By Virginia Wolf, President of the Sangha, Minister Emerita of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation, and Founding Member of JONAH
This group began in the early 1990s under the guidance of Rita Gross, student of Tibetan Buddhism under Chögyum Trungpa. In the late 1990s, this group split into two, one continuing with Rita Gross, and the other becoming the Eau Claire Buddhist Sangha (ECBS) which has been largely lay-led, occasionally with the guidance of a teacher once a month. We had two teachers, Judith Ragir and Marilyn Habermas Scher, who studied with Katagiri Roshi at Clouds and Water Zen Center in St. Paul, then Santikaro who studied in Thailand with Ajahn Buddhadasa in the Vipassana tradition. Ordained in 1985, Santikaro left the monastery in 2004 and founded Liberation Park near Sparta, WI. Our last teacher was Suco (Chodon Lhunup) who received teaching from Geshe Lhundup Sopa, a Tibetan, and from Thich Nhat Hanh, a Zen teacher. Currently, members of the sangha take turns leading our meetings.
A sangha is a Buddhist community which holds regular services and occasional retreats. ECBS meets Tuesday nights from 7:00 to 8:30 at Unity (1808 Folsom Street). We divide our time into 30-minute segments: meditation, a dharma talk, and discussion. People meditate on cushions or on chairs.
A dharma talk is on some aspect of the Buddha’s teachings; for example, one of the four noble truths: 1. Suffering is a fact of life; 2. There is a cause for suffering— clinging to what you want or don’t want despite the impermanent nature of life; 3. There is an end to suffering—letting go of clinging; and 4. There is a path to ending suffering, the Noble Eightfold Path: wise thought, wise intention, wise speech, wise action, wise livelihood, wise effort, wise mindfulness, and wise concentration.
The member leading brings a recorded talk. Our discussions of the talks are lively and enlightening because they expand the talk with personal examples. We always end our sessions with a prayer like the following: May all living beings be filled with loving kindness. May we be well. May we be peaceful and at ease. May we be happy. May all of our suffering deepen into wisdom and compassion. And may we know the joy of our true nature.
Everyone is welcome at our Tuesday night meetings, no matter your experience with meditation or your faith tradition. We offer training in meditation, and you need not identify as Buddhist to find the talks and discussions instructive and interesting. There are many who find that meditation and the dharma enrich their experience of their own faith tradition.
Finally, since shortly after Stanley Correctional Institution opened in 2002/03, ECBS has been offering a prison ministry there. Twice a month we hold a service much like our own. We also offer pastoral visits once a month. ECBS supports this ministry financially, supplying books, for example, and whatever is needed that we are permitted to provide. Those of us who go to Stanley find it very satisfying. We see the inmates grow in the dharma, learning to respond, not react, acquiring the skills needed to flourish in prison and on the outside. ECBS also recently expanded their prison ministry to include a group at Chippewa Valley Correctional Treatment Facility.
We have been a member of JONAH for about three years.