This October, Sangha will hold the 15th Annual Golden Gate Bridge Walk, 15 years of Sangha participation in southern Africa. Wow!
Milestones often mirror change that goes unnoticed day to day. As we put together the campaign for this Bridge Walk season, I remembered early conversations with the Guide about the project.
I would begin to sketch out, “Okay, so if we are going to do that then we will need to do this and then this and then after that we will need to put this in place and then…”
“No,” she would reply patiently, “we don’t actually know yet. We’ll do this and then see.” I confess there were countless times I would hear an internal rejoinder along the lines of “This will never work,” or “But how can we do X if we don’t even know…” But, over time, the evidence mounted; it ALWAYS worked.
It seems perfect that we celebrate our Ruby Anniversary (see the official launch page for the season!) in the year of Anjali: Emptying Your Teacup. One of the greatest offerings I have received from the work of the Project is learning that Life fills an empty teacup. It is no wonder conditioned mind works hard to convince us we must “prepare” and “plan” and “think it through.” It turns out this is mere distraction from the elegant simplicity of what actually works.
The conditioned process works to keep us anxious and busy, stressed, confused, overwhelmed—it keeps us suffering. When we cultivate the courage to empty out “my” ideas of how it “should” go, or “ought to be,” to let go what we “know” or the “experts” say (lots of quote marks when we are outlining the world of conditioned mind!), we are freed up to delight in the process. It can sometimes feel like we are all just along for the ride! There are certainly thousands of hours of amazing work that have gone into where the Project is today (mostly on the part of the 37 dedicated cooperative members in Kantolomba), but it seems the magic of the transformation stems from the willingness of each individual to be that empty teacup, to be ready to be filled with whatever is needed, to respond to the vision Life unfolds for us. How lucky we are to be invited into meaningful work that guides us in a process of letting go of suffering!
We hope you will join us during this Bridge Walk season, in whatever way you can, in celebrating the joyful ride!
In Gassho
Jen