Ikigai & practice groups

Date & time: Feb 17, 2018, 2 PM to 5 PM (Followed by potluck dinner)

Location: Imtiaz-Kritee home, South Boulder (Please RSVP by emailing us for address & other details)

Cost: No fixed price. Donations welcome!

In the Buddhist perspective, our world, all species, people from all backgrounds and all things are really our own larger bodies. What do we uniquely love and have experience in that can serve our personal and larger body in a way that aligns with the three pillars of sanity?

We have been discussing ways to deepen our engagement with some issues as opposed to moving to a new topic each month. At this gathering we will discuss how should we create small “practice circles” which will help us deepen our engagement with all three pillars of Islands of Sanity and make us a true community. We have identified that a crucial basis of these practice circles should be what is called Ikigai is Japanese: it means “Reason of being” and is known to be at the interface of what we love, what we are skilled at, what the world needs and what we need to sustain ourselves. Through meditation, contemplation, journal-writing and small group discussions, we will try to uncover what are the elements of our Ikigai. We will also ask how, with support of community members sharing similar Ikigai, can identification of our Ikigai lead to creation of practice group(s) focused on a specific (and hopefully local) “third pillar” issue(s) such as fracking, racism, housing crisis, nuclear arsenal, patriarchy, community resilience, contemplative media, personal lifestyles/footprints and local economies.

Please come help us envision how our community evolves from here! We welcome your ideas and experience. Please circulate: we love participation of new members!

We encourage everyone to arrive by 1:50 so that we can start on time. Please bring your journal and something to write with. Please plan to stay for the entire meeting or consider being an observer!

Tentative agenda
2:00   Welcome and meditation
2:10   Ikigai & three pillars guided contemplation
2:45   Journaling & small group discussion
3:20   Short break
3:30   Harvest from small groups
3:55   Common elements of practice groups
4:10   Examples from steering committee members
4:30   Next steps
4:55   Closure and Dedication