Open Buddha

The once a month meetings of the Bay Area Open Sangha continue to occur every month. We have had a little bit of an off and on again start since the weekend meditation retreat this last November, missing a month in March because of changed in scheduling.

As of this last month, there is an all day open sit on the first Sunday of every month. In this, we normally have six sessions of 40 minutes of sitting and 15 minutes of walking meditation. Other than that, there is a little discussion during lunchtime usually and then a little more discussion after the last session. The schedule looks like this:

• 9:00 AM: Participants arrive.
• 9:20: First session or sitting meditation (40 minutes).
• 10:00: First session of walking meditation (15 minutes).
• 10:15 – 11:10: Second meditation session.
• 11:10 – 12:05: Third meditation session.
• 12:05 – 1:00 PM: Lunch and informal discussions.
• 1:00 – 1:55: Fourth meditation session.
• 1:55 – 2:50: Fifth meditation session.
• 2:50 – 3:45: Sixth meditation session.
• 3:45 – 5:15(ish): Discussion period for participants.

Most people have found the sits either by knowing me personally, from the Saturday Night Sangha group that meets nearby, or from the meetup group. In regards to meetup, I've found that in both Open Sangha and for Ace Monster Toys, it has had a phenomenal impact on getting the word out to folks. Almost all of the recent new people find Open Sangha through meetup (and over half of the new people coming to AMT).

I've debated having a more regular sitting group, such as meeting for a couple of hours once a week but it isn't clear whether it would fulfill a need or even be successful. As Michael, one of the regulars, stated, there is already a group for every night of the week and I might be better off just going to someone else's sangha to sit. I've actively been thinking of going to Empty Gate now that I no longer work in Mountain View on Wednesday nights, which is their biggest weekday night when their guiding teacher does his talks.

That said, if I knew that I could get at least four or five people to attend, I'd probably arrange for a weekly sitting group where we could sit for two sessions and maybe chat and have tea afterwards.

I have finally set up the meetup entries for the monthly sit as a reoccurring event so I should be able to avoid the issue of people not having a lot of forewarning of which weekend we're meeting. Attendance has varied between as many as ten people and as few as three. I am hoping to grow this to something like twelve regular attendees but it is really up to people being already interested in sitting all day. Frankly, if you do not already have an interest in practice, the above schedule of six sessions is both going to be daunting and not seem very exciting. Since meditation sessions are not "exciting" in a traditional sense of providing distraction, this is fine but probably not terribly good marketing.

I am also looking to find a co-facilitator who will share some of the load so when I go out of town or just cannot make a monthly event, there will be someone to keep time and arrange for things to continue.

Apparently, asking for people to support an open community and to keep divisive speech seen to attack community members off of Planet Mozilla is seen by at least one of the Planet Mozilla peers as an "attack." See his comment here.

I can only shake my head at this and wonder how people just don't get it.

One person calls for enshrining in law the traditional second class position of members of the LGBT community in society on the basis of his personal beliefs. A second calls for an open community. Does the peer call the first person's post an attack? No. But apparently responding to it with yesterday's post by me does constitute an attack. How's that work?

I certainly never to expect to be chastised for my position and have a peer suggest I take yesterday's post down for standing up for people.

What I said yesterday included the following:

One thing that I cannot abide is prejudicial actions within that community which go against its basic ethos of inclusiveness and betterment for the good of all.

and

I encourage all Mozillians to donate to one of the many public organizations supporting equal rights for the LGBT community. This is the best way to send a message in support of inclusiveness and an open Mozilla community.

I'm not going to apologize for wanting an inclusive Mozilla that treats my queer brothers and sisters (and they are all of our brothers and sisters, as well as wives, husbands, fathers, mothers, even sons and daughters) as welcome members and co-creators in what we're trying to accomplish. We are a community based on openness and the betterment of society. Isn't that what we're here for? Not simply to participate in making cool Internet software?

I'm a proud Mozillian. I've worked at the Mozilla Corporation since June of 2007. I came there after working at Microsoft for nine years and was tired of working in a closed system that seemed to be designed for the good of a few people only. Working with my coworkers and the larger Mozilla Community composed of everyone interested in Mozilla (not just Firefox) and contributing to it has been a great boon to me over the last few years. It was a breath of fresh air.

One thing that I cannot abide is prejudicial actions within that community which go against its basic ethos of inclusiveness and betterment for the good of all. Today, a fellow community member decided to send a post to Planet Mozilla, the public face of the community through its blogs, that was prejudicial against the queer community.

As with quite a few others, I was outraged at this but, as the individual has said, it is his blog and he can say what he wants on it. He has his bully pulpit but, as it turns out, so do I.

I decided to respond today with this post but, more importantly, I also gave a donation to Equality California in the name of my fellow community member. Why Equality California? Well, I live here and we're actively fighting a battle on the very issue, gay marriage, that was at the root of the person's post. EC is very heavily engaged in this fight. As EC says on their site:

Equality California (EQCA) is the largest statewide lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights advocacy organization in California. Over the past 13 years, Equality California has strategically moved California from a state with extremely limited legal protections for LGBT individuals to a state with some of the most comprehensive civil rights protections in the nation. Equality California has partnered with legislators and advocates to successfully sponsor more than 80 pieces of pro-equality legislation. EQCA continues to advance equality through legislative advocacy, electoral work, public education and community empowerment.

Another option, for UK community members, is Stonewall.

I encourage all Mozillians to donate to one of the many public organizations supporting equal rights for the LGBT community. This is the best way to send a message in support of inclusiveness and an open Mozilla community.