In this update received from Roshi Joan Halifax, she discusses the changes which have been made at Upaya Institute and Zen Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico during the 2020 global pandemic. In March, the Center began offering their resources by donation only so that more people could participate. The online programming will be continued into the foreseeable future. A list of upcoming events can be found here: Online Learning with Upaya
Dr. Joan Halifax is a master teacher, pioneer in end-of-life care, and author of Being with Dying: Cultivating Compassion and Fearlessness in the Presence of Death (2009). She works with dying people and their families and teaches health care professionals and family caregivers the psycho-social, ethical and spiritual aspects of care of the dying. More information about her far-reaching work can be found on our Influencers page, on the Upaya website, and in the update below.
| Dear Friends,
As summer bends toward fall, my thoughts turn toward the many who are facing unimaginable challenges from illness, economic privation, loneliness, deeper marginalization, and loss. The global pandemic, squared with racist violence, political churn and the climate catastrophe, has made it clear to many of us how deeply interconnected we are and how our actions now will affect the lives of so many for generations to come. With all this, I keep saying to myself: we have our work cut out for us. But we also have to meet that work with clarity, strength, and love. We at Upaya are doing whatever we can to extend the dharma and the learning and practice resources we have to an ever-widening international community of clinicians, contemplatives and social activists. We made a choice in early March to offer our learning and practice resources to the wider world by donation only, thus giving up our livelihood and encountering an enormous financial loss. This risky choice, however, made it possible for thousands of people (including many of you) to be with us in our retreats, sesshins, trainings, and socially engaged programs. On behalf of the Upaya community, I thank you with all my heart for joining us. We wanted to let you know that Upaya will continue with intensive and important online programming for the foreseeable future. We cannot open our temple to the public until it is safe for you and for us. In the meantime, our resident community continues with Upaya’s daily practice and retreat schedule, which you can join online. We also cook food for the unsheltered in Santa Fe, do online council and meditation groups at the recovery centers in our city, care safely for the elderly, do political organizing around voter registration, support our Nepali Nomads Clinic team in Nepal, support historical restoration work in Humla, Nepal, and offer exceptional programs on socially engaged and traditional Buddhism.
We have also gone through a significant restructuring of Upaya in terms of staff and economics in order to survive. Your donations make it possible for us to keep our virtual temple doors open. If you have not been able to donate and wish to, please know that every donation gives us a little more time to extend and deepen our reach: Donate here. Also know that your free registration for our programs will give you access to extraordinary resources, including the zoom videos of all the sessions, readings, other video links, and more. I truly encourage you to access this treasure house of learning and practice here: Online Learning with Upaya Our resident, staff, board, and support community want to express our deepest gratitude for your kindness toward and participation with Upaya. We at Upaya urge you to keep safe in this coming time, and as Dogen wrote; give life to life. Let us meet this present moment with clarity, strength, and love. Rev. Joan Jiko Halifax
Posted by: Susan Troyer
|
