First Awakin Circle In Berkeley
ServiceSpace
--Thuy Nguyen
3 minute read
Sep 22, 2014

 

First Awakin Circle in BerkeleyThis past Friday, we hosted our first Awakin meditation at BCA. It was, in a word, love. I attended my first circle last year in Santa Clara, at the home that began these meditations eighteen years ago. It was a deeply healing experience to sit in silence with 70 others, engage in deep discussion and reflection and then to receive a warm home-cooked meal. My heart expanded tenfold. Aside from all the generosity and love, I was struck by how smoothly everything transpired. 70 people and everything’s like clockwork. How, I wondered, does that happen? How is it that with very little direction, 70 people reflected and shared in the allotted time of an hour? How do 70 people get fed, plates washed and moved through without a sound in another hour? Even with the helpers that I saw involved, the seamlessness of the evening was remarkable.

Well, last Friday, I understood the answer to my inquiries when I hosted my first Awakin Circle. Everything flows through the magic of love. There were eleven of us. We sat silently in meditation for an hour and then gathered to share our reflections on that week's reading. The reading was “96 Words for Love” by Robert Johnson. Everyone shared naturally and intimately their reflections on language and emotions, personal stories, understandings and thoughts. We shared our native languages with one another: Russian, Sanskrit, Vietnamese, Spanish, Mandarin, Hebrew and English. We talked about the meaning of love in our lives. What was so moving for me was the depth and expression of each person's reflections, a gift that expanded my own understanding of love. Pei reflected that for her, the word Love is too small. “Everything is love!”, she exclaimed. There is nothing that is not love. Nandu shared that he felt the circle itself was an expression of love, a love that has extended from a home in Santa Clara eighteen years prior. I shared a small story about a gesture of love by my estranged father, who, I felt, told me he loved me by holding my hand just a second longer when I reached out to shake his hand. And then slowly I began to see the unspoken gestures of love everywhere around me. Just like Pei said. I saw it in the deep listening and sharing. I saw it in the meditation cushions that were gifted us. I saw it in the home cooked soup that was brought to us by Paul, who couldn't be there but wanted to help out. I saw it in the way Vita so deftly attended to the logistical details. I saw it in the way people gratefully received the food and offered to help wash dishes. I heard it in the sincere words that people spoke and in the beautiful bamboo flute that Vlad brought and played. I felt it in the warm hug that Sandra gave upon coming and going. I saw and heard it all around me, even beyond the walls of the clinic. The force of love was moving the universe. And then I understood deeply what was happening with these Awakin Circles.

It is not that we are creating anything. It is merely that we've come together in silence and mindfulness to acknowledge what is always there and has always been there: Love. I don't know if we need 96 words for it. But maybe just a little more help in recognizing and remembering what is before our very eyes and in our every breath. My sincere gratitude to everyone that shared in our first circle and reminded me of the abundance of love around me: Elizabeth, Min, Aline, Vlad, Nicki, Nandu, Sandra, Angela, Vita, Pei. We are fish, swimming in an ocean of love. There is no need to thirst.

 

Posted by Thuy Nguyen on Sep 22, 2014


4 Past Reflections