Meditation Springfield IL

As recommended by Buddhist Coalition For Democracy .

"As liberation theologians, however, the starting point is the poor and the marginal, not a general “we.” By adopting this more specific standpoint, liberationists are not committing some metaphysical crime of dualism in defending a preferential option for the poor any more than a doctor who has a preferential option for treating someone with a severed leg over someone with a cold."

"This pointed attention is born of direct understanding that triaging suffering — and therefore attending first to material misery — is a requirement for a bodhisattva focused on ending dukkha (suffering) in the world."

"If the leg is used to ignore a cold or a cold the leg, the dharma (path) is lost.

As bodhisattvas, we can attend to the severed leg without losing empathy for the one with a cold. We can name catastrophic violence without exiling less severe forms of violence from our sense of concern. But the spiritual necessity of recognizing the latter should never lead us to negate acting to stop the enormous harm of the former."

"It is no small matter that while the Buddha never neglected the dukkha (suffering) associated with a life of protected indulgence, it was the lived, material suffering of the poor beyond the palace walls that drove him into a life of seeking the dharma. The scriptures are clear that the bodhisattva path is one of responding to the whole of interconnected suffering, yet some forms because of their dire immediacy must move us more urgently."

Toward a More Skillful Mode of Buddhist Political Speech "Knowing that so many are engaged in resisting the current violences and attacks on democracy in our nation," writes Gregory Snyder, "my hope is that our Buddhist communities will continue to work to develop a place that encourages our political voices."

"Every action, no matter how small, has consequences and can contribute to the well-being of the world."

🧘🏾 Interested in meditating but don't know where to start?
Here are some free resources (including apps/guided meditations, virtual gatherings, and in-person local opportunities!) – please add your own recommendations in the comments❣️

⏰ “Insight Timer” offers approximately 268,417 free meditations and is available via app or website:
https://insighttimer.com/guided-meditations

✌🏿 BlackFULLness app offers culturally rooted practices that restore peace, reduce stress, and reconnect us to joy. This is how we thrive - softly, boldly, and fully.
https://www.blackfullness.com/

💌 Tara Brach offers a library of guided meditations:
https://www.tarabrach.com/guided-meditations-archive/page/39/?et_blog

🖥️ Here are a couple of virtual gathering options:
🫂 Local: Prairie Zen Center out of Champaign, IL (weekday and Sunday mornings and Thursday evenings):
http://www.prairiezen.org/text/weekly_practice_sessions.htm

🌍 National: Buddhist Coalition for Democracy (Wednesdays at lunchtime):
https://www.buddhistcoalitionfordemocracy.org/series/bcd-weekly-meditation-group/

👣 All are welcome!
Local in-person options include:
The Buddhist Temple off W. Jefferson in Springfield -- free and available by appointment with a monk on-site who offers instruction in both walking and seated silent meditation:
https://chanmyayusa.org/
(217) 726-9601

🚶🏾‍♀️ Saturday morning Zen at the Universalist Unitarian congregation in Springfield, starting at 8am.
https://prairiezen.org/Affiliates.html

List of Top Guided Meditations 267,200 Guided Meditations, Talks and Music Tracks. Browse the most popular and newest tracks from the largest collection of free guided meditations online. Listen and Explore now for free.

The book that finally told me it was okay to be a mess

I picked up Start Where You Are on a day when everything felt hard. You know those days when you’ve snapped at someone you love, avoided a difficult conversation, and then spent the evening scrolling through social media feeling like everyone else has life figured out except you.

I expected a book about compassion to make me feel calm and enlightened. Instead, Pema Chödrön did something far better: she looked at my chaos, my impatience, my secret fears, and she said, “Good. Start there.”

This isn’t a book about fixing yourself or ascending to some perfect, zen-like state. It’s a gentle, radical invitation to stop running away from your own life. Pema teaches that the very things we hate about ourselves our jealousy, our anxiety, our short temper are actually our greatest teachers. She calls them “raw material for awakening.”

What made me weep (in a good way) was her chapter on “No Such Thing as a True Story.” She explains how our brains constantly craft dramatic narratives about why we’re unlovable or why someone wronged us. And then she whispers that we don’t have to believe those stories. Reading that felt like someone unclenching a fist I didn’t know I’d been holding for thirty years.

The most relatable part? Pema doesn’t demand you meditate for an hour a day or move to a monastery. She asks you to simply pause the next time you feel angry or sad, and breathe. That’s it. Right where you are in the grocery line, in traffic, in the middle of an argument. She gives you permission to be a beginner, to fall down, and to start again. And again. And again.

If you’re tired of pretending you have it all together, if you’re exhausted from trying to outrun your own difficult emotions, read this book. It’s like a warm cup of tea from a wise, laughing friend who has seen it all and still believes in your goodness.

Start Where You Are won’t change you overnight. But it will change the way you talk to yourself tomorrow morning and sometimes, that small shift is everything.

Resources from Champaign, IL!

Including:
🧘🏽 - Intro to meditation (~24pg booklet)
⏺️ - Audio recordings!
⏳ - "Insight Timer" App recommendation
📖 - Brief Book List
🔗 - Study/article Links
🏡 - Selected retreat centers

Resources — The Prairie Sangha of Urbana-Champaign Introduction to Insight Meditation (1988) is a short guide written by Ajahn Sucitto, a Theravada Buddhist monk ordained in the Thai Forest Tradition. Born in England, Ajahn Sucitto served as the abbot of Cittaviveka, Chithurst Buddhist Monastery, from 1992 to 2014. This booklet provides a clear and...

Full-time Center manager positions are now open at the Illinois Vipassana Center (Dhamma Pakasa).

The general role of a center manager is to organize the maintenance of the center and support servers throughout their activities at the center. This can take the form of administrative support or hands-on instruction. In this varied and constantly changing role, it is always the goal of managers to apply the principles of our Vipassana practice and be a role model for newer servers in approaching problems with ingenuity and energy and above all, equanimity. It is important that candidates for center manager be well established in their practice and have experience in serving courses.

The Trust would like potential center managers to make a commitment of six months to a year. In some cases, center managers may be allowed to extend their service for up to one more additional year. Duties will involve close coordination with the Trust Committees about the day-to-day operation of the center and needed improvements. It will be helpful if prospective center managers have their own transportation for off-duty periods. Serious meditators have found that service given in the center manager role quickly deepens their practice, preparing them for longer courses, and provides a thorough understanding of how centers and trusts operate.

Long-term servers are also needed for in-course and between-course service. Long-term servers can stay and serve at the Center continuously for a few weeks to a few months, or they may come for shorter periods on a recurring basis. This can be ideal for students who live closer to the Center and can commute.

If you are interested in applying or learning more, please send an email to [email protected]. Please also spread the word to other old students you know who may be interested in this opportunity.

We welcome inquiries from anyone who has completed at least one 10-Day course in the tradition as taught by S. N. Goenka. If you are interested in applying or learning more, please send an email to [email protected].