
HaMakom's Weekly Sitting Groups
Monday 4 September - Monday 30 October
Shachar (morning) group: 07.30-08.15 UK time
Erev (evening) group: 19.30-20.15 UK time
Online, via Zoom
No meeting Monday 25 September (Yom Kippur)
We are holding 2 different online meetings (“sits”) each week. These are not drop-in, i.e. they are not meetings that one can spontaneously decide to attend or not to attend. Drop-in is a lovely format in many ways, and our monthly gatherings will continue as drop-ins.
Rather than a drop-in, these groups are a means of offering collective support with what many have experienced: how difficult it can be to sustain a regular practice. Sustaining practice is especially difficult when we try to do it alone. If we are part of an established group meeting regularly, this difficulty is held collectively. Together we can nurture the many fruits of regular practice, those which can show up while we are meditating and those which show up in the rest of our lives.
We ask that people commit to a series of group meetings, be it morning or evening, once a week for 8 weeks.
The groups will be facilitated by Zac Newman, HaMakom faculty member, with an occasional guest facilitator.
We also ask that each person contributes £40 in advance for the term. This will help to encourage our collective commitment. If this is unaffordable for you and you would like to participate, please let us know. No one will be turned away because of their financial circumstances.
Some more information:
- We will meet on Zoom.
- We will have 30 minutes of meditation, usually in the format of a short period of guidance at the beginning followed by an extended period of silence.
- The final 10-15 minutes will be for sharing. Each person will have a little time for sharing with the group. This could be about the meditation just experienced, or it could be anything else that you want to express, and be heard. If you don’t want to say much, you can just offer one word or phrase. It helps to build community if we hear from everyone, however briefly.
- For the same reason, we ask that everyone has their video on during the meeting, with a stable and quiet background. If you need to turn your video off temporarily for an unforeseen reason that is understood.
We’d love to share this with you. Together we can cultivate an enduring meditation practice, one that sustains and inspires us into the new year.