and concern, the BC focus on compassion for creation takes on ever greater significance.

Article: “Learning the Language of Nature”, Timothy Seekings, June 2020 Ecologist

Video:  Planeta Terra (Earth)  You don’t really need the lyrics to the song/voices that fill the middle part of this video but if you want them, they are here.

Song: “We Are One”, Earth Mama (Joyce Johnson Rouse)

Psalm 148 (Nan Merrill version) and other creation-related quotes

Poem-Prayer “When I Was the Forest,” by Meister Eckhart

Inter-being

(Quote of Thich Nhat Hanh, from: The Thich Nhat Hanh Collection, edited by Arnie Kotler)

If you are a poet, you will see clearly that there is a cloud floating on this sheet of paper. Without a cloud, there will be no rain; without rain the trees cannot grow; and without trees, we cannot make paper. The could is essential for the paper to exist. If the cloud is not here, the sheet of paper cannot be here either. So we can say that the cloud and the paper inter-are. “Interbeing” is a word that is not in the dictionary yet, but if we combine the prefix “inter” with the verb “to be,” we have a new verb inter-be.

If we look into this sheet of paper even more deeply, we can see the sunshine in it. Without sunshine, the forest cannot grow. In fact, nothing can grow without sunshine. And so we know that the sunshine is also in this sheet of paper. The paper and the sunshine inter-are. And if we continue to look, we can see the logger who cut the tree and brought it to the mill to be transformed into paper. And we see wheat. We know that the logger cannot exist without his daily bread, and therefore the wheat that became his bread is also in this sheet of paper. The logger’s father and mother are in it, too. When we look in this way, we see that without all of these things, this sheet of paper cannot exist.

Looking even more deeply, we can see ourselves in this sheet of paper too. This is not difficult to see, because when we look at a sheet of paper, it is part of our perception. your mind is in here and mine is also. So we can say that everything is in here with this sheet of paper. We cannot point out one thing that is not here—time, space, the earth, the rain, the minerals in the soil, the sunshine, the cloud, the river, the heart. Everything co-exists with this sheet of paper. …  “To be” is to inter-be. We cannot just be by ourselves alone. We have to inter-be with every other thing. …

Here are several insights/ practical suggestions for enhancing the Listening Triads used in the BC Four Day retreat. Could also be used in BC book studies or in Circles of Compassion.

(The following is taken from Resmaa Menakem’s book: My Grandmother’s Hands. )

Menakem writes about “listening” to another. The following could be a reminder to the group before inviting them into listening groups:

“It means describing an event that had meaning for you, while the other person listens with caring, full attention, a calm presence, and a settled body. … Therapists call this active listening. Being an active listener involves not interrupting; not making judgments; not asking questions other than to make sure you understand; not giving advice or offering explanations; and not jumping in with a story of your own.”

Being in harmony with others by syncing our bodies.

In the next chapter Menakem writes: “Healing with other human beings requires us to respect, regard, and be in harmony with other bodies. ….The first step in changing this dynamic is settling our own bodies, one by one. …. getting our bodies in sync with others.”

Menakem then suggests some simple practices for doing this. Here are some of them.

(Please note that the author emphasizes the following practices for getting our bodies in sync with others ought to be used “only with people and groups you already know and trust.” In other words, do not use these practices when first meeting with a new group.)

(1) Hum together for about ten seconds to harmonize our bodies.

(2) Walk silently, side by side, keeping our footsteps in sync.

(3) Massage another person’s feet. (asking permission first, of course)

(4) Stand. For fifteen seconds just rub your belly, like I’m doing now.

(5) Sing a lullaby or any other song together.

(6) Rock back and forth together without touching.

(7) OM together (may need to briefly speak about “OM”)

(8) Take someone’s hand and gently massage it for one or two minutes. (ask permission)

“Don’t over-think, over-plan, over-emphasize, or over-organize these activities. Keep them simple and friendly. …Don’t make them be the focus of anything.  After completing the activity, have each check in with his/her self regarding their body responded.”

(When I read the following in Dr. Sue Morter’s The Energy Codes, I thought immediately of compassion and what we teach about our thoughts and feelings – that they make a difference in what we send forth into the world. Also connected to Metta, the loving kindness meditation, when we deliberately send forth love.)

“…underneath the tangible, physical form of our body, we humans are pure, intelligent, conscious energy   We are beings of energy.  Our matter, mind, and thoughts are energy. …We are discovering, for example, that it is through our energy field that our very DNA gets its instructions about how to act. We see this in the findings of Dr. Bruce Lipton, for instance, who, working at Stanford University’s School of Medicine, revealed evidence that changes in organisms are caused by gene activation from a stimulus coming from the surface of the cell wall rather than in the genetic code within the cell nucleus, as was widely believed. This shows us that messages from our cells’ environment, including our thoughts and emotional states, generate energy flow of a particular nature at the surface of the cell that determines what the cell with “do. …what we think and do affects our energy.”

The Self-Compassion Break with Kristen Neff, PhD  (Recommended by Joan Doherty) Learn a short practice to work with difficult experiences using the three components of Mindful Self-Compassion: mindfulness, kindness and common humanity

How 40 Seconds of Compassion Could Save a Life | Stephen Trzeciak TEDxPenn (Recommended by Bobbi Bussan)

Focuses on compassion and health care providers and the lack of compassion; he asks:  does compassion really matter? In the science of medicine what is the evidence of the value of compassion? Effects of compassion on patients and those who care for them… beneficial effects… A lot of statistics to back up what he believes. Data is applicable for not just health care workers but for the self-care of all people. Also, his account of personal burnout and the antidote he offers for this is reflective of the need for self compassion.

Article: “How to Overcome the Pressure to Always Do More”

 (From Greater Good in Berkeley) For personal reflection and could also be used with presentations on self compassion.

Two Books (Now on BCF Annotated Bibliography)

Standing At the Edge: Finding Freedom Where Fear and Courage Meet, Joan Halifax (Author of Being with Dying)

The Five Invitations: Discovering What Death Can Teach Us About Living Fully, Frank Ostaseski  (founder of the Metta Institute)

When I read the following from Films for the Planet, I thought of each of you and why your presence and activity with the Boundless Compassion program gives me such hope.

“The butterfly effect is a theory that a localized change or single occurrence, no matter how small, can make a difference and have large effects elsewhere – even changing the course of the universe. No matter how you learn, create or share stories – you can take small steps to educate yourself on the social issues that matter to you. Like the butterfly effect, these steps can kick-start change from within you, your community, and out into the world.  By mobilizing our capacity for collective imagination, we can consciously envision where we are headed and then choose a more promising pathway forward.” ~ Duane Elgin

May the weeks ahead assure you of the value of each compassionate choice you make,

To seek a better life for one’s family is genuinely human To flee violence, persecution or starvation is an affliction If we are to follow Christ, we must act as if the griefs of today’s refugees and asylum seekers are our own. We must offer them the hopes and the joys we wish for ourselves. We must make America their island of mercy.

Tim Kaine, U.S Senator