Welcome to the Building Beloved Community Sangha!
We are a spiritual community of mindfulness practitioners centered in Detroit and are rooted in the teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh and the Plum Village Community. Our Sangha centers Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) facilitators and participants and is inclusive of people from other marginalized groups, including people in the LGBTQIA+ community and people with disabilities, while welcoming people from all backgrounds and faith traditions.
We also meet monthly at various times for in-person walking meditation on Belle Isle, and online and at members’ homes for Days of Mindfulness.
We use the 5 Mindfulness Trainings as guidelines for how we communicate, primarily through using loving speech that waters seeds of compassion, understanding, and love.
We hope you will join us online and/or in person!
The Building Beloved Community Sangha Caregiving Council
Gatherings on the Horizon
Following are both regularly scheduled online gatherings and unique in person or hybrid events.
Sunday Evening Meditation and Dharma Sharing
7-8:30pm ET on Zoom
This begins with a 5-minute silent practice, a brief check in, a 20-minute guided and/or silent meditation, time for Dharma sharing, and offering the merit.
The last Sunday of the month is a hybrid meeting on Zoom and at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Detroit.
Monday Morning Meditation
7-7:30am ET on Zoom
This includes a chant and a 25-minute silent meditation.
Bimonthly BIPOC Build: Meditation for BIPOC
1st & 3rd Monday of each month @ 7-8pm
On Zoom and in Joe’s house (if anyone wants to join in person). This will be a relaxed practice space and is open to whatever forms of practice folks would like, including sitting, walking, Dharma sharing, and total relaxation.
Election Night Meditation
Nov 3rd @ 7:30-9 PM
Please join the Building Beloved Community Sangha for an election night offering. Rather than mindlessly refreshing returns or obsessively watching news coverage, we invite you to join us in a practice of collectively grounding ourselves in community, practice, and the Earth. Nic, Finn, Joe and Katie will co-facilitate.
The Other Shore Book Study
Sundays October 4th – November 8th, 6:00-6:45pm
In October and November Joe will be offering a book study on Thay’s book The Other Shore, which looks deeply into the Heart Sutra. Each session we will practice chanting the Heart Sutra together and sharing our reflections and insights from the book.
Sangha Field Trip to Friends’ Lake
November 21st
Friends’ Lake, Chelsea, MI, Hosted by Joy, including a kombucha and kefir water workshop led by Joy’s friend Rachel, deep relaxation, and wood-fired sauna!
Sangha
The Sangha is a community of people practicing together. It has the capacity to generate the energy of mindfulness (smṛti) and concentration (samādhi). When breathing or walking, we breathe and walk in such a way that we can generate more mindfulness and concentration. When we interact with a Sangha, a community that is practicing like that, we will recognize this energy right away. – Thich Nhat Hanh
Like a drop of water flowing towards the sea, it knows that it can hardly succeed alone. It could evaporate half-way, become a cloud, wander here and there and never reach the sea. But if that drop of water enters a river and allows the river to embrace and transform it, then for sure it will arrive at the sea. As practitioners we must allow the sangha to lead, embrace, and carry us, for us to succeed. – Thich Nhat Hanh
There are people who ask, “Where can we find the Buddha today?” That is very easy to answer. When you can find a sangha with the practice, with the capacity to generate mindfulness, concentration, and insight, then you have found the Dharma–and when you have found the Dharma, the Buddha is there. The Buddha is truly present in the Dharma and the Sangha. – Thich Nhat Hanh
We would graciously like to acknowledge that we live and practice on the lands of the Anashinaabe people, now known as metropolitan Detroit.