Common Bread

Release Stress & Energize
Thursday, March 15, Longhouse 5 PM

After Potluck we will practice elegantly simple techniques for energizing and stress release to prepare for final projects and eval week.

What Is Common Bread?

* A Still Point in your Turning World
     * A Crossroad of Spiritual Paths
* Guest Speakers from Diverse Wisdom Traditions
     * Good Food and Friendship
* A Trusting Space to Share Your Journey
     * Song, Poetry, Meditation, and sometimes...
* We Dance!

Common Bread is a crossroad of the spiritual paths, Eastern and Western, ancient and modern, and a contemplative space for The Evergreen State College community.

We meet weekly in the Longhouse for potluck dinner, fellowship, wisdom and meditation, often with a guest speaker. We honor each person's unique journey and welcome all sincere faith traditions, as well as those seekers who have no traditional faith. In our circle, there's a place for you.

Explore connections between spirituality and healing, social justice, community-building, art and peace-making. In this trusting space, we invite you to meet your Self in the Other.

What Students Say About Common Bread: LINK

"...Filled with genuine open-heartedness for the unique individual."
"...Nothing quite like it. There is no judgment here."

"...A space to connect with your heart."
"...A nurturing place that lets you step out of name, title, pressure, expectation, to enter the joy that encourages our true light to shine."

Welcoming Veterans

Common Bread extends its warmest invitation to the Student Veterans Organization at Evergreen and the folks at Coffee Strong. Please be part of our healing community, and educate us about your journeys from war to peace.

EVENTS

'Dances of Universal Peace
'Thurs. 5/ 5, LH Rotunda, 5:30 PM

Evie Fagergren & musicians lead us in meditative chants and dances from many world traditions, based in ecstatic Sufi practice. Some celebrate the dance of Spring!

Veterans Speak:

Journeys from War to Peace

Thurs. April 12, 6:30

Hear Veterans from Coffee Strong (anti-war/pro-soldier) share journeys from war to peace. Learn more about PTSD & the struggle for the treatment & justice Vets deserve. An opportunity for Evergreen & Vets to build community & share intentions to heal our nation of violence. Especially important because Fort Lewis-McCord is troubled, our military at the breaking point. Come with a listening heart. Greeners who work at Coffee Strong will host the event.

The Sacred Garden:
Thursday, May 3 & 10

Share Your Green

& Healing Stories
Potluck & Satsang in Longhouse herb garden, to share healing songs, plant lore & garden stories, exploring all dimensions of the Garden archetype, inner & outer. Bring poems, music, stories, herbal teas, meditations. Led by Sayer Herrick, student of herbs that heal.

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RECENT EVENTS
Tibetan Singing Bowls

Thursday, 1/26

6:30 pm, Longhouse Cedar Room: Concert meditation by Carl Black & associates, one of the nation's finest collections of Tibetan bowls. (Thank you friends: 65 attended.)

Power of the Feminine, 2/16

How Do You Experience the Power of the Goddess in Your Life? How Do You Define the Feminine Aspect of Consciousness? Have You Been Misled by False Cultural Images of the Feminine? Student leaders, Chelan and Ari, guide us in sharing the presence of the divine Feminine in our lives, and help us each define it in our own way. Meditate on how you would feel if you knew you could express your heart in total trust, without fear. (Thank you, friends: 20 people attended this joyful event.)

Centering Prayer, 2/23

Potluck Dinner: 5 PM
Chant and Centering Prayer: 6 PM
Skilled instructor Mary Solberg returned to teach this elegantly simply method of meditation rooted in Christian mystical tradition but universal in its application, giving freedom to each practitioner to choose his or her own "prayer word" as a vehicle of meditation and a sign of divine Presence. Potluck dinner, Taize chant and Centering Prayer in the Longhouse, starting at 5 PM. (Thank you friends. 15 attended this event.)

Energy & Healing
Llyn Roberts, 3/1-2

Thursday, March 1, 5:30 pm: Potluck and satsang in the Longhouse, welcoming Llyn as our honored guest.

Friday March 2, 7-10pm, Farmhouse: Workshop offered free to Evergreen community and Olympia townsfolk.

Thank you for attending these profound events, and thank you for honoring us with your work, Llynn. 27 attended this two day experience with Llyn. See pictures in our photo gallery. Llyn's website is: http://www.llynroberts.com/
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Looking Ahead to Next Year:

* Politics & Spiritual Practice

*Anti-war/Inner Peace *Occupy Movement as Spiritual Community *Inter-Dependence & Environmentalism * What's Your Vision?

Common Bread looks forward to working with academic programs like 'Religion, Society & Change' to bring important conversations and guest speakers like Prof. Daniel McKanan, Harvard Divinity School, author of 'Prophetic Voices: Religious Roots of American Radicalism.'

Politics and Spirituality do not have to be two. What does spiritually conscious politics feel like to you? Come share your struggles and breakthroughs in your path toward political/spiritual integration. Join Common Bread in potluck discussions that explore how political community finds roots in a deeper awareness of We, and the call to social justice is encountered as a prophetic voice in the heart. This is not a debate, not an argument about Left and Right. It is a time to share our journeys and define, each in our own way, a new paradigm.

Sampling of Common Bread Events

Please let us know which of these events you want repeated at Common Bread. Email: commonbread4u@gmail.com
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Anam Thubten, Dharmata Foundation

Friday, Feb 3, 6:30 pm, Longhouse

Beloved friend, Tibetan meditation master, and founder of Dharmata returns for an evening Dharma talk, followed by a weekend retreat. Dharma talk is free and open to the public.

"Our path is to fully embrace the present moment, then welcome everyone and everything we meet with love." ~Anam Thubten

Sean Johnson's Wild Lotus Band

from New Orleans

Free Concert! Thursday, Nov. 10, 7 pm

Evergreen Longhouse: Chant and Dance to Yoga Kirtans inflected with New Orleans gumbo, by greener Sean Johnson! Sean's site LINK. Article by Sean on 'Benefits of Chanting' LINK

New Orleans mantra musicians Sean Johnson and The Wild Lotus Band (Alvin Young and Gwendolyn Colman) are celebrated as one of the leading voices in western kirtan music, known for their dynamic sound that merges mantras, rock, funk, and world grooves. The band is a favorite headliner at festivals and conferences worldwide including Yoga Journal and they are the first kirtan band to ever play The New Orleans Jazz Festival, detailed in the article below published in Elephant Journal. Their new album Devaloka is the band's debut release on Nettwerk/Nutone Records, Canada's largest independent record label.

'Sounds of Enlightenment'
Tibetan Singing Bowls (1/26)

6:30 pm, Longhouse Cedar Room: Concert meditation by Carl Black & associates, one of the NW's finest collections of Tibetan bowls: all Olympia welcome!

* What is Meditation?

From Sound to Silence. ‘Shabda gunaka mahakaasha: Sound is the way to the supreme space.' We awaken vast creative space through hearing the Word: the vibration of the Mantra. Potluck dinner followed by wisdom sharing, chant, meditation. Longhouse, 5:15.

'Dances of Universal Peace'

LH Rotunda, 5:30 PM

Evie Fagergren and musicians will lead us in meditative dance and chant from several spiritual traditions, inspired by Sufi teachers. LINK for the Dances!

'Notes On a Buddhist Revolution'
(4/28) Dr. David Loy

Longhouse
Thurs. April 28
Potluck Dessert & Tea w. Dr. David Loy

Dr. Loy is an authorized teacher of Zen Buddhism in the Sanbo Kyodan lineage. Author of 8 books, including A Buddhist History of the West (2002) and Money, Sex, War, Karma! (2008), he'll engage us in conversation about the Wheel of Samsara, and how its classic Mahayana vision illuminates the toxic karmas of modern American consumerism, sensationalism, violence.

Laughter Yoga with Miss Kate

This Thursday, Dec. 1!

* Thurs. Dec. 1, Laughter Yoga with Kate Benak!

* In the L. H. Rotunda,

5 - 7 pm (w. Potluck snacks)

* Release end-of-term stress with the effective Yoga of laughter! (LINK)

Greener alum Kate is a certified LY instructor, bringing wondrous rollicking laughter, followed by deep healing silence. See the video of Common Bread laughter yoga in our picture gallery site.

'Imbolc Music,' Christine Gunn
Wednesday, Feb 2,
Her Mystic Cello Returns!

Longhouse. Wed. Feb. 2

6:30 snacks & tea

7 pm meditation:
A musical journey
from Darkness to Light
celebrating Imbolc

Note: This week's event is WEDNESDAY! Christine Gunn's cosmic, shimmering, electronically over-looping cello compositions guide us into musical meditation. She has composed a special piece for this ancient feast of Imbolc, invoking the stir of our inward Spring from the sleep of Winter. Her music sends some people into deep meditation, and others into dance! Link for Info

Satsang This Thursday, 11/17

What Is Your Gift? How Do You Share It?

This Thursday, Nov 17,

5 pm, Longhouse

Potluck, Satsang, Gifts

Delicious Potluck followed by kirtan chant, deep silence, and a guided meditation to touch the unique gift you've been given. In a circle of trust, find the words to name your gift. Does the Divine dwell in your heart as You?
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* October 14: Being Muslim

In America Today (6 PM)

'How does it feel to be Muslim in America now?' Meet Muslims from Lacey Islamic Center, potluck desserts & tea; Walking Meditation & Candlelight Vigil for peace. Friends from all faith communities are welcome to this conversation in the Longhouse!

Meet the Quakers! (2/10)

Thurs. Feb 10
Longhouse
5:30 Delicious Potluck Dinner
6:30 Quaker Meeting

Connect with Friends, & Experience the Inner Light!
Olympia Quakers return to share delicious potluck dinner & wisdom of the Quaker Way. They will lead us in a Quaker Meeting for Worship, an authentic early American practice of group meditation and centering. All are welcome!

* Dances of Universal Peace

Evie Fagergren & musicians return to lead sacred dance & chant from world wisdom traditions, based in Sufi practice. Potluck snacks & dessert: 5:30. Movement meditation: 6 PM. In the Lecture Hall Rotunda. LINK

* Fri. Nov. 5: Dairin Zenji

'Clear Mind Is My Only Master'

Seminar II Building, Room E1105
7 PM, Friday 11/5
The Evergreen State College

Rinzai Zen Buddhism
The Way of the Koan
and Zen Meditation

Dairin Senji will lead Zen meditation, explain the way of the Koan, & open our clear mind. He is head monk at Tahoma One Drop Zen Monastery on Whidby Island, the Northwest's only residential Rinzai monastery. Dairin studied 10 years with Shodo Harada Roshi in Okayama, Japan, at Rinzai Zen's most traditional monastery. Shodo Roshi sent him here to teach and build a monastery for the practice of Rinzai Zen Buddhism.

* Gandhi's Living Disciple:
Krishnamal Jaganath,
Opus Award for World Service Link

Krishnamal Jaganathan received the Opus Award for World Service at Bena Roya Hall in Seattle. She worked with Gandhi as a youth & spent her life bringing jobs & homes to India's 'untouchables.' Her work continues at age 90. Common Bread is honored to present her at Evergreen's Little Theater November 12, 7 PM.

* Adrien Nyongabo