Community Village Sabbath Book Club & Practice Pod [public]

​"Only at rest can we hear what we have not heard before, and be led to what is most deeply beautiful, necessary, and true” - Wayne Muller

​Join us for a special edition of the Community Village Book Club. In honor of our 2nd Annual “Rest & Renunciation” Month, we'll read the book “Sabbath: Finding Rest, Renewal, and Delight in Our Busy Lives” by Wayne Muller and support each other to put a practice from the book into action in our lives.

​How it Works:

• ​🫂 3 facilitated gatherings for sharing, discussion, connection, and mutual support

• ​☺️ Practice pod to support each other in bringing the practice to life (sample practices below)

• ​💬 Connect with others beyond the gatherings in our Book Club WhatsApp Group

​To support trust, connection, and meaningful conversations in the group, we ask that you commit to a few things:

• ​✅ Attend all 3 gatherings

• ​✅ Read along & try at least one practice (*note: no reading necessary for the 1st session)

• ​✅ Ask questions, share insights, and enjoy being an active member of the community :)

​Gathering Details

• ​Location: SF Commons (540 Laguna St.)

• ​Dates: Tuesdays every other week (May 20th, June 3rd, June 17th)

• ​Time: 6:45-8:45pm

​
​Example Gathering Agenda
6:45: Arrival & Snacks (BYO!)
7pm: Welcome & settle in
7:15pm: Meditation (10m, silent)
7:25pm: Read Community Guidelines 
7:30pm: Book Discussion (breakout groups & full group)
8:30pm: Mutual support Practice Pod
8:45pm: End

​​Everyone is welcome, so feel free to share with a friend!

🍰We encourage you to BYO snacks for sharing :)

​​Sliding Scale Contributions

• ​Community Village & Commons members: $15-30 suggested donation ($5-10 per session)

• ​All others: ⁠$25-50 suggested donation ($8-16 per session)

​Depending on your life circumstances and financial abilities, we ask you to contribute as much as you can without overstretching or resentment. Your donation supports our vision to build a financially sustainable community that provides community builders with meaningful compensation and is available to all, regardless of their financial resources. Nobody will be turned away for a lack of funds. If you’re unable to support at one of the above tiers, simply send us an e-mail (support@community-village.org).

​More about “Sabbath: Finding Rest, Renewal, and Delight in Our Busy Lives", The Book
"In today's world, with its relentless emphasis on success and productivity, we have lost the necessary rhythm of life, the balance between work and rest. Constantly striving, we feel exhausted and deprived in the midst of great abundance. We long for time with friends and family, we long for a moment to ourselves. Millennia ago, the tradition of Sabbath created an oasis of sacred time within a life of unceasing labor... We need not even schedule an entire day each week. Sabbath time can be a Sabbath afternoon, a Sabbath hour, a Sabbath walk. With wonderful stories, poems, and suggestions for practice, Muller teaches us how we can use this time of sacred rest to refresh our bodies and minds, restore our creativity, and regain our birthright of inner happiness."

​More about Wayne Muller, The Author
Wayne Muller has been a therapist, minister, community advocate, consultant, public speaker, and bestselling author of Legacy of the Heart and Sabbath, among others. A graduate of Harvard Divinity School, Wayne spent the last thirty-five years serving thee abused, bereft, sick, and oppressed. He founded Bread for the Journey, a network of ordinary people who volunteer in neighborhood philanthropy. Wayne listens primarily for what is beautiful, strong, and true within us, to learn to find nourishment as our lives unfold in new, unexpected directions. He was Senior Scholar at the Fetzer Institute, Extended Faculty at the Institute for Noetic Sciences, and has received several awards for his work with those in need.

​Sample Sabbath Practices from the book

• ​Sabbath Time - Choose a time to step outside your normal flow of life, away from all the pressures & stresses of modern life, and decide to rest. Whether its 1 hour each day for a week, 1 day each week for a month, or some other cadence that feels doable for you - make this a time of rest, and choose a practice or several from the practices below to support you in resting.

  • ​The Sabbath Walk - a walk without any purpose, no need for insight or revelation. Simply let your soul catch up with you.

  • ​Turn off your phone, and other technology

  • ​Enjoy a nice meal, or cup of tea

  • ​Connect with nature

• ​Thinning - Thinning is making space for life.

  • ​What can you let go of?

  • ​One thing, beginning with the smallest thing. A book unread—can it be given to the library? An old postcard on the refrigerator, no longer current? An old appliance, never used? Old clothing, never worn, to the poor? What of projects that feel like responsibilities but bring joy to no one?

  • ​Pick one thing this week, another the next, and discard something that has become unnecessary. Feel any release as you let it go.

• ​Giveaway - The Buddha said that if we truly understood the power of giving, we would never let even a single meal pass without sharing it with someone. Go through your home, and look at what you have accumulated, especially the beautiful, inspiring, or nourishing things.

  • ​If you decided to make a gift of something to someone, how would you decide what to give?

  • ​And who should receive it?

  • ​Can you imagine giving it away, not to gain favor or reciprocity, but completely gratuitously?

  • ​Pick something, pick someone to receive it, and give it away. This is the beginning of true wealth

​​Community Village is a community-first approach to meditation oriented towards people in their 20s and 30s - and open to ALL (we don’t check IDs! :)). Whether you want to learn how to meditate, or are an experienced practitioner: our intention is to co-create welcoming and supportive environments to build meaningful connections, get inspired and learn how to bring practice into everyday life. We are a peer-led community, co-created by its members. Some come join in!

​​The SF Commons is a community gathering space in Hayes Valley. By day, we are a pro-social coworking space, and by night, we turn into a community meeting house with member-created and public events for communal meaning-making, personal discovery, and self-expression.