Arinna
Weisman, our Founding Teacher, moves west..
The
Board of Directors of Insight PV is saddened by the news that Arinna
Weisman, our Center's Founding Teacher, has decided to focus her teaching
in Oakland, California. Arinna is pursuing her vision of creating a
contemplative community there that is based on cultural diversity. She
will also continue teaching retreats on the west coast as she has for
many years. Although she may be able to visit us occasionally as her
travel plans and other commitments permit, she will no longer be teaching
here on a regular basis.
Arinna founded Insight PV (originally known as Dhamma Dena Meditation
Center) twelve years ago through the urging of her root teacher, Ruth
Denison. Establishing its first Board of Directors with the help of
her partner Char Gentes and others, their early livingroom meetings
blossomed into a regular schedule of sittings, classes and one-day retreats
at a part-time space in Northampton, and residential retreats as well.
From the beginning, Arinna called on other dharma teachers to join her
vision of a community dharma center. She coordinated the teachers so
students had access to a variety of teaching styles, dharma facets and
events. Arinna developed new teachers and brought in guest teachers.
Arinna also supervised the practice leaders so that skilled meditation
instruction was available at all drop-in sittings. All along Arinna
reminded us that this work we shared was also dharma practice. She encouraged
the community to reach out to diverse populations and make the Center
feel safe and welcoming to all.
The legwork of creating this new non-profit organization and the ever-growing
daily work was done from Arinna and Char's home. The hours were long,
the deadlines frequent, the tasks often tedious or challenging while
the compensation, when even possible, was minimal. Arinna's inspirational
energy, organizational skills, and warmheartedness kept things flowing
through all the roadblocks. Her charisma and compassion drew many students
who came to see Dhamma Dena as their spiritual home. Her generous efforts
and welcoming cups of tea inspired many to become board members and
volunteers. Arinna accomplished all this while simultaneously traveling
coast-to-coast to teach residential retreats for the LGBT community.
We will be diminished without Arinna's enriching presence among us,
and her passionate teaching of the dharma will be very much missed at
the Center. As a community, we feel deep gratitude to Arinna for the
vision, energy and dedication that for more than a decade have served
to nourish and grow the sacred space of our meditation center to what
it is today. Because of that, she will always be a vital part of the
fabric of its life.
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Teachers
Say Farewell...
The
teachers would like to take this opportunity to express our deep gratitude
for all that Arinna has done for us as teachers over the years. She
welcomed each of us to the Center and guided us step by step as we flexed
our wings. She formed the teachers' council that became a place of friendship
and support for all of us over the years. She has shared with us her
energy and passion for the Dharma. We are sad to see her leave, but
we recognize that Oakland will be benefiting from that same passion
we have known as she moves toward her vision of a multicultural Dharma
center there. Mostly we will miss this unique and uniquely talented
individual we have come to know and love, who shared so deeply and honestly
of who she is. We salute you, Arinna, and wish you all the best in your
new endeavors!
Sincerely,
Mark, Jean, Adi, Chas, and Rebecca
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A
Letter From Arinna
Dear Sangha,
Mary Oliver writes "On Love" in Red Bird:
...there are so many. You, and you, and you,
whom I had the fortune to meet, or maybe
missed. Love, love, love, it was the
core of my life, from which, of course, comes
the word for the heart. And, oh, have I mentioned
that some of them were men and some were women
and some-- now carry my revelation with you--
were trees. Or places. Or music flying above
the names of their makers. Or clouds, or the sun
which was the first, and the best, the most
loyal for certain, who looked so faithfully into
my eyes, every morning. So I imagine
such love of the world-- its fervency, its shining,
its innocence and hunger to give of itself--I imagine
this is how it began.
And I think of this love that the Buddha also describes as kindness
as the inspiration for so much of what we do and why we practice. It
is love calling us to love. At the same time we live with our personalities,
wounds or places that are hurting and reactive. How do we manage to
answer our calling of love and negotiate the difficult places we encounter
in our lives, our relationships and the organizations we find ourselves
working in?
In 2006 I felt called to answer this question by investigating ordination.
I said goodbye to some of you in a beautiful ceremony at the Center
not sure whether I would return in robes or not. I lived in four monasteries
and visited several others in the following two years. In all of the
monasteries I visited I found deep structures and cultures of inequality.
Nuns and women seeking ordination were actively disempowered and those
who were gay didn't feel safe enough to be 'out'. How is it possible
to have a deep meditation practice and also unconsciously act out ideas
and behaviors that hurt individuals and particular groups?
It became clear to me that the way we define meditation practice is
often separated from our relationships, the culture and structures of
our communities. And because of this separation a shadow side develops
which remains unexplored and expresses old conditioning.
I came back from the monasteries fired up to find ways to integrate
our relational lives within the context of the Dharma. You know the
expression, 'Be careful what you ask for'? Well! Returning to the Center
after two years and reintegrating into the leadership challenged all
of us in ways we had not foreseen. The difficulties I encountered touched
some places that needed healing and I worked diligently in therapy and
within my practice to find love. I also wanted to work towards a sangha
that was multicultural, to learn as a white person how to change the
structure and culture at Insight PV to build a multicultural sangha.
We have all worked hard and I also found my vision of relational work
and multiculturalism has rooted in the Bay Area and so I have decided
to move to Oakland.
There are many gateways to come to the dharma and my gateway was my
teacher Ruth Denison. Without her particular expression of the dharma
my own flowering would not have taken place in the time and way it unfolded.
I feel immensely grateful to her and her teacher U Bha Khin.
I also feel enormously grateful to everyone who has helped make the
Center a reality, my partner at the beginning Char who spent hours and
hours helping to streamline procedures and to Barbara who continued
this work, and to the first board members, Judy, Doris and Cynthia,
later joined by Tashima, Paul, Kim, Barbara and Andrew, some leaving
and others arriving, and the current board members including Tomasin
and Adam.
My deepest thanks to Rebecca, the co-guiding teacher for so many years;
Mark, Jean, Chas, and Adi, Kim and Peggy as Comminity Dharma leaders
and the practice leaders who anchor our drop-in sittings. There are
also so many of you who give your time as volunteers. Thank you. Without
all of you the Center would not exist.
It has moved me to share these teachings with you and it has always
been an honor to practice together over these many years. I leave with
blessings of gratitude and to offer all that is beautiful that the world
might be free. I dedicate my practice and any merit that comes from
it to you dear sangha.
