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Wednesday, January 01, 2014

ANNUAL REFLECTION GUIDE

ANNUAL INTENTIONS GUIDE QUESTIONS

Each year we set time aside for a backward and forward consideration of our lives, individually and as a community. In December, we shared our reflections on how we have contributed to our own, our family and the community’s progress for the passing year. Now, around the time of the Western and Chinese New Years, we look ahead and consider how we will contribute to our own, our family and our community’s prosperity.

Here is a framework of guiding questions for the New Year Intentions reflection.

1. WISDOM
This question invites you to reflect on your coming efforts to cultivate knowledge and understanding in yourself and for others.

  • How will you cultivate knowledge for yourself? (Reading, study, training, hobbies)
  • How will you contribute to and foster the knowledge of others, including the larger community?
  • In what ways will you balance the emotional and intellectual sides of your life?

2. PRACTICE IN ACTION
Practice is both the formal practices we apply in our lives, but also the many ways we bring our growing practice skill to everyday living.

  • What practices will you work on this year?
  • How will you apply your formal practices to your everyday life?
  • In what ways will you develop your power of concentration?
  • In what ways will you develop your capacity to pay attention to your life?
  • In what ways will you strengthen the practice environment of the Red Maple Sangha?

3. ETHICAL LIVING
Knowledge and practice remain private experiences unless they are applied to everyday living. Our teaching recommends we focus on the wholesome expression of our practice, on actions which fulfill what we are learning in our practice and what we come to understand through study.

  • How will you express your practice, in language and purposeful action?
  • How will practice impact and shape your work situation?
  • How will practice shape and impact your home life and relationships?
  • How will practice shape your relation to the immediate and world-wide community within which you live?

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