Diving into Deep Resilience

Veteran Santa Barbara meditation leader Radhule Weininger’s Mindful Heart Programs has launched a new series for those who want to build their inner resilience via lecture, discussion, and connections with others and the natural world. 

The seven-step Deep Resilience program was catalyzed by the turbulent times we are living in, when many of us need more than basic self-care. Whether we are living with personal challenges, wanting to stay present and engaged with our wounded world, or are concerned about the health and well-being of future generations, the new program is designed to elevate our ability to cope with the things we cannot control.

Deep Resilience is meant to go beyond typical self-care practices to reduce stress in the moment and restore our energy when we are outside the stressful situation, Weininger explained in an email. 

“Self-care 1.0 is invaluable and, indeed, essential; but it is simply not enough given the tsunami of suffering so many of us are experiencing. We need ‘Self-care 2.0’ – deep resilience.”

The ongoing online program, which takes place every Wednesday night at 7 pm, began in mid-March, but enters a new phase starting April 2 when the first meeting of the month will be a sit spot check-in, followed by two weeks of lecture and discussion, before the fourth week offers meditation teaching and practice. 

“Deep resilience means realizing that we are indivisible and indispensable parts of a bigger ecosystem than our individual lives and that the quality of our life and the well-being of others depends on this,” reads the program description. “Deep resilience brings us into a sense of depth and meaning and fosters sustainable compassionate action. These days, where forces of divisiveness and fear appear at times to have the upper hand, deep resilience, which in its essence means remembering that we are all kin, and then acting on this, is deep resistance.”

Weininger is joined by four other teachers in leading the course, including her husband – palliative care and hospice physician and author Michael Kearney. The course covers one of the seven steps in each of the teaching sessions. Hybrid in-person/Zoom sessions are planned for the future, and recordings of previous sessions and additional materials are available on the website. Admission to the program, like nearly all of Mindful Heart’s offerings, is by donation. 

Visit www.mindfulheartprograms.org/deep-resilience

Truth Mandala for Troubled Times

Dharma teacher Deborah Eden Tull, who has conducted several workshops and retreats in Santa Barbara over the years, is hosting – on Sunday, March 30 – a donation-based community ritual in response to our increasing collective uncertainty. The Truth Mandala – part of Joanna Macy’s “Work that Reconnects” framework for personal and social change – is a ritual for honoring our grief, anxiety, anger, hope and love for the world, for those who feel called to come together in compassionate community.

“I’ve practiced this ritual for decades and believe in the power of coming together consciously to grieve, metabolize our feelings, and allow conscious response to arise from a place of healing, beyond reactivity,” Eden Tull writes on her website. “I feel more certain than ever about the power of practice and the medicine [that] meditation has to offer in these times in response to the deluge of bad news, chaos, and unpredictability happening in the U.S. and the world.”

The Truth Mandala provides a simple, respectful, whole group structure for owning and honoring our pain for the world. The practice emerged in 1990 at a large workshop near Frankfurt on the first anniversary of the reunification of East and West Germany. Macy had planned a different activity but noticed how the official reunification celebrations had triggered painful and unprocessed emotions in the workshop’s participants. Recognizing the importance of people having the chance to allow, express, and process their feelings without turning on one another, she abandoned her original plan and the Truth Mandala was born.

The roughly two-hour ritual creates a brave space for all to experience, witness and optionally express your feelings about the world, as well as your personal life. The 4:30-6:30 pm Zoom gathering has a suggested donation of $0-25. Register at https://tinyurl.com/Truth-Mandala

Eden Tull also offers a free weekly online drop-in meditation class called “Remembering the Already Awakened State” every Tuesday at 10 am. The class is to support presence, embodiment, and conscious community. Her annual summer retreat – Relational Mindfulness: A Path to Personal and Collective Awakening, which explores the nine principles and practices as a path for cultivating greater peace, understanding, joy, resilience, and freedom within ourselves and our world – takes place July 7-11 at Esalen Institute. 

Visit www.deborahedentull.com

Krishnamurti Center Update

The center in Ojai – dedicated to the research and teachings of the Indian philosopher, speaker, writer, and spiritual figure – is facing a defining moment in its decade-long preparations to expand its facilities. The aim has long been to create a space where serious inquiry and deep study of Krishnamurti’s teachings can flourish. The issue is that the center can currently accommodate only six overnight guests and lacks a dedicated space to serve meals, which can be an essential component of fostering meaningful dialogue and community.

Just as the center launched its capital campaign to fund the expansion, an unexpected opportunity arose; the possibility of purchasing the fully functioning five-acre Ojai Retreat Center, which borders 150 acres of open space owned by the Krishnamurti Foundation. While the property presents an immediate solution to most of the expansion needs (and handily bypasses the difficult process of new construction), the window to act may be closing as the property may be on the open market soon. 

The Foundation is seeking “visionary partners who recognize the enduring significance of Krishnamurti’s teachings” to help in the effort to raise $4.5 million to complete the purchase.  

Visit www.kfa.org