Sangha of the Month for March 2017: Wake Up NE Los Angeles
How did Wake Up get started in Northeast Los Angeles (Highland Park)?
Wake Up NELA (Northeast Los Angeles) started in November of 2015. Before that time, we had an active Wake Up community in Los Angeles, but the Sangha only met in Santa Monica. For those of us living on the east side of Los Angeles, that may as well have been another country. Thankfully, one day, a guy decided he was tired of coming home from work on Friday nights and plopping down in front of the TV to watch reruns of Parks and Rec. Not being a “go out” kind of guy, he thought, “What if I started a Wake Up sangha?” Thanks to the efforts of previous Wake Uppers in the Northeast sector of LA, there were many good seeds planted in the area, and interest was strong. An email list already existed, and it was easy to begin meeting weekly. It helped that we had been doing once a month Days of Mindfulness in Los Angeles since April of that year.
With a lot of support from the west side group, and, eventually, a $500 grant from the Thich Nhat Hanh foundation for books and cushions, Wake Up NELA was born.
What kind of people come to your Sangha?
As with most Wake Up groups (we imagine), our Sangha is comprised of a great diversity of people. We have had attendees as young as 18 and as old as 40. We tend to tell people we are a Sangha for people in their 20s and 30s, so that we are a bit more inclusive with regard to age. We have people who inhabit a lot of different occupations: a small business owner, a doctor, a comedian, a quantum physicist, a social worker, a professor, a few actors and actresses, an urban planner, a Greenpeace activist, a couple of massage therapists, some college students, and more, including a 75 pound pitbull/lab mix who meditates more deeply than the majority of his human counterparts. We comprise a variety of ethnic, cultural and religious backgrounds, and are very happy to welcome anyone and everyone who wants to practice right mindfulness.
Where and when do you meet?
We meet Friday nights at 7:30pm in a private home in Highland Park, a neighborhood in Northeast Los Angeles.
On average, how many people show up?
Typically we have between four and ten people in attendance. The most we have ever had in one Sangha was seventeen. The fewest has been two.
What is the format of your gatherings?
Typically we have introductions followed by 20-30 minutes of sitting meditation. After sitting, we usually have a reading or listen to/watch a Dharma talk. Almost always these come from the Plum Village (PV) tradition, though occasionally we draw inspiration from outside the PV tradition. After about 15 minutes of this, we have Dharma sharing. Our Sangha places a lot of importance on Dharma sharing, and we usually have between thirty and 45 minutes worth of Dharma sharing, even if this means we run a little bit later than usual. Sometimes we will include walking meditation or other core practices, but not always.
What challenges have you faced as a Sangha and how did you deal with them?
Living in Los Angeles seems to make finding time together difficult. Creating space outside of our normal Friday night meetings for both social interactions and social engagement is a challenge. Most of us want to be more involved and active together with our fellow Sangha members, but we find coordinating these joint activities difficult. We continue to work toward ways to share fun time with one another as well as ways to be politically active together. When those opportunities do arise, we experience them with a lot of gratitude.
Another challenge was when the person who was our primary facilitator began to feel burnt out. At this time, he needed to step away from facilitating (or even attending) Sangha every week. Many of the other group members stepped up to facilitate and organize Sangha. Giving him this space away from being the sole leader helped him return to Sangha with a lot more joy and much less pressure. The transition from one main facilitator to many cooperative facilitators was a little rocky at times, but now the Sangha rests on many sets of shoulders instead of only one. It is much stronger.
Do you do activities outside the gatherings together as a Sangha?
We have a hard time creating official Sangha time together, as I mentioned. However, many of us connect as friends throughout the week and at various times during the months and years of our Sangha life. Many of us have become very close friends and cultivate those friendships in all the ways young humans do that in 2017. Occasionally we will organize Days of Mindfulness at parks or museums, have a birthday party or a holiday dinner, or simply stay late after Sangha to watch a movie. The Sangha members all really enjoy time with one another, and we recognize how special it is when we are able to be together in a place as busy as Los Angeles.
What makes Wake Up NELA special?
We have a whole bunch of people committed to social and environmental justice. Not only this, we have people committed to one another – helping each other through break-ups, life transitions, depression, family crises, sickness and other challenges. We have had tears and anger in our Dharma sharing, and the energy of support and love is always palpable as Sangha members navigate these very confusing waters of life in close proximity to one another. We are an affectionate bunch who try hard to make new members feel welcome and wanted, and we have this amazing love-filled dog named Shadow, who loves Friday nights perhaps more than any of us, because he gets to bask in the love of so many amazing humans.
Here are some personal sharings from individual Sangha members:
“Wake Up NELA is special to me because it felt at home from the first day I entered its doors. It is a safe place where I practice, laugh and learn together with friends. It is a home where I have learned the importance of community. It is a home where I’ve learned to be less self-centered and to think more about the suffering and the happiness of others. It is a home where I have learned that mindfulness has a lot to do with my everyday actions. It is a home where I have learned so much about myself by listening deeply to my Sangha friends. It is a home where wisdom is being built every Friday night. It is a home I love. I will always be grateful to our facilitator for opening his home and his heart to our beautiful practice.” – Simona Racek
“What has attracted me to Wake Up NELA is the warmth of the attendees and the space as well as our shared commitment to the study and practice of Thich Nhat Hanh’s teachings. Attending the group is often a grounding and edifying experience of connection, equanimity, and reflection. The weekly sits help me to become aware of and disrupt the unskillful patterns of belief and behavior that I often creep into, discover and rediscover healthier and happier ways of being, and introduce me to new and valuable teachings.
In addition, this group was my initial exposure into the Plum Village tradition. In the year and a half since I began to attend Wake Up NELA, I’ve attended three retreats at Deer Park, experiences that have truly been extraordinary, and have met many wonderful, inspiring people. I’m keen to attend more retreats and to continue my study and practice with this community!” – Rob Palmer
