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@how, you seem to have the benefit of experience here and I think I'm going to heed your advice. I'll mention it to the group and see what they want to do, but I plan on strongly recommending that we wait and see if becoming official seems necessary.
@genkaku, that's definitely a consideration, and it would open the group up to more people.
Either way, let us know what you decide. Keep us in the loop of how the group is going. Wow....from what you say...I guess that is growing!
We just recently decided to extend our meetings to get in a little deeper Dharma discussions. The core group is still 3-4 of us and our visitors usually leave after 1 or 2 visits and don't come back. What are you guys doing over there? Probably serving good snacks, lolololol .....I'll talk to @riverflow and see what he's doing to scare everyone off....
No snacks, actually! I should probably get on that...what kind of snack says "meditation"?
We have about six people that show up at least once a week, and two that come to every single meeting. Someone mentioned that I would see regulars that just always come and make no big deal of it and others that will always promise to be there but rarely, if ever, show up. I've definitely seen that happen, with the addition of people who show up once and decide it's not for them and people that come sporadically.
I doubt that I'm doing anything special: intros, a little story/anecdote, posture, a bitty guided meditation, Q&A, and a ten-minute meditation.
What kind of community are you catering to, @Vastmind? I'd be willing to bet that the fact that my group is situated on a college campus has a major influence on the number of attendees.
Beyond a certain size, you will have to choose between being an active participant in running the meditation and being the administrator running the program. You won't have time to live in both worlds. This is not an unfortunate problem, it's a tremendous opportunity. If you get growth, you expand the message. If you're the administrator, you're the one growing the program. Way cool.
We have about six people that show up at least once a week, and two that come to every single meeting. Someone mentioned that I would see regulars that just always come and make no big deal of it and others that will always promise to be there but rarely, if ever, show up. I've definitely seen that happen, with the addition of people who show up once and decide it's not for them and people that come sporadically.
That's pretty much how it is for me and @Vastmind ... Eventually you'll get more that will stick around and be more regular. In our Memphis group, for a long time it was just me and the facilitator (a lot of the original members of this sangha had either moved away or died, so it was like starting all over again). Over time we've gotten to a total of five regulars (including the facilitator), with the occasional curious person or two who rarely visits more than once.
Put up a website and/or (a public) Facebook page. It doesn't have to be anything fancy:
Structurally, what you're doing sounds good. Keep it simple and light and focused on meditation. Don't get into advanced theoretical discussions or talks about emptiness, anatta, etc. Discussion should be in more experiential terms, how it relates to one's own personal practice (this is emphasized a great deal at the local monastery also).
We do have a a little facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/groups/esumeditation/ if you're interested), which seems to fulfill its purpose. And we definitely focus on meditation and more practical discussion (my back hurt, I was thinking about homework a lot, etc).
Also, I've taken everyone's advice from the last time I posed a question; we decided against becoming "official" (though we lost funding for improving the space we use). We've also started having other people lead sessions; I'm now doing three a week and two other people are doing two each. We've developed a nice, cohesive group of like-minded people.
I do have a question, though: I usually do sort of a basic guided meditation, but nearly everyone that comes now is a regular attendee. I don't want to bore anybody...does anyone here have any suggestions? Should I dabble in other types of meditation? I did loving kindness one day, and everyone seemed to enjoy that. Thoughts?
I'd start doing silent sitting meditation. We do 30 minutes, but you could also break it up with doing silent walking meditation too (something we're looking into doing). Or you could begin with doing a guided meditation initially for the first few minutes and then sit silently-- kind of wade your way into silent meditation...
Sounds like it's going pretty smooth....glad to hear it! ......
BTW, about the snacks, hahaha, ....We are planning a tea ceremony here soon....prob Nov....... We'll let you know how it goes! My 9 yr old daughter and I will be making tea cookies...
Perhaps each person -- from week to week or whatever the schedule is -- could take a turn and bring some brief encouragement they had read ... and then read it aloud at the beginning of the evening. Not some endless and arcane sutra/sutta ... just some small encouragement (no more than two paragraphs and preferably one) to offer one point of view. Then sit.
@misterCope - this is good to read. The noisy world needs silence.
My opinion is that t might be best to avoid becoming 'official' in that it demands the creation of a vertical hierarchy and also demands a financial contribution, bringing the practice into the marketplace. Nothing is more likely to stifle the creative action of Sunyatta than the straightjacket of institutionalisation.
Among your Muslim friends, you may find a Sufi or two (if you're lucky). The Sufi way includes meditation so that you may want to include the occasional teaching session where different traditions share their own way of meditation. You may even want to seek out a Christian with experience of contemplation!
In my own experience of assisting people with meditation, I have found that exposure to different methods greatly enriches the practice. And, on an entirely personal note, I know that I would have a far poorer practice (if any at all) had I not been instructed in the Ignatian Exercises, although that may be a step too far for some.
May you and all who join you gain fruit and shared benefit from this practice.
Comments
@genkaku, that's definitely a consideration, and it would open the group up to more people.
of how the group is going. Wow....from what you say...I guess that is
growing!
We just recently decided to extend our
meetings to get in a little deeper Dharma discussions. The
core group is still 3-4 of us and our
visitors usually leave after 1 or 2 visits and don't come back.
What are you guys doing over there? Probably serving good
snacks, lolololol
.....I'll talk to @riverflow and see what he's doing to scare everyone
off....
We have about six people that show up at least once a week, and two that come to every single meeting. Someone mentioned that I would see regulars that just always come and make no big deal of it and others that will always promise to be there but rarely, if ever, show up. I've definitely seen that happen, with the addition of people who show up once and decide it's not for them and people that come sporadically.
I doubt that I'm doing anything special: intros, a little story/anecdote, posture, a bitty guided meditation, Q&A, and a ten-minute meditation.
What kind of community are you catering to, @Vastmind? I'd be willing to bet that the fact that my group is situated on a college campus has a major influence on the number of attendees.
Put up a website and/or (a public) Facebook page. It doesn't have to be anything fancy:
http://magnoliasangha.wordpress.com/
https://www.facebook.com/MagnoliaSangha
Structurally, what you're doing sounds good. Keep it simple and light and focused on meditation. Don't get into advanced theoretical discussions or talks about emptiness, anatta, etc. Discussion should be in more experiential terms, how it relates to one's own personal practice (this is emphasized a great deal at the local monastery also).
:thumbsup:
We do have a a little facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/groups/esumeditation/ if you're interested), which seems to fulfill its purpose. And we definitely focus on meditation and more practical discussion (my back hurt, I was thinking about homework a lot, etc).
Also, I've taken everyone's advice from the last time I posed a question; we decided against becoming "official" (though we lost funding for improving the space we use). We've also started having other people lead sessions; I'm now doing three a week and two other people are doing two each. We've developed a nice, cohesive group of like-minded people.
I do have a question, though: I usually do sort of a basic guided meditation, but nearly everyone that comes now is a regular attendee. I don't want to bore anybody...does anyone here have any suggestions? Should I dabble in other types of meditation? I did loving kindness one day, and everyone seemed to enjoy that. Thoughts?
As always, thank you!
BTW, about the snacks, hahaha, ....We are planning a tea ceremony here
soon....prob Nov....... We'll let you know how it goes!
My 9 yr old daughter and I will be making tea cookies...
Just thinking out loud.
My opinion is that t might be best to avoid becoming 'official' in that it demands the creation of a vertical hierarchy and also demands a financial contribution, bringing the practice into the marketplace. Nothing is more likely to stifle the creative action of Sunyatta than the straightjacket of institutionalisation.
Among your Muslim friends, you may find a Sufi or two (if you're lucky). The Sufi way includes meditation so that you may want to include the occasional teaching session where different traditions share their own way of meditation. You may even want to seek out a Christian with experience of contemplation!
In my own experience of assisting people with meditation, I have found that exposure to different methods greatly enriches the practice. And, on an entirely personal note, I know that I would have a far poorer practice (if any at all) had I not been instructed in the Ignatian Exercises, although that may be a step too far for some.
May you and all who join you gain fruit and shared benefit from this practice.