2023-10-08 | Class 9 | Taking Up the Way of Supporting Life | With Joel Barna & Robin Bradford

00:00:26 - Joel Opens up the Meeting
00:02:20 - Joel Talks About the Precept ‘Taking Up the Way of Supporting Life and Not Killing’
00:15:06 - Poem by David Whyte - No Path
00:17:43 - Joel Guides Us All Into Sitting for 10 Minutes
00:19:01 - Robin Talks About the Precept ‘I Vow to Take Up the Way of Supporting All Life’, and Discusses the use of Language around the Precepts
00:29:20 - Robin Invites Comments
00:43:41 - Robin Introduces the Topics for the breakout Room Exercises
00:43:46 - !st Question - Is a “no kill” animal shelter working if animals suffer due to poor living conditions?
00:44:45 - 2nd Question - Can someone following the precepts eat meat?
00:45:39 - 3rd Question - Can one consume fossil fuels (drive a car, fly in a plane) knowingly contributing to climate crisis?
00:45:55 - 4th Question - Is euthanasia – the “painless killing of a patient with an incurable disease” – okay?
00:46:45 - Guidance for Connection Rooms - In Groups for 15 Minutes - sit for 1 minute - Discuss from the heart. Actively listen. Speak to essence. Notice what’s simultaneously happening in your body - where is there tightness, where is there heat, maybe boredom, withdrawal - just notice
00:49:15 - Robin Invites Reflections
01:03:37 - The Next Precept - To Not Disparage the Triple Treasures - Joel will be sending out Materials for this precept soon

No Path ~David Whyte
There is no path that goes all the way.

Not that it stops us lookingfor the full continuation.

The one line in the poemwe can start and follow straight to the end.

The fixed belief we can hold,
facing a stranger that saves us the trouble of a real conversation.

But one day you are not just imagining an empty chair
where your loved one sat.You are not just telling a story

where the bridge is down and there’snowhere to cross.
You are not just trying to pray to a God you imagined would keep you safe.

No you’ve come to the place where nothing you’ve done
will impress and nothing you can promise will avert
the silent confrontation,the place where
your body already seems to know the way having kept
to the last its own secret reconnaissance.

But still, there is no path that goes all the way
one conversation leads to another
one breath to the next until
there’s no breath at all
just the inevitablefinal release of the burden.

And then your life will have to start all over again for you to know even a little of who you had been.

~David Whyte



MB (Public)