Jean Haley Leading Two Events this Weekend: Friday 7pm Full Moon Gathering (Vesak!) + Sunday 10am "Living with Wise Intention"
Dear Community,
This weekend Jean Haley will be leading two events at Minneapolis Insight! Registration and Zoom information for both events available here.
Friday 7pm: Full Moon Gathering (Vesak!)
This Friday, May 5th at 12:34 p.m., we will once again experience the full moon. This moon is known in North America as the Flower Moon, a term that originated with the Algonquin -speaking people.
The May full moon also marks the most important holiday in the Buddhist calendar, Vesak. On Vesak, Buddhists around the world gather to commemorate the birth, enlightenment, and death of the Buddha -- all three of which are said to have happened on the same day, many years apart.
Vesak includes engaging in activities meant to bring happiness to the old, disabled, and sick and refraining from killing of any kind. In Buddhist countries such as Sri Lanka and Thailand, devotees participate in a ceremony called life release where thousands of birds, insects and animals are released and given freedom from captivity and torture.
Regardless of whether we consider ourselves Buddhist, every full moon is an invitation to begin again – to look at what we have been growing in our hearts and minds and weed out what no longer serving us.
Please join us this Friday from 7-8:30 pm for an exploration of what we would like to cultivate in this time of growth and renewal.
Sunday 10am: Exploring "Living with Wise Intention"
Wise or “right” intention, the second factor in the Noble (or “ennobling”) Eightfold Path, is what Phllip Moffitt calls “the bridge between understanding and action.” Once we understand the causes of suffering, it is our intention that determines whether we act in ways that are harmful or beneficial to ourselves and others.
Traditionally, wise intention is described as living a life based on renunciation, good-will, and harmlessness. As Alex Meyers pointed out last week in his reflection on the parami of renunciation, living a life according to these principles is a choice, not a command, that each of us makes repeatedly every day. We may forget, or do it imperfectly, but, fundamentally, we know where we stand.
This week, please consider what “wise intention” means to you. Do the principles of renunciation, good-will, and harmlessness resonate with you or are there others on which you ground your actions? What distracts you from living according to your intentions? What supports you? As we face a very uncertain future, on what do you rely?
With metta (loving-kindness),
Minneapolis Insight
