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Dear Heartwood Community,

We share some important news about the path ahead for our community — change that we hope you’ll receive not as an ending, but as an evolution rooted in the same intention that has always guided us: supporting each other’s cultivation and awakening.At our recent Board meeting, we discussed some significant steps forward for Heartwood. As our community evolves, we are adjusting our schedule, transitioning our physical space, and reframing how we study and practice together.Here is what you need to know about where we are headed and what to expect in the coming weeks.

Transitioning our Physical Space

We have made the decision to place Heartwood’s current property on the market due to a combination of factors. Selling the building should free up financial resources, giving our sangha a capital reserve to pilot our next phase without immediate financial pressure. 

What about a new space?

We will not be signing a new lease until a sales contract on the current building is in place. We are currently exploring potential rental options in the area—as well as shared or donated space models—to ensure our future location is sustainable, accessible, and well-aligned with our practice needs.

A New Vision for our Sangha

Interactive Study & PracticeHeartwood is transitioning into a lay-led sangha model focused on foundational Buddhist cultivation.Moving forward, we are shifting away from traditional Dharma talks in favor of an interactive, community-led format focused on daily accountability and living the teachings. We will be using trusted texts to anchor our discussions.Venerable Bhusita will likely be spending extended periods in California, and possibly other monastic settings, while serving as a  spiritual director, present locally at least six months of the year. During these away periods, operational and facilitation leadership will be carried by our sangha community.Schedule Changes & Work Days This WeekendAs a part of preparing for the sale of the property, multiple changes will need to be made to the interior to prepare it for showings. To support our upcoming physical move and focus our efforts:

• Wednesday noon sessions are canceled for the foreseeable future.

• Evening practices are paused until further noticeSundays are shifting to an interactive Dharma contemplation and practice/study format.

• THIS SUNDAY (Sept 27): Work Day, No Dharma Session. We will be pausing our regular Sunday gathering this weekend to prepare our building for sale.

Supporting our Transition

Heartwood remains a fully donation-based community. As we step into this nimble, lay-led chapter, your presence, participation, and practice are what keep our sangha vibrant and sustainable.We invite you to step into leadership, join our Sunday practice sessions, and help us steward this next evolution of Heartwood.If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to any board member or reply directly to this email.With deep gratitude for your practice and commitment,

The Heartwood Board,

Brian, Nancy, Elsie, Joe, and Bhusita

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Devotion and faith (to the way of the Buddha) aren’t outward things. They don’t depend on the words we say, the altars we build, whether one is a monastic or a lay person or even who one prays to. In true devotion, there is no contrivance and nothing is required except a giving of the heart – and renunciation or letting go of the fierce attachment to the thoughts, fears, and appearances of this transient life. This requires no formality or ceremony. In letting go, we create space for the light of truth and liberation from suffering. What does letting go mean? The Dharma teaches that we must first see with wisdom that what we hold onto are mirages! -memories, names, false constructions, temporary feelings connected to thoughts and smells, and associations. They are built through innumerable causes temporarily coming together in a moment and then falling away… if we let them.

This heart of devotion doesn’t try to force or control or to preach. It doesn’t judge, doesn’t push, and doesn’t pretend. It completely lacks fabrication. This is love in the true sense – in the absolute sense. Bodhicitta.

We are in a battle right now. There are forces that are attempting to drag us away from that one true thing- to distract the surface mind, to steep us further into delusion, to give away agency, and to inhibit our intrinsic nature from being known and expressed through all sorts of means.

It is funny. Even as I write this I notice an irritation arise as intrusions from phone notifications push in. I notice a desire for space- – but isn’t that also what needs to be released? It isn’t the people or the notifications- it is the attachment to the thought and reaction and aversion to the “intrusion”. I can actually be here now with no push/ pull; no me/ no you; no here/ no there.

Let us be unrelenting in considering all obstacles AS path and in rooting in the truth of our being. Let us look at and really see each other with open hearts. Let us shed all that is false. Let us take refuge in the goodness and the brightness that is our essential nature.

Manjushri said, “Layman, how should a bodhisattva who is ill go about tempering and controlling his mind?” Vimilakirti replied, “A bodhisattva who is ill should think to himself: ‘Now these illnesses of mine all spring from the deluded thoughts, the upside-down thinking and various earthly desires of my past existence. They have no real existence, so who is it who suffers illness? Why? The four major elements come together, and therefore we apply a makeshift name, calling the thing a body. But the four major elements have no master, and the body has no “I” or ego. And these illnesses too all arise from attachment to ego. Therefore I should harbor no such attachment to ego.”

…”Then, in order to wipe out the thought of phenomena, the ailing bodhisattva should think to himself: ‘This thought or concept of phenomena too is a form of upside-down thinking, and upside-down thinking can lead to great misfortune. I must rid myself of it. But how to rid myself of it? By ridding myself of thoughts of I and mine, which means ridding myself of dualism.’ “What is meant by ridding oneself of dualism? It means not thinking of phenomena as internal or external, but treating all as equal. What is meant by equal? It means that I and nirvana are treated as equal. Why? Because I and nirvana are both empty. Why are they empty? Because they are mere names, hence empty. Neither of these two phenomena has any fixed nature or characteristics. Once one has acquired this kind of equal outlook, one will be freed of all other illness and will have only the illness of emptioness, and the illness of emptiness too is empty.”

Vimilakirti Sutra