Truth Mandala: A Ritual for Honoring our Grief, Distress, and Love for our World
Meditation - Community Ritual - Dharma
“Truth-telling is like oxygen: it enlivens us. Without it we grow confused and numb. It is also a homecoming, bringing us back to powerful connection and basic authority.”
OFFERED ON DONATION BASIS
WHEN: Sunday, March 30th, 2025 from 4:30-6:30pm PT
WHERE: Online via Zoom
ABOUT: Alongside increasing collective uncertainty about what we are witnessing in the US right now, I feel more certain than ever about the power of practice and the medicine meditation has to offer in these times. For those who feel called to come together in compassionate community, I'm hosting a Truth Mandala ritual this month, for honoring our pain and love for our world. I've practiced this ritual for decades and believe in the power of coming together consciously to grieve, metabolize our feelings, and allow conscious response to arise from a place of healing, beyond reactivity. All are welcome to join me on Sunday, March 30th at 4:30pm PT. Register by Wednesday, March 26th.
The Truth Mandala is a Community Ritual for Honoring Our Grief, Anxiety, Anger, Hope and Love for the world. It is part of Joanna Macy’s ‘Work that Reconnects’: a framework for personal and social change.
Joanna Macy is a scholar of Buddhism, systems thinking and deep ecology. A respected voice in movements for peace, justice, and ecology, she interweaves her scholarship with learning from six decades of activism.
The Truth Mandala provides a simple, respectful, whole group structure for owning and honoring our pain for the world. The practice emerged in 1990 amid a large, tension-filled workshop near Frankfurt, on the first anniversary of the reunification of East and West Germany. On arriving to the workshop, ready to deliver the activities she had planned, Joanna quickly noticed how the official reunification celebrations had triggered painful and unprocessed emotions in the workshop’s participants; she found people talking loudly at each other and realized it was important for people to have the chance to allow, express and process their feelings without turning on one another. In this moment, she abandoned her original plans and the Truth Mandala was born.
The Truth Mandala is a (roughly) 2-hour ritual that creates a brave space to experience, witness and (if desired) express your feelings about the world, as well as feelings relating to your personal life (they are intrinsically related to the conditions of our world). After registration, you will receive instructions for the Truth Mandala event by March 21st.
SUGGESTED SLIDING SCALE DONATION: $0-25
No one is turned away due to lack of funds. This suggested donation honors the resources it takes to organize and facilitate this half-retreat. While some of you might have less resources at this time, others might be moved by the spirit of generosity to make a larger donation that supports more people to be there. All donations made to Mindful Living Revolution support us in offering our work in the world to more people. This includes supporting our Scholarship Fund and our 6-month Heart of Listening: On Behalf of Our Collective training.
For those of you who would like to offer a larger tax-deductible donation to support Mindful Living Revolution’s scholarship fund and general operations, you can donate here. We are grateful for all contributions to support our work in eco-dharma, sacred activism, and relational mindfulness bridging personal and collective awakening.
Truth Mandala Ritual for Honoring Our Love, Anxiety, Grief, and Pain For Our World
