Friends,
For these two sessions we’re exploring the core Buddhist ethics – the five precepts – and their pivotal role in the spiritual path, and in living a happy daily life.
(Big thanks to sangha member Bonnie Kosmyna, whose idea this was.)
As many of you know, Buddhist ethics - sila in Pali – isn’t exactly a moral code but rather a way of cultivating healthy actions of body, speech and mind that support us and others in life. Also it’s not a crisp boundary of right and wrong, but rather a training, a core part of our Dharma practice.
For the first session we explored the three most straightforward of the five: training in not killing, training in not lying, training in not stealing. We saw how subtle these three can be, and how much these become a diamond edge in our practice.
For this upcoming second session we’re going to be exploring the far more ambiguous last two – training in not abusing intoxicants and cloud the mind, and training in avoiding sexual misconduct. These are more ambiguous because they’re so connected to activities that to some of us, some of the time, are acceptable, because these are conditioned by cultural standards, and because they have so much to do with intent.
We’ll be gathering at 7 p.m. on Thursday, March 6.
The URL for the evening will be https://tinyurl.com/Eastside-Insight-2025, or please come in person to the chapel at Northlake Unitarian Universalist Church, 315 3rd Ave S., Kirkland, WA 98033.
Please consider offering dana to Northlake Unitarian Universalist Church, which makes this space available on a dana-only basis, in a very kind and generous way. If you do, please mention you’re from Eastside Insight Meditation.
https://tinyurl.com/NorthlakeUU-Paypal2022
Also you're invited to offer dana to the teacher, with links and addresses below. Many thanks for your generous dana, which will be helping to pay for an upcoming retreat, to help me come back and better offer to all of you.
paypal.me/SteveWilhelm48
Steve Wilhelm
17623 184th Ave. NE
Woodinville, WA 98072
Big bows to the sangha members who step up to help set up for Thursday evenings. It’s a blessing to do this good work with others, and we have fun before everyone arrives, so please sign up below!
https://docs.google.com/document/d/18OKEUO7ubunOG_q9r8MaBFWXqmWScOm4LIsv8MdnBU8/edit
Looking ahead, I’m happy to share that Portland teacher Emily Carpenter will be leading Eastside Insight remotely for two upcoming Thursdays, March 20 and April 3. Ellen and I will be on pilgrimage in the Southwest during that period, and big thanks to Emily!
We are fortunate to be in sangha, to practice the dharma together, in difficult times. Just in our practice, we have an opportunity to offer equanimity and kindness to others.
May all of you find peace and steadiness in your hearts,
Steve