{"id":109,"date":"2010-08-30T09:52:04","date_gmt":"2010-08-30T09:52:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/mindfulnessmatters\/2010\/08\/metaphor-monday-mushroom-circle-sangha.html"},"modified":"2010-08-30T09:52:04","modified_gmt":"2010-08-30T09:52:04","slug":"metaphor-monday-mushroom-circle-sangha","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2010\/08\/metaphor-monday-mushroom-circle-sangha.html","title":{"rendered":"Metaphor Monday: Mushroom Circle Sangha"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On a recent Thursday our meditation group gathered in the Exquisite Mind Studio for one of our weekly meditation practices. We sit in a rectangular &#8220;circle&#8221; around the perimeter of the room. The energy was particularly strong that day.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>One of the participants likened us to a mushroom circle and felt the energy moving around our circle. She described the feeling inside of her as Perrier bubbles.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>According to Wikipedia, mushroom circles are a community just as people who meditate together are a community.&#8221;<span class=\"Apple-style-span\">Hidden in the soil is a huge network of threadlike mycelia. Mushrooms are not individual organisms. Rather, they are just one part of the mycelia lurking beneath the ground.&#8221;&nbsp;<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span class=\"Apple-style-span\"><br \/><\/span><\/div>\n<div><font color=\"#000000\" face=\"sans-serif\"><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"line-height: 19px\"><span class=\"mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/mindfulnessmatters\/assets_c\/2010\/08\/iStock_000001851989XSmall-17594.html\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"iStock_000001851989XSmall.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/96\/import\/iStock_000001851989XSmall.jpg\" width=\"425\" height=\"282\" class=\"mt-image-left\" style=\"float: left;margin: 0 20px 20px 0\" \/><\/a><\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/mindfulnessmatters\/assets_c\/2010\/08\/iStock_000001851989XSmall-17594.html\"><\/a><\/span><\/font><\/div>\n<div><font color=\"#000000\" face=\"sans-serif\"><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"line-height: 19px\">The <\/span><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"line-height: 19px\"><i>sangha<\/i><\/span><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"line-height: 19px\"> is the community of people who follow the teachings of the Buddha or more generically anyone who engages in mindfulness meditation. When the <\/span><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"line-height: 19px\"><i>sangha<\/i><\/span><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"line-height: 19px\"> meets we touch that invisible, underground sense of connectedness that gets obscured by our busyness and the stories of &#8220;me&#8221; that constantly engage us.<\/span><\/font><\/div>\n<div><font color=\"#000000\" face=\"sans-serif\"><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"line-height: 19px\"><br \/><\/span><\/font><\/div>\n<div><font color=\"#000000\" face=\"sans-serif\"><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"line-height: 19px\">On that Thursday afternoon, the energy that enveloped perhaps came from that subterranean connectedness. In the &#8220;middle world&#8221; of Newtonian physics we don&#8217;t appreciate the interconnectedness of everything. Boundaries appear to be distinct. We appear to be separate entities. But at the quantum level these separations disappear. We are all just one energy with no clear boundaries. Perhaps we get a glimpse of that when we meditate. Whether we actually do, it certainly feels as if we do.<\/span><\/font><\/div>\n<div><font color=\"#000000\" face=\"sans-serif\"><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"line-height: 19px\"><br \/><\/span><\/font><\/div>\n<div><font color=\"#000000\" face=\"sans-serif\"><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"line-height: 19px\">Thanks to Ellie Bryant for providing this wonderful metaphor. Ellie is the author of&nbsp;<\/span><\/font><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"Apple-style-span\"><\/p>\n<h1 class=\"parseasinTitle\"><span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/While-Darkness-There-Light-Australian\/dp\/0976899396\/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1283175013&amp;sr=1-1\">While in Darkness There is Light: Idealism and Tragedy on an Australian Commune<\/a> and other books. Visit her website <a href=\"http:\/\/www.louellabryant.com\/\">www.louellabryant.com<\/a><\/span><\/h1>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On a recent Thursday our meditation group gathered in the Exquisite Mind Studio for one of our weekly meditation practices. We sit in a rectangular &#8220;circle&#8221; around the perimeter of the room. The energy was particularly strong that day. One of the participants likened us to a mushroom circle and felt the energy moving around&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":268,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-buddha-101","category-metaphors-for-mindfulness"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Metaphor Monday: Mushroom Circle Sangha - Mindfulness Matters<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2010\/08\/metaphor-monday-mushroom-circle-sangha.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Metaphor Monday: Mushroom Circle Sangha - Mindfulness Matters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On a recent Thursday our meditation group gathered in the Exquisite Mind Studio for one of our weekly meditation practices. 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One of the participants likened us to a mushroom circle and felt the energy moving around&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2010\/08\/metaphor-monday-mushroom-circle-sangha.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Mindfulness Matters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-08-30T09:52:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/mindfulnessmatters\/files\/import\/iStock_000001851989XSmall.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dr. Arnie Kozak\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Metaphor Monday: Mushroom Circle Sangha - Mindfulness Matters","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2010\/08\/metaphor-monday-mushroom-circle-sangha.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Metaphor Monday: Mushroom Circle Sangha - Mindfulness Matters","og_description":"On a recent Thursday our meditation group gathered in the Exquisite Mind Studio for one of our weekly meditation practices. 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Dr. Kozak's ability to translate ancient healing traditions into pragmatic applications suitable for modern lifestyles through the use of metaphors have made him a strong voice in healthcare and business. Beginning with a journey to India in the 80\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s where he took the Bodhisattva vows from His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Arnie Dr. Kozak began his lifelong practice in mindfulness meditation. Intent on finding a way to bring the practical healing attributes of mindfulness he began incorporating these techniques in his private practice. In 2002 Dr. Kozak created Exquisite Mind in Burlington, Vermont as a vehicle that could expand his wisdom to larger audiences beyond individual psychotherapy to professionals and corporations, health care providers, public groups and, most recently with Exquisite Mind Golf, amateur and professional golfers. His award-winning new book, Wild Chickens and Petty Tyrants: 108 Metaphors for Mindfulness (Wisdom Publications, 2009) is a thoughtful, funny, and inspiring translation of mindfulness practice through the inventive use of metaphor applicable to our daily lives. In addition to his work with Exquisite Mind, Arnie Kozak, Ph.D., Licensed Psychologist\u00e2\u20ac\u201dDoctorate has been a Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Vermont and is a Clinical Instructor in Psychiatry and Medicine, University of Vermont College of Medicine. He has studied and practiced clinical psychology, meditation, and yoga for more than 25 years. He has studied with several meditation masters, including S. N. Goenka, Larry Rosenberg, Gurumayi Chidvilasananda, and His Holiness the Dalai Lama. After receiving his bachelors degree with honors from Tufts University, he was awarded a Presidential Fellowship to get his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University at Buffalo. He completed his training as a Psychological Fellow at the Harvard Medical School. Prior to founding the Exquisite Mind in 2002, Arnie worked ten years in the private sector for the PKC Corporation consulting on mental health content for this revolutionary software company.","sameAs":["http:\/\/exquisitemind.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/author\/akozak"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/268"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}