This week, in our second all-remote Sangha, Mike B guided our reflections on how to bring a Buddhist perspective to the current world-wide pandemic situation.
Here is a link to the Gil Fronsdal talk that Mike played: https://audiodharma.org/talks/audio_player/11031.html
We also listened to an excerpt of an episode of the NY Times Daily podcast which you can hear at this link (the story we listened to starts at 12:20): https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/20/podcasts/the-daily/jobs-economy-coronavirus.html
At the end of the discussion Mike mentioned a book called The Overstory by Richard Powers.
Finally, Mike mentioned a poem which Ginny kindly shared with the group:
Gratitude Prayer
A gift from Kaylynn TwoTrees. Meant to be spoken aloud – add in what comes to your mind and heart as you extend your gratitude to all things seen and unseen (…… -offer the names of the things of the season and your landscape, and memory)
Sun, Moon, Galaxies……
We are grateful to be part of you today
Mountains, valleys……
We are grateful to be part of you today
The earth beneath our feet
Soil, sand, clay….
We are grateful to be part of you today
Waters both salty and sweet
Rain, oceans, streams….
We are grateful to be part of you today
All the green
Plants, trees ……
We are grateful to be part of you today
All the winged creatures
Butterflies, hummingbirds, raven, crow…….
We are grateful to be part of you today
All the creatures who live under the ground
Groundhogs, earthworms…..
We are grateful to be part of you today
All the creatures who crawl on the skin of the mother
Ants, snakes…..
We are grateful to be part of you today
All the creatures of the waters both salty and sweet
Frogs, salamanders…….
We are grateful to be part of you today
All the 4 legged creatures
Domestic and wild….
We are grateful to be part of you today
All the human…..
Races, cultures, ages….
We are grateful to be part of you today
All the life forms in all the dimensions
All of the entities named and unnamed, remembered and forgotten, known and unknown
We are grateful to be part of you today
Burlington Buddhist Sangha 