Finding a Connection

I work for a drug and behavioral health rehabilitation center. Depending on our shift assignments, on occasion, we get to take the patients to AA meetings (Alcoholics Anonymous) or other meetings of the sort. The other day, I was assigned to take a couple of our patients to a Buddhist AA meeting called Sarpashana. There were two of us (staff) on this trip, so I was allowed to go in, participate, and observe the process. I had never been to a meeting like this, although I have been to general meditation classes. This was was literally a 12-step meeting based off of Buddhist ideals, instead of the usual Christian 12-step programs. During the session, we first read a chapter out of a thought provoking book (which I don’t remember the name of), and then we sat in meditation for 20 minutes, contemplating what we had read. At the end of the meditation, we had an hour long discussion about things that may have come up for us in that time. People shared their stories, their thoughts, their hardships, and their insights. This experience was wonderful for me, because I think of Yoga as being a wide spectrum of practices, which are combined into one complete practice –meditation practice is a huge piece of that greater practice.

Group meditation on one subject is also very profound, because some of the things that people would bring up and talk about, were very similar to the things that I and others had been thinking of simultaneously. To have been able to discuss our insights as a group was an extremely powerful way for those of us who participated to dig deeply into our subconscious and bring light into the places that were still either dark or dim (as I discussed in my last blog). Being in practice as a group, whether in singing, dancing, yoga-asana, mantra, prayer, or meditation has such a powerful impact on me, in my own experience. What I love most about being in group settings is the feeling of being one with all of existence. It reaches my heart in the most profound of ways, and touches my soul deeply. I encourage everyone to find something like that. It is a freeing feeling, knowing that I am a part of something greater than myself, and thatall others are a part of it as well. Connectedness is important. That, I believe very strongly.