Sacramento Dharma Center

So — who’s behind the Dharma Center? Who are these people that want to actually acquire a physical home, for practicing this dharma path of kindness and wisdom?  My friends? Here’s a great collection of photos where you can see some of the generous friends who have chosen to build the SDC Sustaining Circle.  You’ll see members of Valley Streams Zen Sangha, Sacramento Buddhist Meditation Group, and Sacramento Insight Meditation who are making the vision come real for 2016 ~ come join us!

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The Sacramento real estate market is hopping, and the Sacramento Dharma Center Board has been hopping, too, actively investigating the opportunities as they arise. In the last two months we have made several non-binding offers, one at full price, on promising buildings in downtown, midtown, and the Broadway corridor, and Board members checked out three additional locations over the Thanksgiving holiday. So far, each building has had significant obstacles, primarily involving costs that would stretch current resources.

The number of available properties is good news, but real estate prices continue to rise. We have had some successful alternative fundraisers in 2015, but the need for donor contributions is more urgent now than ever to keep up with the changing market. We are continuing our Sustaining Circle campaign to increase the pool of monthly donors, and will also re-open the Capital Campaign.

The month of December will bring re-invigorated outreach by email, phone, and one-on-one contact with members of the three Founding Sanghas. Look for exhibits at your Sangha meetings on how SDC will meet Sustaining Sanghas’ needs, as well as the new “I’m In” campaign, where current donors show their support. All sustaining members who want one will receive the newly-minted SDC bumper sticker or window decal.

We only need 29 more!

In the past two weeks, eight new Sustaining Circle members have signed on! We now have 91 members donating, or pledged to donate monthly. The goal is to have 120 members by the new year. Although any amount is welcome, the average monthly contribution for sustaining members is $35.

Our Building Committee Rocks

Meanwhile, the Building Committee is collecting names of architects we could ask to bid on developing as-is and conceptual drawings. Contact Julia at juliam@surewest.net or Joette at joettess@sbcglobal.net with recommendations or send a message via our contact page.

The committee is also developing a list of tasks, costs, and time frames for both immediate improvements and those that can be phased in.

People Power

In other news, Bruce Baccei from Valley Streams Zen Sangha was elected for a three-year term on the Board as an at-large member. Margaret Buss, a SIM member, is a new volunteer for the Communication Committee, and Maggie Geddes and Gil Schroeder from SBMG have also stepped forward to help with special projects.

Are you In? One click here
to set up your monthly pledge.

Welcome to the launch of conversations exploring how Sacramento Dharma Center is taking shape, under the title “Thus Have I Heard.” Your responses are invited, as well as your own thoughtful writing.

Our first writer suggests that SDC empowers our sense of being a collective Sangha, a community whose members support each others’ deepening practice, as well as enhancing the resources of individual Sanghas, similar to the model of AA.
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First person I heard say it was Ram Dass: “I’ll pretend you’re who you think you are if you’ll pretend I’m who I think I am.”

The issue of identity is central to every pilgrim’s spiritual undertaking. Who am I? More to the point, Who am I when I begin to suspect I’m not who I think I am? Or who they told me I was? Or am supposed to be? Because at some point just about every pilgrim comes to the realization he/she isn’t the being described/prescribed by the instructions and programming he/she perceived while growing up.

Just about every spiritual smorgasbord has identity as some sort of main dish, but they don’t all provide a hard and fast answer to the identity conundrum. Buddhism, for example, says . . . well what does Buddhism say, anyway? Me, I’m way too new at the Buddhist quest to even begin to offer an explanation of what Buddhism says I am. Or you are.

What I like about Buddhism is the way it provides all these wonderful umbrellas to feel safe and comfortable under while I’m conducting the search for identity. The four truths. The eightfold path. The mettas. The three refuges.

As a seeker come to Buddhism from the world of the twelve steps, I’m especially fond of the three refuges. “I take refuge in the Buddha. I take refuge in the Dharma. I take refuge in the Sangha.” Probably I like them because of the way they so readily translate into the language of addiction: “I take refuge in the higher power. I take refuge in the literature of alcoholism. I take refuge in the community.”

Of those three, I feel it’s the third that provides me with some of the very most nourishing food for thought/meditation. Sangha. Community. A collective of fellow seekers, fellow explorers, fellow travelers.

Of course it’s always possible to define the group one is part of, or wants to feel part of, by using a very narrow set of parameters or boundaries. One of the things that has attracted me to Buddhism is a sense that the lines between the different schools aren’t nearly so exclusionary as the lines, say, between the Sunni or Shi’ite or Wahhabi schools of Islam. I think that’s part of what Everyday Zen Center priest Norman Fischer was referring to in a recent retreat here in Sacramento when he made reference to the “genius” of AA. There are more than 500 weekly AA meetings in the Sacramento area, but nobody in those meetings talks about their own particular meeting as being “better” than anybody else’s meeting.

Once a year people from the different AA meetings get together for a Spring Fling, and it can only be described as a joyous three-day love fest.

The Sacramento Dharma Center has been created to provide both a literal and a metaphorical umbrella for the Buddhist communities in the Sacramento area. One of the ongoing challenges for these communities has been finding physical facilities for their meetings and activities. Addressing this problem collectively is a primary purpose of SDC.

In the beginning this will probably mean that the component Buddhist communities may need to pool their fiscal and other resources to obtain and/or develop the building, or building and grounds, for the group to share. But in the long run the sense of Sangha that is bound to result from such a collective effort will almost certainly compensate for whatever short-term challenges the individual Buddhist communities might experience through their involvement. One need only look at the growth and development of Spirit Rock in Marin County to appreciate what can be done by working together for a set of shared goals.

There is already a shared sense of Sangha among the Sacramento Buddhist communities: a shared sense of working for a common set of purposes as set forth in the words of the Buddha. In the AA world an individual member refers to him/her self, identifies him/herself, as a friend of Bill, after Bill Wilson, the founding spirit of AA. When a friend of Bill strengthens his/her sense of involvement in the AA community (primarily through service), there is no sense of diminution in his/her own sense of independence or autonomy. Rather, there is a growing sense of strength by being part of the group. So it is with Buddhists, or Buddhist groups, that work for the strength and solidarity of the Sangha.

~Sam, member of SDC Sustaining Circle~

It was a privilege to host Grace Dammann and filmmaker Mark Lippman for the screening of States of Grace this past Wednesday. We were inspired and deeply moved by this beautiful film. This is a warm and personal story of Grace’s heroic journey of recovery from a tragic accident and her dedication to practice.

We want to thank Jim Hare, former SDC Board member, for bringing the film to Sacramento, a successful fund raiser for the Dharma Center. And we want to thank all the wonderful people who supported the Dharma Center by purchasing tickets, donating, and attending. Most of all we are grateful for Grace and her courage, and Mark’s skill in telling the story!

Grace Dammann and Mark Lippman, one of the filmmakers, are both scheduled to be present for an after-show Q & A!

Order your tickets here!

https://www.tugg.com/events/40380

 

We continue to be grateful for your enthusiastic response to our Sustaining Circle appeal. We now have 80 Sustaining Circle monthly donors pledge to donate $2,812 a month. This is encouraging momentum to help us reach our goal of 120 Sustaining Circle members, with pledged monthly income of approximately $3,600. We invite you to join in!

(click to enlarge photo)

There are two ways to join in and support the dream:

You can begin donating monthly, automatically right here on our website, or you can mail us a check each month. Better yet, have your bank mail the check, they do it for free! This helps us finance our search for a building, as well as increase our Capital fund and demonstrate our credit worthiness!

Or you can pledge to donate monthly when we locate our home! In this way you help us plan for the future; we will know what we can afford and that we will have stable funding for ongoing expenses. Every monthly donation from you reduces the amount the Dharma Center will need to charge the Sustaining Sanghas.

Begin your monthly pledge here now!

If you would rather donate by check, or pledge to begin donating at a future date: please print, complete, and mail the  Sustaining Circle pledge card found here  (mailing address on the card).