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2020 Term 2 Black Lives Matter Online Zen Group Sand Talk Tools

Introducing our new ‘Bla(c)k Lives Matter Links’

We now have a place on Bright & Dark where you can find links to key resources about…

  • Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Peoples
  • Anti-Racism
  • Allyship
  • Campaigns & Petitions
  • Colonialism and Decolonisation
  • Indigenous knowledge systems
  • White supremacy/fragility
  • And beyond…

The page can be found at www.brightanddark.net/blmlinks. Or via the [THEMES] menu above.

This page will evolve over time and we will use it as a place to feature key items that come up in our discussions.

A special thanks and deep bow to Oonagh who has volunteered to be the caretaker for this page for us. ()

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2020 Term 2 Images Sand Talk

Old friends… sunning themselves.

Photo from Meg.
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2020 Term 2 Black Lives Matter Online Zen Group Poetry Sand Talk Words

Squares and Circles

~ By Ali Cobby Eckermann. From her book: ‘little bit long time’ (Picardo Press)

I was born yankunytjatjara my mother is yankunytjatjara her mother was yankunytjatjara my family is yankunytjatjara I have learnt many things from my family elders I hace grown to recognise that life travels in circles aboriginal culture has taught me this

When I was born I was not allowed to live with my family I grew up in the white man’s world

We lived in a square house we picked fruit and vegetables from a neat fenced square plot
we kept animals in square paddocks we ate at a square table we sat on square chairs
I slept in a square bed

I looked at myself in a square mirror and did not know who I was

One day I met my mother

I began to travel I visited places that I had already been but this time I sat down with family

We gathered together by big round campfires we ate bush tucker feasting on round ants and berries we ate meat from animals that live in round burrows we slept in circles on beaches around our fires we sat in the dirt on our land that belongs to a big round planet we watched the moon grow to a magnificent yellow circle that was our time

I have learnt two different ways now I am thankful for this that is part of my Life Circle

My heart is Round ready to echo the music of my family but the Square within me remains

The Square stops me in my entirety.

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Sand Talk Study Group

Study Group #2

“You have to show patience and respect, come in from the side, sit a while and wait to be invited in.”

Tyson Yunkaporta, Sand Talk (pg.29)

Coming from the side


We look forward to coming together for our Study Group #2 where we will continue our exploration of Tyson Yunkaporta’s Sand Talk.

Here are some questions to help open our discussion this week. Please take these as a starting point and feel welcome to raise your own questions or ideas.

  • What is your experience of ‘us-two’?
  • How have you experienced ‘coming from the side’ in your own life?
  • How might ‘us-two’ and ‘coming from the side’ help us to deepen our exploration of ‘You are welcome here’?
  • How are you experiencing and exploring the movements between occupying and inhabiting; owning and belonging?

Remember you can always add your contributions to this discussion in the comments below.

When: Sunday 5th July 2020, 4-5:15 pm AEST via zoom (please see your email for ZOOM details).

What we will do: Each fortnight we will continue our exploration of Sand Talk.

Schedule: Our time/space together will flow a little differently to the last gathering. We invite you to sit zazen before gathering online. This will help to provide a wide open space for our discussions.

3:20 – 3:50pm | Offline zazen in place
3:50 – 4:00pm | Online space opens (cup of tea welcome!)
4:00 – 5:10pm | Main Gathering
5:10 – 5:20pm | Closing & Notices
5:20 – 5:35pm | Informal social time.

See you Sunday!

()

Karen & Deborah
Study Group Hosts

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2020 Term 2 Black Lives Matter Online Zen Group Roshi Susan Murphy Sand Talk Talks Teachers

‘Coming from the side’

Talk #2 from Term 2 of our Online Zen Group for 2020. Click here for other talks in this series.

Teacher: Roshi Susan Murphy
28 June 2020

Click on the recording below to listen to this talk now. We will upload a transcription when it becomes available. ()

zen open circle · Coming from the side
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Sand Talk Study Group

Study Group #1

Porcupine

We will come together on Sunday 21st June 2020 from 4 – 5:30pm AEST for our inaugural study group.

In preparation we invite you to read or re-read the first chapter of ‘Sand Talk’ by Tyson Yunkaporta: Porcupine. Click here if you want to read an online copy of the first chapter.

We will use the questions below as a place to start our meandering together:

  • What resonates with you in this chapter?
  • What makes you feel uncomfortable?

If you have thoughts to share before Sunday we invite you to comment on this post.

If you have any questions about the Study Group along the way please email gassho@zenopencircle.org.au

()

Karen & Deborah.

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2020 Term 2 Black Lives Matter Covid-19 Online Zen Group Roshi Susan Murphy Sand Talk Talks Teachers

‘Save a ghost | So that we can breathe…’

Talk #1 from Term 2 of our Online Zen Group for 2020. Click here for other talks in this series.

Teacher: Roshi Susan Murphy
14 June 2020

Click on the recording below to listen to this talk now. We will upload a transcription when it becomes available. ()

zen open circle · Save a ghost | So that we can breathe…
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Black Lives Matter Sand Talk Study Group

Sand Talk Study Group

We are excited to introduce you to our new Zen Open Circle Study Group.

In the coming weeks we will be studying the book ‘Sand Talk’ by Tyson Yunkaporta. We will be gathering online fortnightly and hosting discussion here on Bright & Dark.

Registration is now open. Click here to join this study group.

When: 4-5:30pm AEST, Sundays fortnightly starting June 21st. Visit our calendar for further details.

Cost: Available to members for a dana contribution.

Our hosts will be Karen Fermin and Deborah Chadwick. Thank you to both for their generous offer to hold this space for our exploration.

Please contact us on gassho@zenopencircle with any questions.

()

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2020 Term 1 Covid-19 Eco-Dharma Online Zen Group Roshi Susan Murphy Talks Teachers

‘What the world abandons, the Way uses’

Talk #6 from Term 1 of our Online Zen Group for 2020. Click here for other talks in this series.

Teacher: Roshi Susan Murphy

Click on the recording below to listen to this talk now. We will upload a transcription when it becomes available. ()

zen open circle · 6. 'What the world abandons, the Way uses.'
Categories
Miscellaneous Poetry

Singularity

by ~ Marie Howe

   (after Stephen Hawking)

Do you sometimes want to wake up to the singularity
we once were?

so compact nobody
needed a bed, or food or money—

nobody hiding in the school bathroom
or home alone

pulling open the drawer
where the pills are kept.

For every atom belonging to me as good
Belongs to you.   Remember?
There was no   Nature.    No
 them.   No tests
to determine if the elephant
grieves her calf    or if

the coral reef feels pain. Trashed
oceans don’t speak English or Farsi or French;

would that we could wake up   to what we were
— when we were ocean    and before that
to when sky was earth, and animal was energy, and rock was
liquid and stars were space and space was not

at all — nothing

before we came to believe humans were so important
before this awful loneliness.

Can molecules recall it?
what once was?    before anything happened?

No I, no We, no one. No was
No verb      no noun
only a tiny tiny dot brimming with

is is is is is

All   everything   home

Read by Roshi Susan Murphy…