Interconnections & Interconnectivity

Conversations Concerning Interconnections
Three-Part Workshop led by Kimberley Snow
August 11, 18, 25
1524 Anacapa Street
Benefit for Odiyana Institute

Dear Workshop Participants and Other Friends,

Thank you for your interest in this workshop. I'm very much looking forward to seeing old friends and making new ones.

Before the first meeting, please read the top two selections below. Browse the others as you please.

1. Interdependence & Interbeing

http://sbdharmacircle.net/Buddhism/Interdependence.html

2. We will be using the Karmapa's book Interconnected throughout the workshops, quoting from it often. Buying the book is not a requirement although you may wish to do so. For starters, please go to the book's link below on Amazon, click on "Look Inside" on top of the image of the book. The preface and the first chapter are included and will give an overview of the subject.

https://www.amazon.com/Interconnected-Embracing-Life-Global-Society/dp/1614295212/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1532021002&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=interconnection+karmapa

Optional Links below. Please bring excerpts, questions or comments to be discussed in the group.

ARTICLES & LINKS:

More than half your body is not human (short article)

By James Gallagher

Presenter, The Second Genome, BBC Radio

https://www.bbc.com/news/health-43674270

Dalai Lama on Co-Dependent Arising

Listen to TED Radio Hour Podcasts on Networks:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/ted-radio-hour/id523121474?mt=2

Please join us in person for all three meetings, if possible. If not, please feel free to attend whenever you can. Return to this site to keep up with the readings and links. If you have not registered, please do so by emailing odiyanainsb@gmail.com.

Best,

Kimberley for Odiyana Institute

Opening Heart and Mind

Our era of connectivity poses particular challenges to keeping our heart and mind open. We are exposed to so many images and reports of violence and misery that we feel as if we ourselves are being bombarded. It is a common experience when watching the news on the TV or computer screen to feel that all the suffering we see is being transmitted to us, making us suffer ourselves. Our response is often to shut down. Thinking, “I can’t take any more suffering. I need to protect my own happiness,” we change to another channel or webpage. But the suffering in the world is still out there, and by turning away from it, we are not truly protecting ourselves. On the contrary, we are harming ourselves, because we are damaging immeasurably valuable resources within us, resources that we urgently need to protect in order to live well in an interdependent world. The damage is not done by the news of suffering. The real damage is done by our own hardening of heart to that suffering. We harm ourselves when we close ourselves off from others. This makes it especially important that we actively work to keep our mind and heart open for our own sake and for the benefit of others.

Interconnected: Embracing Life in Our Global Society
Ogyen Trinley Dorje Karmapa