Sangha Care Notes – January 15th, 2017 Meeting
This past Sunday evening we held a Sangha Care meeting prior to our usual time for group practice. At the meeting we discussed a few things:
- Heating system at KUF: Some people find it difficult to hear over the sound of the fan, so we will aim for the remaining cold months to heat up the room for a 1/2 hour prior to our meeting, and keep the heat up high for the first part when we have sitting and walking meditation, and then turn it off for the rest of our session. This should keep the environment warm, while providing more quiet atmosphere for sharing
- Our Sangha is able to keep 40% of the “dana” we collect, for supplies, materials, etc while 60% goes to Kingston Unitarian Fellowship. Rev. Carol has been keeping count, and we have some funds (almost $200) now to put towards a trunk to keep things at KUF, our own Buddha statue, cloth for the floor, and eventually some proper floor cushions (zafus).
- We hope to host a Day of Mindfulness in the coming month or so. This day retreat will include sitting and walking meditation, mindful eating together, listening to a full dharma talk from Thich Nhat Hanh and dharma sharing. This will be an opportunity to go deeper with our practice, and we will hope to host another one in May and make this a seasonal practice.
- We will aim to have another Sangha Care meeting in approximately 6 weeks, and continue this way to provide an opportunity to check in and handle administrative issues when they arise.
For the Day of Mindfulness, we’ve created a “Doodle” poll to try to find a date that works for the most people. You can choose “Yes” “no” or “Maybe” (aka if need be). Participating in the poll does not mean committing to the date, we are just trying to get a sense of which dates work best. We will also still publicize the retreat date once it is chosen, and new people, perhaps friends you may have with an interest in mediation, are very welcome to attend.