Introducing the Practice Circle
Many people come to the Secular Buddhist Association website with the same question: “Where can I find a place to practice?” Whether they live where there are no dharma centers at all, or the traditional practice centers available make them feel uncomfortable, they seek a place where they can share their practice with others without having to pretend that they believe in things they can’t.
Those of us who contribute to SBA’s online efforts have for some time considered whether we might be able to provide a practice opportunity online. The only way to find out is to try. So we invite you to participate in an experiment: the initiation of the Practice Circle, a community that will come together via video conference to support one another’s dharma practice.
Where and How
There is no prerequisite for joining the Practice Circle, other than your intention to share your practice with whoever shows up. This is not an easy thing, and will require a certain amount of courage on your part. We envision a very interactive experience that will invite you to fully engage with your own experience in the moment, and with the experience of everyone else in the community. The success of this experiment will depend on how willing each of us is to make that commitment.
Our focus will be on living the Four Noble Truths. We won’t spend much time discussing Buddhist doctrine, or chewing over karma and rebirth. We have lots of chances to do those things on the Secular Buddhist Facebook page and on the SBA website. In the Circle, we will try to fully know dukkha, to release craving and grasping, and by doing so experience the freedom to respond to our lives in a new way. Our formal practice together will always be intended to help us develop skills to transform the whole of our lives, for our own benefit and for the benefit of all beings.
For us to get together, we’ll rely on technology to bridge the physical distance between us. After a lot of testing, we’ve chosen Adobe Connect as our forum. Adobe Connect is free for participants, accommodates many participants well, and has features to help us move from whole-group practice to small group discussions and back again. You will need a web cam, a microphone, and ear buds or headphones to participate.
When
We intend to meet the second and fourth Sundays of each month, beginning October 14, at 8 pm Central time. We’ll ask you to RSVP ahead of time, so we can make it quick and easy for you to join us at the appointed hour. We’ll also let you know if there’s anything special (like paper and something to write with) that you should have ready when we meet. We’ll also use the Discussion section on the SBA site to talk about each session, both before and after.
What to Expect
We’ll begin each session with a period of lightly guided mindful meditation; so whatever you need for sitting or your preferred posture, please have it ready to go when you join in. After sitting for 15 minutes or so, the invitation will be to share an exercise. This might be a guided meditation of some kind, or a chance to observe some aspect of our experience in the moment. After the exercise, we’ll have a chance to discuss what arose for us; there might be a writing exercise to help us focus our conversation. We’ll sit again for a few minutes of quiet reflection, and end our time together about an hour after we began.
Rather than being a Teacher or a Leader, I prefer to think of myself as a custodian. My job is to keep this space open and to have something for us all to work on when we get together. Other than that, we share the same assignment: to be mindfully present for one another, and to respond to one another with kindness.
We’ll also invite some of the many wonderful friends of the SBA site to host practice sessions, each bringing their own unique experience and perspective to our shared practice.
The goal is more than just presenting a meditation session in an online format. The intention is to build a community. It may be a virtual sangha, but we hope it will become like any other community in that its foundation is a real sense of interdependence and commitment among its members. Perhaps we’ll discover that this meeting place presents some unique opportunities of its own. As with any other aspect of dharma practice, it invites your energy and your patience.
I’m excited to get this adventure started!
Our dharma sister Dana will contribute the technical instruction you need to join the Practice Circle. I hope to see you there.
Mark Knickelbine
Note: The first meeting of the Practice Circle on October 14 will be a technical session to ensure everyone can log in, and get video and sound issues sorted out. Assuming that goes smoothly, we’ll begin formal practice sessions on Sunday, October 28.
- How to Attend Our Virtual Meetings (Please read in advance of Practice Circle Meetings)
- Practice Circle Registration (Must register to attend)
- Practice Circle Forum (For member discussions)
- Hear Mark Knickelbine talk about the Practice Circle with Ted
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About the Author (Author Profile)
"Buddhism Without Beliefs" and "The End of Faith" led me to seek out a dharma practice without the religious trappings of Buddhism. I found it at a local health clinic, where I learned mindfulness in the manner of Jon Kabat-Zinn. I've continued to study texts from the Pali, Chan and Zen traditions, and I practice with a secular mindfulness group in Madison, Wisconsin. I'm a writer, editor, and political activist, and I have a masters in English, which qualifies me to pontificate on nearly any topic.Comments (12)
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- Operation Gratitude V – Day 3 - LymanReeddotCom | December 23, 2012
Great idea, but as I’m in Europe, that time doesn’t work for me at all.
Sorry, Kirkmc! We realized that we have a global audience and not everyone would find this time congenial. If we launch this successfully, we will certainly consider additional times — or, hopefully, our counterpart sites in the UK, Germany, New Zealand and Austrailia will consider launching efforts of their own.
I wish you success with this initiative. I live in the UK and hope that one day we may have a similar facility here
I would aim for additional times rather than the hope of several groups setting up. Critical mass is important in making something like this work. There is one online sangha that manages quite well with people all around the world.
You might well be right but I recall Stephen Batchelor saying in a talk here something along the lines that the size of sanghas wasn’t vital but the quality of the interactions was and could sustain a small group. It seems to echo my limited experience.
By the way which on-line sangha are you referring to?
Treeleaf: http://www.treeleaf.org
Mark, I just joined this site, and this is exactly what I was hoping to find. I too am an editor and writer with grad degrees, so I’ll appreciate the pontificating and lend my tongue as well as ear!
Until you are set up with other times/locations what ever it may be;
Will there be a recording or podcast so we can participate in the discussions?
May this be a flagship for other like minded communities
ShalOm
I would love to join in but the local meditation group I am custodian of meets from 7 to 8+ pm. I’m hoping you’ll reach the level where you have a second time/day.
_/\_ Michael
Greetings! As you can see, many of the comments here indicate that the time we’re offering Practice Circle doesn’t work for them. I also notice that this post continues to attract readers, so I assume there are others reading who may feel the same way. I am going to start a discussion under the Practice Circle Forum to get your input on this question: If we were to start an additional session of Practice Circle, what time or day of the week would work best for you? Those of you not in North America, please do me the kindness of translating your time preference at least into GMT to make it easier to cross reference.
mark’s poem:
http://www.panhala.net/archive/the_journey.html