Community Mindfulness Center | SokukoJi Buddhist Community

THE CHALLENGE

Living mindfully in a chaotic and fragmented society is difficult. Mindfulness is a state of deep connection to one’s thoughts, feelings, and perceptions. Whatever state of wakefulness we’re embodying at the moment translates directly into how we relate to ourselves, others, and our environment. Knowing oneself is key to engaging with the world with sanity, understanding, compassion, and love.

Mindfulness supports us in relating to the complexities of modern life, improving mental health, reducing stress, and offering a sense of general well-being. Learning to be mindful is best embraced, cultivated, and practiced within a supportive community.

Currently, there are no organizations in Battle Creek dedicated to a secular approach to mindfulness. Additionally, while SokukoJi has a lively and active virtual community, representing more than 30 states and 20 countries, and featuring a residential training program housing seventeen students, SokukoJi’s campus is limited in supporting public, in-person spiritual offerings or directly engaging with the local community onsite.

THE VISION

The Community Mindfulness Center will be an inclusive and welcoming place to discover basic goodness and a sense of well-being. It will be a space to think deeply, get to know yourself, and learn to communicate, cooperate, and collaborate within a community.

Sokuzan ~

Abbot of

SokukoJi

Buddhist

Community

Become a Supporter of the Community Mindfulness Center

HOW YOU
CAN
HELP

To bring this new space from concept to reality, we at SokukoJi, with your support, plan to raise $1million. The Community Mindfulness Center will be a vibrant space to nurture and support the needs of our local community and extend SokukoJi’s mission into the world.

Won’t you join us in bringing the Community Mindfulness Center to life?

THE COMMUNITY MINDFULNESS CENTER

The Community Mindfulness Center will offer secular-based meditation classes, embodied practices like yoga, and mental health services. Regular public offerings on topics such as working with anger, developing patience, living within a community, and personifying mindfulness in daily life will find a home in this space.

Supporting gatherings of up to 100 people, the Community Mindfulness Center will also be a place for people to explore spirituality and engage in Buddhist offerings, including in-person classes, group retreats, individual learning, and meditation sessions.

The new building will feature a meditation hall. On the main thoroughfare nearest the Community Mindfulness Center, there will be an electronic sign showcasing upcoming programs.

WHERE WE ARE NOW

Donors have been very generous and supportive of this project and to date have given $420,000. We have modified our approach to fit how the money is showing up. Instead of rebuilding the existing space we will renovate it, beginning with a new roof this spring. That will cost about half of the money raised thus far. We will then add electrical, heating, flooring, dais, lighting, audio-visual technology, and an entryway.

We need your financial support to make this fundamental approach to basic sanity available to members of this community so disrupted by globalization.