Insight Santa Cruz Newsletter
February 2018
ANNUAL PLEDGE DRIVE EXCEEDS ITS GOAL—THANK YOU!We did it—and more! We were hoping to raise $79,000during our annual fundraising campaign to support our new center—and thanks to the generosity of our sangha,we surpassed that goal by $10,818,making for a grand total of $89,818 from 119 pledges. Thank you all for your sincere offerings of direct donations, pledges and volunteering to support Insight Santa Cruz.
We expect to use most of this money for the rent and the modest expenses of keeping Insight Santa Cruz running.Anything above and beyond that will go toward supporting facility improvement and expandingprograms.None of this could happen without your continuing support and generous gifts. Because of all of our donors, ISC can continue to offer all programs to anyone interested in attending.We can't say enough how very grateful we are that you have given your pledge of dana for 2018.
Pictured below, the ISC Board celebrates the successful campaign. From left to right: Kara Haney, John Moir, Kevin Newhouse, Maggie Collins, Alex Reveles, Linda Kittle, Lorenia Parada, and Tim Morgan. Not pictured: Eve Eden, Yasmina Porter, and Curt Coleman.
THE COMPASSION BOOK AT KUAN YIN’S STATUE: We often end our sits with a metta (loving-kindness) practice, wishing ourselves and others well.In addition to focusing on metta phrases during meditation, you may also wish to express your compassion in writing. At the back of the meditation hall is a compassion book available for everyone. It’s on the table that holds the statue of the bodhisattva Kuan Yin (a bodhisattva is a being who puts others before themselves and who works for the benefit of all). You are invited to inscribe in the book any message you have: hope, forgiveness, well-wishes, kindness, compassion.
FEATURED ARTICLE:Facing My White Privilege by Tara Brach When Insight meditation teacher and author Tara Brach came to recognize her own white privilege, it revealed painful blind spots that changed her as a dharma teacher. Here is her story:
Until eight or nine years ago, I would have said that I was pretty conscious about race; I also would have assumed that Buddhist sanghas were welcoming to everyone. My father was an attorney who practiced a lot of civil rights law, and he had a very racially mixed group of friends, which was quite unusual at the time. In grammar school, I was one of five white kids in an otherwise African American school. I’ve also lived for extended periods of time as an outsider, including wearing religious garb—all-white clothing and a turban—for ten years. So I assumed that I was somewhat awake to these issues, but I got the rug pulled out from under me thanks to some friends of mine in the D.C. area who started letting me know what life was really like for people of color, beyond my bubble of experience.
One of them is a friend in a diversity-focused sangha who described driving around with her father when she was growing up. Periodically, he’d be pulled over by the police for nothing, just because he was a Black man. She described how painful it was to see the humiliation he felt every time she witnessed that happen, to know that he felt his dignity was taken away in her eyes. If that had happened to my father, if I had watched him be humiliated like that, it would have shaken my world as a young person.To continue reading, click HERE.
VOLUNTEERINGOur Sangha depends completely on volunteers to run our center. There are many ways to help. In particular, we invite anyone who is interested to help with opening/closing events (we will provide a brief training for you). Please click on the button below to view current volunteering opportunities.
VOICES FROM THE SANGHAWe always welcome your thoughts, suggestions, concerns, compliments, and ideas for Insight Santa Cruz. You can let us know through the online “Comment Box” found on our website’s homepage or the physical Comment Box in the entry area. Comment forms are available in both English and Spanish. For English click here and for Spanish click here.
HELP ISC WHILE BUYING OR SELLING A HOMEISC member Alice Tarail is a longtime local real estate broker with 20 years of experience in Santa Cruz County. If she helps you to either purchase or sell a home, she will donate 10 percent of any commission she earns to ISC. Alice can also refer you to a conscientious and highly qualified realtor anywhere in the U.S. In that case, Alice will serve as your consultant at no charge throughout the buying or selling process. Contact Alice Tarail at r 831-334-3328.