Let’s Mix It Up: Can You Pitch In?

Facilitators are Needed to Kick Off 4:45 Conversations

Mondays, September through December 2023

We truly all have the ability. Please see below, which explains the facilitator role a bit, and provides some suggested topics, so that newer members feel comfortable volunteering.
 
As you can see, all that is asked of you is that you pose one or two questions — really, just one to three minutes. Remember, we are not teaching each other : )

If interested, please email us and let us know. Many thanks in advance.

Facilitating Our 4:45 pm Conversations

Our sangha really broadened and deepened during the pandemic, and our 4:45 pm sharing has contributed to the growth of our community.  As we begin our next four months of sign-ups to facilitate these fifteen-minute sessions, we thought it might help to explain the facilitator role a bit so that newer members feel comfortable volunteering.
 
The purpose of the 15-minute sessions is to continue to build our dharma/meditation community.  With that in mind, facilitators just need to briefly introduce a topic/question to the group.  It shouldn’t take more than two or three minutes to do this. Questions about meditation practice, dharma topics from our readings, application of dharma to everyday life, challenges/successes with meditating, etc. provide focus to our sharing.
 
Following are some examples of the kinds of questions a facilitator might use to start the conversation.  They are suggestions from “Magnanimous Heart” by Narayan Liebenson.  Please feel free to use your own ideas/questions when you facilitate; these are merely meant to be illustrative of the types of questions that could be used.

• What is one way in which meditation has made a difference in your life?
• When there is thinking, how does it affect sensations and emotions?
• How do emotions affect thoughts?
• When you experience emotional turbulence, what do you do?
• What is the quality of your heart right now?
• What does love free of attachment look like?
• Does attachment really bring what the heart yearns for?
• How do you experience joy in your life on a daily basis?
• What is my relationship to pain right now?
• What common bonds do we share as man beings?
• What helps you be present with what is, rather than shutting down or dwelling in your thoughts?

A few moments of silence, after the facilitator opens the conversation, is not uncommon, given that we have just finished meditating for 40 minutes.  Just be patient; folks are pondering the question before they speak. 
 
Thanks for volunteering!