October 8, 2026 Sangha Prompt
Thay has given us so much
Sometimes the expression ‘Start Where You Are At’ sits close, and today was no exception.
We began with a beautiful poem by Antonio Machado called Last Night As I Was Sleeping…one of my all time favourite poems. Each stanza begins with the line “Last night as I was sleeping, I dreamt-marvelous error!-” You can read it here: https://grateful.org/resource/last-night-sleeping/
As we moved into meditation, we expanded our loving kindness meditation (https://www.mindful.org/loving-kindness-meditation-with-sharon-salzberg/), giving time, right here and now, to consider the themes: May I be safe (pause) May I be healthy (pause) May I be happy (pause) and may I live with ease (pause). Every time we paused, we thought of our relationship to safety, health, happiness and peace. We then offered these words for our loved ones, for the difficult people in our lives and to the people who are suffering around the world. When we deeply appreciate these qualities and understand how they sit in our lives, we realise that together they could offer freedom.
Thay (Thich Nhat Hanh) tells us that “We need to live our daily moments deeply as they occur when we live and know we are living. This is freedom.
We then wrote for 25 minutes, and my writing began with “I read my favourite poem today”
You may like to pull out your favourite poem, read it out aloud, and then write from one of your favourite lines.
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