Occupy Satyagraha: New Years Day Potluck 1 1 12

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Occupy Satyagraha: New Years Day Potluck

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  • Date: Sun, January 1
  • Time: 6:00pm – 8:30pm
  • Location: Friends Meeting House 4312 SE Stark, Portland
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Purpose

Come welcome the New Year with good food, good company, and good conversation about our visions and hopes for our lives and our world, as we begin a new circle around the Sun.

Whatever our particular path and story, our lives embody the principles and values we hold most dear. The quiet first day of the New Year is a perfect time to reflect on those principles and what they mean for our journey.

Looking at the world around us, we see that ignorance and oppressive power are bringing ever great harm to people and places. We long for a lighter, more compassionate society, and all of us are engaged in one way or another in efforts toward that goal.

After supper, we’ll explore some Gandhi’s thoughts as he embarked on his path of deep service and social change a century ago, a path he called Satyagraha.

Bring a veg/vegan potluck dish to share and join the conversation. A small donation is requested to help cover expenses, but all are welcome.

All of us engage in the world in different ways, whether raising children or grandchildren, giving time and energy to activities and groups that reflect our values, engaging in protest or political efforts, or simply trying to stay afloat and patch the holes in our leaky boats. Most of us juggle variations of those tasks every day.

Gandhi developed the term Satyagraha to define and express the principles that shaped his mobilization for social change and personal awakening.

Satya is often translated from Sanskrit as “truth,” or the ultimate ground of all Being. Satya is also sometimes understood to mean “love” or “essence, soul.” Agraha means to “hold firmly to”, and implies the energy or force of gripping with firmness. So Satyagraha is a path for living our lives aligned with deep truth, and engaging in action empowered by firm, energetic commitment and resolve in all we do.

Gandhi’s satyagraha is a way of engaging in life and our obligations to community and society while continually exploring the spiritual wisdom that finds expression in a non-violent ethic. Gandhi was tirelessly engaged in the social and political conditions of his time, and simultaneously invested in deep exploration of his spiritual path. In his model, non-violent social action and satyagraha challenge us to engage in vibrant, creative, practical action that reflects a basis of timeless spiritual principles.

Other details
Cost: $5+ suggested donation, but all are welcome

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