Sacred Evening Sangha
A Month of Practice for Liberating Your Heart While Working for Collective Liberation
April 21st - May 16th, 2024
“Because we were never meant to survive and here we are creating a world full of love.”
– Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Revolutionary Mothering
Sacred Evening Sangha is a 4-week online Buddhist meditation immersion in restorative heart practices, with the intention of fortifying your care and resting in it at the end of each day.
I created this container for people working toward collective liberation: teachers, artists, organizers, activists, healers, caregivers, storytellers, responders – all of us who are encountering, interrupting and transforming suffering at whatever scale we find it.
“The revolution will be led by well-rested people.”
– Tricia Hersey, “On Rest As Resistance”
We are directly impacted by the systems we are healing, challenging, and reimagining through our work and our lives.
Responding to chronic and overlapping crises, while imagining and building new ways of being…
Even with all our courage, compassion, and creativity – it can be a lot for our hearts. For our nervous systems. For our relationships.
If we are to sustain our work, and be well in it, we will need the support of liberation practices that help us tend our hearts and nurture our power.
‘So perhaps, first of all, resistance means opposition to being invaded, occupied, assaulted, and destroyed by the system. The purpose of resistance, here, is to seek the healing of yourself in order to be able to see clearly…”
– Thich Nhat Hanh, The Raft is Not the Shore
There are countless paths that can lead us to this kind of liberation.
A few of my favorites are found in the Buddha’s teachings on the brahmaviharas, or “divine abodes.” They are the four expressions of the liberated heart, and four practices that lead to liberation:
Metta (lovingkindness) – unconditional positive regard, a balm for fear and anxiety
Karuna (compassion) – where care meets capacity, dissolves illusion of separation
Mudita (appreciative joy) – a felt experience of mutual, collective wellbeing, heals competition and jealousy
Upekkha (equanimity) – the heart of wisdom, releases overwhelm and lets go of unnecessary struggle.
In our time together we’ll practice with each of these qualities in embodied, experiential ways.
“When you are as full as the full moon – burst open. Make the dark night shine.”
Doing these practices at night, after work and before sleep, creates an energetic boundary between the activity of the day and our sacred rest, play and dream time. And they incline us toward a deeper and less troubled sleep.
A restful evening practice might not be as shiny and bushy-tailed as a morning session.
But it can be every bit as rich. Lush. Vivid, even.
We get to sit down in the beautiful mess of this life and discover that the ground has never left us.
That our breath rocks steady.
That we can, indeed, by loving and letting go, slip into the dream space where all things are possible and where liberation is already here.
(For some of us, evening is also the most accessible and reliable time to practice. If you have an early morning job, an emotionally expressive dog, or young children who rise with the sun – or if you simply have never been and at this point will never be a morning person – please be assured that the early hours of the day are not the only option for going deeper in your spiritual path)
What will this month of practice be like?
Guided evening guided practice will be offered live 5x/week on Zoom, every weeknight (Sunday-Thursday) from 8:30-9:15pm EST. (Recordings are available by 9:30pm EST, in case you missed it or want to practice later that evening)
Feel free to keep your camera off. There will be no breakout rooms. Lying down is strongly encouraged…
Each session will include:
a few minutes of guided restorative/somatic movement
a light offering of Dharma teachings from Buddhism and other liberatory paths
a hearty 25-30 minutes of gently guided meditation practice
Optional Weekly Teacher-Led Discussion Circles will take place on Zoom every Friday morning at 10am and afternoon at 3pm EST.
Would this practice be supportive to you?
Please join us.
This month-long meditation intensive is offered at a sliding scale range from $216 - $750 (email me if you need an even more affordable base rate).. I believe in everyone who feels drawn to this month of heart practices and trust you will select the rate you can honorably afford.
Registration Options*
Sustaining Rate:
If you have financial abundance and security, or personal or generational wealth…
$750 (or, two monthly payments of $375)
Supporting Rate:
If you are employed and/or able to meet your basic financial needs, dine out, and afford small splurges…
$480 (or, two monthly payments of $240)
Base Rate:
If you are currently experiencing financial insecurity and/or are unemployed…
$216 (or, two monthly payments of $108)
If you carry one or more marginalized identities and the base rate is more than you can afford:
Please send me an email at kate@katejohnson.com to request an accessible rate for you.
*30% of revenue from this course will be donated to movement work/aid for Palestine