The BRUU Sangha is starting the second year of gathering as a community.   We meet each week on Thursday nights, 7:00pm at BRUU, with an experienced teacher to guide us on the first week each month.

Buddhism emphasizes mindful listening as a practice tied to compassion, awareness, and wisdom. This concept is woven through Buddhist teachings and practices, connecting it to mindfulness, ethical conduct, and inner transformation. By practicing mindful listening, one aligns with the Buddhist ideals of presence, compassion, and wisdom, deepening connections with others and fostering inner peace.

By practicing meditation in community and growing in understanding of the Dharma, the Sangha wants individuals and the community to awake to their true selves.  We practice mindful listening with partners and explore the best way to respond rather than react.

The BRUU Sangha has planned a path of learning for Fall 2025 and has some significant changes ahead. This fall the Sangha will learn about, the four boundless qualities of the heart In Buddhist practice. The four practices we will explore in four sessions:

1. Loving-kindness: September
– The wish for others to be happy and well.
– It is unconditional goodwill, offered equally to oneself, loved ones, strangers, and even difficult people.
– It counters ill-will, anger, and hatred.
2. Compassion: October
– The wish for others to be free from suffering.
– Compassion arises when one sees suffering and responds with care and a desire to help.
o It counters cruelty and indifference.
3. Sympathetic Joy: November
o The capacity to rejoice in the happiness, success, and virtues of others.
o Instead of envy or jealousy, it cultivates delight in the good fortune of others.
o It counters resentment and competitiveness.
4. Equanimity: December
o A balanced, calm, and even-minded acceptance of life’s ups and downs.
o It does not mean indifference, but rather wisdom that recognizes all beings are owners of their actions (karma).
o It counters attachment and aversion, creating steadiness of mind

In these sessions we’ll learn emotional resilience, deepen our connection with others, and bring steadiness to life’s joys and challenges. Through guided meditations, reflection, and group discussion, you’ll have the opportunity to experience each heart quality directly and consider how to weave them into your daily life.

The significant change that we will have this Fall is the addition of a second teacher, Anna Penna, on the third Thursday of each month. She will add to the teachings that Ann Deschamps does on the first Thursdays of each month. Anna has been a practitioner of mindfulness meditation for close to 10 years, having found her teachers in Joseph Goldstein, Sharon Salzberg, and Shell Fisher.  She has also used her RYT500 certification in yoga to combine mindful movement and meditation, teaching free offerings in Hatha yoga and Chair yoga through Fauquier County Parks and Rec.  Anna is an anesthesiologist in private practice.

Also, starting in September 2025 we plan to make the first & third Thursdays available by Zoom again.

The classes & meditations led by Ann and Anna will start at 7:00 PM and will be in the Flamingo Lounge. Please arrive several minutes before the start time at 7:00pm. If you have not attended a prior BRUU Sangha gathering, please contact Randy Earl at sangha@bruu.org to get necessary information for access to the building.

A dana basket will be there for generosity to the Sangha. Online generosity can be expressed at Zell using bookkeeper@bruu.org or Paypal  In the memo lines, note BRUU Sangha.