Béal Dorais
('next door')
Belonging and renewal close to home
Next gathering:
Saturday, October 3
2 - 5pm
Common Ground and the River Dargle at Bray, Co. Wicklow
Béal Dorais brings an invitation to slow down together and to notice the web of life that holds us.
On Saturday, October 3 we'll have a mindful walk by the River Dargle in Bray, then gather at Common Ground for a cup of tea and a council (listening) circle guided by mindfulness and Way of Council facilitator Niamh Barrett, MMTAI.
Council circle offers a space to speak and listen from the heart and to share what inspires and troubles us at this tumultuous moment.
To join please email Niamh at bealdorais@protonmail.com
Béal Dorais is a small organisation based in Bray, formed to offer in-person practices at the bioregional scale which promote ecological awareness, intimacy of place and trusting relationships in the midst of polarisation and loneliness. It's part of Niamh's ongoing practice of community- and Earth-engaged mindfulness as a path towards waking up from our present nightmare of extraction, exploitation and planetary destruction. The web of life is all around us and so this work occurs close by, 'next door', while holding a vision of global regeneration and renewal.
The Three Tenets of Zen Peacemakers
Niamh is a student of Belgian Zen master and Zen Peacemaker teacher, Frank de Waele Roshi. The community- and earth-engaged work of Béal Dorais is guided by the Three Tenets of Zen Peacemakers, formulated by Bernie Glassman Roshi. Zen Peacemakers is an interfaith and 'non-faith' organisation.
Not Knowing – thereby giving up fixed ideas about myself and the universe
Bearing Witness – to the joy and suffering of life
Taking Action (also described as 'healing') – that arises from Not Knowing and Bearing Witness
Roshi Bernie Glassman on the Three Tenets:
“It’s about questions. More specifically, it’s about how to live a life from the spirit of questioning, a life of not knowing. If we are willing to live such a life, a life without fixed ideas and answers, we can bear witness to any situation we are confronted with, however difficult, disturbing or painful it may be. And from this witnessing comes right action: the work of peace, the work of healing.”
“There are no unsacred places; there are only sacred places and desecrated places.”
Wendell Berry
Images:
The River Dargle at Bray, Co. Wicklow
Council circle on Zen Peacemakers street retreat, Helsinki, Finland
Sunflowers, James Connolly Square, Bray, Co. Wicklow
Bottom of page:
The Edible Bray allotment, Bray Head