I notice that I have experiences of community in a number of ways. Not all experiences are positive. Some aspects of my community are large and other aspects are very small. Size often makes a difference in how I experience and relate.
I have a disturbing relationship with my largest community. In reccent years I am growing in my awareness that I am a linked part of the huge community of Homo Sapiens. I follow a tradition that holds a perspective of interbeing, of all entities being entwined and linked. For me, this has become more than a concept, more than a perspective. I have begun to experience what it means to be part of a species that has done great things and continues to do terrible things. I am currently aware that my species, the humans I am intimately linked to, has been engaged in doing terrible things to other humans.
I am increasingly aware that my species is currently engaged in doing terrible things to our fellow humans. As I allow myself to experience what that means, I have become increasingly weighed down by the reality. I live in Minneapolis, a community where that awareness takes hold of me daily. My community suffers at the hands of my fellow humans. That is a heavy thing to experience.
That same community has stepped forward with love, resistance and energy. This is also a community that holds deep respect nd support for what it means to be human. I experience a community that acts in a way that causes no harm. This too is my community, and it is an aspect that I prefer to embrace.
I also have the smaller community of Bryn Mawr in which I have lived for forty years. For decades, I have shared the lived experience of a few thousand people, struggling through many isssues and enjoying the benefits of a community that thrives and supports one another. I have joined many members of my community in my garden and shared the joy of gardening with many members who pass by.
I have a smaller community, a meditation group. This is a sangha whose name means community. This community consists of a couple dozen people who gather frequently to experience the common presence of one another. We listen to one another, we support one another’s efforts, we give hugs. We sometimes struggle with one another, we also share aspirations and joys.
I am also happy for a loose community of individuals who care for me and support me. These are men and women I can genuinely say that I love. We share our lives actively, we make room to sit with tea. We listen intensively and intentionally. We cascade into the presence of one another. We are attentive to the physical and immaterial aspects of one another. We step across the boundaries of our individuality. It is no surprise that this is the community that I experience freely and without burden. This community lives what it means to be linked and entwined.
Experiencing what it means to be part of the human community is burdensome and sometimes makes me sad. I also experience the richness of the community around me, especially those individuals who are closest to me. It gives me joy to enter more fully into the lives of all those who have chosen to act in caring, loving, human ways. These are the people I most easily recognize and accept as members of the human community.
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