We are friends in Recovery Dharma. We take action for our recovery

Cultivate Community

The lists below offer suggestions for easy, incremental action steps to engage in the practice of cultivating Dharma Friends.

During Meetings

Check it out

Before: Find a meeting Online | In-Person
During: Introduce our self
After: Ask a questions or say hello

Step into the circle

Before: Find a meeting Online | In-Person
During: share on the topic
After: Ask a question in parking lot

Connect in Meeting

Before: Find more meetings Online | In-Person
During: Share on topic
After: Exchange numbers or emails with others

Step Up

Before: Show up 10 minutes early
During : Volunteer to read
After: Stay and chat in the parking lot

Get more Involved

Before: Show up 10 minutes early
During : Volunteer to keep time
After: Volunteer to greet newcomers

Generosity

Before: Show up 10 minutes early
During : Volunteer to keep time
After: Volunteer to greet newcomers

Between Meetings

Learn more

Listen, Read, Meditate

Text

Listen, Read, Meditate.
Send an outreach text to say hello

Outreach

Listen, Read, Meditate.
Make 2-3 outreach texts or calls this week. Ask others about their experiences with Hope or Renunciation

Connect after Meeting

Listen, Read Meditate.
Make outreach calls, ask others, and share about my experience with meditation, and other practices

Deepen Connections

Listen, Read, Meditate.
Continue outreach calls to my new friends
share our experiences of realizing and appreciating the benefits of our practices.

Make some plans

Listen, Read Meditate.
Start to practice generosity
check-in on friends, share experience with the Buddha's story and practice listening reflectively to a newcomer.
Form group of your best supports on (whatsapp or signal

Dharma Friends

After practicing outreach calls for a while, we started to develop friendship with others. Here are some of the ways we connect with each other.

Casual Chats: Share experiences and reflectsion.
Check-In Book-end a difficult task, or set up a daily or weekly check-in.
Bookend: Text or call a friend before and after

Workin' Together

Dharma Friends: Regular chat to mentor or co-mentor each other around the inquiries, process recovery tasks etc.

Parallel Tasks: Set up a time to complete tasks with someone on the other end of the line. eg: writing invitentories, grocery shopping, going for a walk outside or de-cluttering.

Volunteer: Lifelong friendships have already emerged from those of us who volunteer to serve together in this community.

More Thoughts on Cultivating Community

After attending a few meetings, we started to wonder how we might become more involved. We started to see the benefits of taking incremental action.

Greetings

Help others to get to know you by speaking up

Introduce yourself
Share your reflections and experiences

Participate

Volunteer to read readings
Exchange Contact information with others

Volunteer

Keep time
Read the meditation
Read the meeting script (facilitate)
Greet newcomers after the meeting

Types of Events

Online Meetings: Meeting where RD members gather through Zoom or other online platforms

Face-to-Face meetings: Get a daily dose of meetings by combining online with local meetings.

Online Workshops: 4-hour sessions on a specific topic. We often watch a dharma video and engage in discussion and writing activities.

Retreats and Conferences: Keep an eye out for Recovery Dharma or other Buddhist retreats that you could attend in person.

For the online community, outreach calls and texts are the glue that hold our community together.

But the process can be intimidating at first. Here are some actions steps to get started with the practice.

Daily Text / Voicemail

Try sending texts or leaving voicemails for others - with the intention of sending a gift of outreach.

We have many thoughts on ways to help imbue this practice a sense of ease and joy:

Get contact information: During online calls, this happens during the Virtual Parking Lot. (VPL)
Start Texting: The VPL is also an excellent time to send an initial text or email to say hi.
One Week Repeat: Try sending 1-3 texts per day to different people and see where it goes.
Topics for Texts
- Just practicing outreach
- Appreciation
- Insight or reflection
- Question
- How are you?
- Continue on topic from meeting
- Bookend difficult tasks
- Ask for outreach calls
- Sett up 10 minute chat time

Upgrade to Voicemail

The same practice as as above, but with voicemail.

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