digestation

a weekly digest of what miriam is reading/studying/teaching

5 MIN READ

A note

This week began with war.

I am pausing just to feel into the impact of writing those words.

They sear my heart.

This whole week, I’ve been considering what my role is in this time. Being both an activist and a spiritual teacher is a well-known seeming-contradiction for me. Finally, toward the end of the week, a Buddhist friend helped me remember both the absolute truth (all beings are good) and the relative truth (or truths – there are zillions of them). When the social “choices” for spiritual leaders are either to share one very strong opinion and demand that others do or they are spiritually bypassing, or to hold space for all of the views and think anyone who holds one view is being divisive, I choose neither.

I see my role as a teacher/leader in groups is to hold enough absolute compassionate space for all of the relative truths, while also being clear about my own relative truth, because, I do, in fact, have nuanced political opinions, but they aren’t always what’s needed.

I hope you are finding the resources you need to be supported, get clarity on what is happening, and remembering to rest and play. In particular, I’ve been taking refuge in nature, and feeling the earth holding us all.

I am sending love to you all and praying you and yours are safe.

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My weekly digest

I am taking refuge in the podcast Spirit Underground, put out by Lama Rod Owens (one of my teachers) and Spring Washam. It talks about the newer kind of abolitionism, and specifically, “spiritual abolitionism”.

Lama Rod has an excellent book from a couple years back called Love and Rage, in case you haven’t read it, and has a new book coming out at end of October called The New Saints (both books are here). He is also one of my teachers. Spring Washam has a lovely dharma book called A Fierce Heart from a few years back and a newer book called The Spirit of Harriet Tubman out earlier this year (both of her books here).

Another podcast Dylan and I have been listening to over time is Witch, put out on BBC Sounds. It’s a good introduction to both the history of naming and being “witch”.

If you are looking for a wonderful, deep, rich, and powerful fiction podcast, this community helped grow the writing for one called Eliza: A Robot Story by Emma Hickman. Eliza just turned one year old!

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Other joys from this week:

Every Sunday morning that I don’t teach, I attend a Metta (Maitri/Loving-Kindness) practice with my friend, teacher, and colleague Ekta Hattangady. You can find more about Ekta’s offerings here on their Instagram page. Ekta is lively, powerful, and gives really juicy dharma talks before we do a brief practice together, for a total of a half hour.

​A woman named Vanessa runs a lovely Substack called “Goldenrod Chronicles” and a community called “Make Time.” Make Time used to meet one Sunday a month, for time to create together at Vanessa’s farm in Beloit, Wisconsin. The regular live gatherings are no more, but Vanessa still posts a Substack and sends out monthly playful gifts to her supporters. This month’s gift were a couple of “No Time” cards, where you could punch out or cross off times when you said “no” where you wouldn’t have normally. I got the card early in the week and I exercised it immediately, saying an unexpected, healthy “no” to three things in a row:

I ended the week with an annual occurrence at Art Lit Lab in Madison called the MidwestVideo Poetry Fest. This eclectic and surprising event is a treat each year, and there’s a second one this evening if you are interested and in Madison. One of our community, Dana Maya, who is a big part of the Spontaneous Writing Booth Collective, did a live poetry reading to improvisational video. It was delicious.

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Play as writing theme:

Our theme this week in the writing groups was “Play” and it was a much needed antidote for these times. Themes that arose included the juxtaposition between play as adults and play as children (including one mama writing about how she played at being a mother as a child, versus how it actually is), the need for play as in slack/ease (“play in the line”), those of us who didn’t or couldn’t play much as kids, and how tricky it can be to play as adults. As is often the case with prompts about delight and joy, the shadow sides emerged as well, and we held those with space and care.

Overall, of course, the theme of play was interspersed with survival, violence, vulnerability, and war.

This is one of the images I made in response to the prompt:

It says “when play knocks I just have to open the door (easier said than done, at times. but simple, at least.)

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Closing

Thank you for reading this week’s Digestation.

May you feel how you are held by the earth, just as all of us are.

May those who are suffering most in this moment receive the care and support they need.

May all beings be free.

Love,

Miriam

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Where else to find me online?

My Mighty Network, the best spot to follow me, interact with my community and me (including a spot to discuss these digests!)

​Goodreads – I post about every book I read (which is a lot) with reviews and ratings

​Instagram – My “politics” in the stories and Miksang Photography in the posts

​Facebook – Political and personal posts and images

​Karuna Training You Tube channel – find video recordings of offerings I’ve made

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*My previous blogs:

​Insidespace, my personal and teaching blog of seventeen years, last post last year.

​memoirmind, a blog I kept for five years about reading and writing memoir and the intersection of Buddhist teachings - last post was five years ago.

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Other places you can read me:

​Karuna Training blog​

Two books on Miksang Contemplative Photography with John McQuade:

​Heart of Photography​

​Looking and Seeing​

Essays published:

​Illusion of Control via Tendon Magazine​

​Speaking Grief via Isele Magazine​

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