Open Heart Circle Practice available

Hello PIs!
A new practice is available.
Please contact me at: nvail@naropa.edu if you are interested in receiving the liturgy and instructions.

Dear Nalandabodhi Directors and Practice Coordinators,

RE: The Open Heart Circle Practice

The Open Heart Circle is the result of a sangha interest group meeting on Death and Dying at Sangha Retreat (2005). At that meeting, we discussed services NB might offer to community members with terminal illnesses, to their caregivers, and to the community at large. As discussed at Sangha Retreat, illness and death are usually seen as a failure rather than as a natural process in our lives. In brief, the Open Heart Circle is an adapted Mahayana practice of sending and taking for all sentient beings who are ill, dying, or who have recently died. This practice helps one to develop an awareness of impermanence in daily life while awakening our innate loving kindness for ourselves and others. It helps break through the barrier of “me and mine” and the misperception (for those who are healthy) that sickness, death and dying happen to others. It offers a vehicle to bring illness and sorrow to the path and to develop compassion for both our own suffering and the suffering of others.

Nalandabodhi Centers and Study Groups are invited to implement this practice for their community as it can help develop close bonds within the local sangha while offering support. Names of international sangha members and their families could be included, as appropriate. We are also attaching a document entitled “Ceremonies for the Dead” which are additional practices that sangha members may want to engage in.

As our sangha ages, the Open Heart Circle offers a powerful vehicle for growth and transformation, both personally and community-wide.

May kindness fill the universe!
For Nalandabodhi,


Rosemary Bakker
New York, NY


Lee Worley
Boulder, CO