November 7, 2024

​

Dear Portland Insight Sangha members,

​

We realize that this week’s election has, for some, added even more anxiety to what was already a very challenging time for our community. 

 

This is a juncture when practice and Sangha are critical, and we wanted to let you know that we are now offering a number of regular opportunities for meditation and connection:

 

• Peer-Led Sunday Morning Sit. Meets at 10 a.m. Pacific at the PIMC Center in Southeast Portland. The weekly gathering will consist of a lightly-guided meditation followed by silent meditation, a period for personal sharing, some mindful movement, and then light refreshments and conversation. Online access TBD.

​

• Peer-Led Morning Sit. Daily (Monday through Saturday) at 7:00 a.m. Pacific on Zoom. Access with this link.

​​

• Jim's Guest House, led by Jim Dalton. Meets on Zoom on Monday nights at 7:00 p.m. Pacific. Access with this link.

​

• Peer-Led Tuesday Morning Sit. Meets on Tuesdays at 9:30 a.m. Pacific. Access with this link.

​

• The Heart of Freedom, led by Doug Pullin. Meets on Thursday nights on Zoom at 7:30 p.m. Pacific. Access with this link. 

​

​

A Powerful Reconvening

 

Additionally, we would like to thank all of you who attended last Sunday’s enormously powerful council gathering (and an extra bow of appreciation for our facilitators from Great Vow Monastery and Zen Community of Oregon). We apologize to anyone who tried to join via Zoom but could not enter the event due to us reaching the virtual capacity limit. We will be sure to be more mindful of our maximum moving forward.

 

As a Board, we are in the process of reflecting on the day and determining next steps for more council circles and other programming that can help the Sangha heal and evolve. 

 

We are also working to determine the best structure for planning the long-term future of PIMC as an organization and to garner direct feedback on this process from Sangha members. Be on the lookout for more information on all this very soon.

 

The enormous turnout we saw last Sunday is a clear signal of the strength and vitality of our community, as well as of the impact of our collective Dharma practice. We look forward to continuing to create the container for this experiment in American Buddhism, regardless of the political turmoil or personal tragedies around us.

 

Please reach out at PIMCBoard@portlandinsight.org with any thoughts, concerns or questions. And thank you for being here with us on the path.

 

Sincerely,

 

The PIMC Board

(Vik Anantha, Tracy Cullen, Shane Dixon Kavanaugh, Dan Leif and Doug Pullin)

​

​

​

October 30, 2024

​

Dear Portland Insight Sangha members,

​​

We’d like to invite you to a special opportunity to practice and reconnect in a hybrid format this Sunday, Nov. 3, from 10 a.m to noon.

 

The council-style gathering (more information below) will be our first time bringing Sangha members back together since the tragic and challenging events we encountered in late September. 

 

Please join us in person at the center in Southeast Portland or via Zoom. Zoom participants should contact office@portlandinsight.org to receive a link for our gathering. In-person participants are invited to arrive at the center as early as 9:30 a.m. 

 

Also, please remember that daylight savings time ends Sunday morning, so our clocks will be falling back an hour.

​

What to Expect

 

This Sunday’s event will be held in a council circle format. After an opening chant and a short period of silent meditation, Sangha members will be able to share their perspectives and feelings around the recent resignation of our guiding teacher and the suicide death of a longtime community member. 

 

Council is a practice of relationship and of building community, in which we commit to a process of empathic listening and heartfelt communication. 

 

The open sharing at the heart of council practice may have therapeutic effects, but it is not therapy and is not convened with the intention to resolve anything, or necessarily to come to a particular resolution or consensus. Its potential is to cultivate the thoughtful expression of the individual’s voice of experience, reflection, and wisdom. It is an invitation for collective or communal wisdom to arise.

 

You can read more information on guidelines for the council practice here. We will also provide printouts of the guidelines Sunday.

 

Who will be leading?

 

The PIMC Board and remaining teachers will lead individual components of Sunday’s gathering, and the council process will be facilitated by Jan Chozen Bays, Laura Martin and Nan Whitaker-Emrich. These three experienced teachers and facilitators are associated with Zen Community of Oregon in Portland and Great Vow Monastery in Clatskanie. We are grateful for the generous support and guidance they have offered PIMC over the last few weeks.

 

Jan Chozen Bays is an ordained Zen teacher and a pediatrician who specialized for thirty

years in the evaluation of children for abuse and neglect. She trained in Zen for fifty years, with

Roshis Taizan Maezumi and Shodo Harada. With her husband, Hogen Bays, she serves as co-

abbot of Great Vow Zen Monastery, a residential center for intensive Zen training in Clatskanie,

Oregon. Over the last 40 years she has assisted a number of sanghas with situations of

misconduct by Buddhist teachers. She teaches Healthy Boundaries for Buddhist Leaders, an

online course designed to help prevent misuse of power.

 

Laura Jomon Martin has been practicing Zen since 2004 and received Lay Teacher Transmission from Chozen and Hogen Roshi in 2019. She has served in various capacities within the Zen Community of Oregon Sangha, leading retreats and classes, and she has served on the Sangha Harmony Committee, the Board of Directors, and the Communications Committee. She continues a long career as a social worker (since 1993), with most of those years in community mental health agencies. 

 

Nan Whitaker-Emrich has been an active member of the Zen Community of Oregon since 2006. During that time she served as co-chair of The Engaged Buddhism Committee, on the Board of Directors, and as a member of the Sangha Harmony Committee through the development and writing of Zen Community of Oregon's Ethical Principles and Conflict Management document. In her professional life she worked as a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist for more than 35 years.

 

Our FAQ on recent events

 

For more information on what has occurred at Portland Insight in recent weeks, we encourage you to read our list of Frequently Asked Questions.

 

The gathering Sunday will be focused on creating space for community members to give voice to their own individual experience. It will not be a forum for communicating details about the incidents that occurred in September – please read the FAQ page to familiarize yourself with the Sangha’s current situation.

 

We thank you so much for the continued support of the community and dedication to Dharma practice during these difficult times. As always, feel free to reach out to us at BoardPIMC@portlandinsight.org with any questions or comments.

 

We look forward to seeing you on Sunday

 

The PIMC Board 

(Vik Anantha, Tracy Cullen, Shane Dixon Kavanaugh, Dan Leif and Doug Pullin)  

​

​

​

​

October 24, 2024

​

Dear Portland Insight Sangha members,

 

Thank you again for your patience and support as we continue to navigate the enormously challenging circumstances that our community confronts. 

 

We are pleased to announce that we have scheduled a time for meditation practice and dialogue in a hybrid format on Sunday, Nov. 3 from 10 a.m to noon.

 

You are invited to join us at the PIMC center in Southeast Portland or via Zoom for a council-style gathering that day. After an opening chant and a short period of silent meditation, Sangha members will be able to share their perspectives and feelings around the recent resignation of our guiding teacher and the tragic death of a longtime community member. 

 

The event will be guided by Jan Chozen Bays, Laura Martin and Nan Whitaker-Emrich, three experienced teachers and facilitators who are leaders at Zen Community of Oregon in Portland and Great Vow Monastery in Clatskanie. We are grateful for the generous support and guidance they have offered PIMC over the last few weeks.

 

Sangha members joining at the center in-person can arrive as early as 9:30 a.m. The council meeting will run until noon and regular Sunday hospitality (coffee, tea and treats) will take place in the PIMC Living Room immediately following.

 

This will be an opportunity to re-connect with fellow practitioners and receive support as the community continues to move through this painful and traumatic period. We will send more information next week, as well as a Zoom link for those individuals planning to join online.

 

We are also finalizing a list of answers to frequently asked questions we’ve received in the last month, which we plan to make available before Nov. 3.

 

In the meantime, feel free to reach out to us at BoardPIMC@portlandinsight.org with any questions or comments.

 

Sincerely,

 

The PIMC Board 

(Vik Anantha, Tracy Cullen, Shane Dixon Kavanaugh, Dan Leif and Doug Pullin) 

​

​

​

October 10, 2024

​

To the Sangha of the Portland Insight Meditation Center,

​

We know that the recent resignation of our Guiding Teacher and tragic suicide death of a community member are unnerving developments that have likely raised many questions and concerns for you. 

 

We appreciate your patience and support as we continue to work through this enormously complicated situation. We’d like to offer an update on the work we have been doing to address this crisis as well as outline some next steps to bring the community back together.

 

On Sept. 23, we learned the details of Robert Beatty’s ethically inappropriate relationship and the death of KB Mercer.

 

We acted immediately to secure Robert’s resignation, reach out to KB’s family and others to fully understand the scope of what had transpired, and inform the PIMC community of the basic facts.

 

We then began the challenging process of disentangling PIMC from Robert, who has been at the center of the organization since its founding two decades ago, and who was tied to virtually all of the financial accounts and operational systems at the center.

 

We have also worked to remove Robert’s access to the PIMC building and his former office; brought on legal counsel to ensure we are taking proper steps and protecting the organization; and taken in feedback and perspective from numerous community members.

 

We’ve tackled each of these crucial tasks as a small, all-volunteer Board and with the hugely helpful support of one part-time staff member. 

 

While taking these actions to stabilize and secure PIMC at a fundamental level, we needed to pause all Sangha gatherings, both in-person and online. We understand this likely added a sense of unease, confusion and frustration for many – it is in times of tragedy and uncertainty that Sangha is its most critical.

 

Please know this move to pause was not a decision made lightly. The events of late September have been so devastating that the wisest move from our perspective was to stop all programming. This gave us space as a Board to understand and work through all the tasks that needed to be immediately addressed while also giving us time to determine how to best bring Sangha members back together in a safe, supportive environment.

 

Along those lines, we are ready to inform you that opportunities for group practice are being rekindled in virtual settings. 

 

A daily morning meditation group is gathering at 7 a.m. Pacific Monday through Saturday. This is a peer-led gathering (no teacher present) that involves a silent sit and an opportunity for personal sharing. 

 

Additionally, Doug Pullin has restarted his Thursday evening Heart of Freedom group and Jim Dalton is offering his Guest House gathering on Monday nights. For the time being, neither are being held under the PIMC umbrella.

 

If you are interested in joining any of the opportunities for group practice mentioned above, please be in touch at BoardPIMC@portlandinsight.org and we can provide you with additional details and a Zoom link.

 

Finally, we are currently working to set a date for a community dialogue, which will be open to anyone who would like to participate and will be held online. 

 

We are in discussions with a facilitator who has expertise in guiding Buddhist communities through episodes of grief and trauma, and our hope is that this individual will lead us in the community discussion. The gathering will serve as a venue for us to be together as a Sangha, for community members to ask questions, and for all of us to start to think collectively about where PIMC goes from here.

 

Information on the date and time of that community dialogue will be sent out as soon as it is finalized.

 

Again, we so appreciate your patience and understanding as we have tried to do our best to manage a series of events that has shaken all of us so deeply. We are working as hard and thoughtfully as possible in our role as stewards of the Dharma and to serve all of you that make up this Sangha. 

 

Please continue to reach out with thoughts or questions at BoardPIMC@portlandinsight.org. We look forward to connecting again soon,

 

The PIMC Board

(Vik Anantha, Tracy Cullen, Shane Dixon Kavanaugh, Dan Leif and Doug Pullin)

​

​​​​​​​​​​

​​

​

October 3, 2024

 

To the Sangha of the Portland Insight Meditation Center,​

​​

Last week we informed you about the death of a Sangha member, and we are following up now to offer more information.

 

KB Mercer, 64, took her own life on September 21, a fact we share with the heaviest of hearts.

 

She had been an active part of PIMC for years, serving as a volunteer greeter on Sunday mornings and participating in many gatherings at the center and online.

​

We remember KB as a dedicated Dharma practitioner who was also passionate about climate action, theater, music and much else. We and many others at PIMC are devastated by her loss.

 

Our decision not to share this information sooner was to ensure KB’s family had time to announce the details first, on their own terms. You can read more about KB in an online obituary posted by her family. That site also gives you the opportunity to donate to organizations fighting for causes important to KB during her life.

 

The suicide death of a community member is tragic and unnerving. We send thoughts of healing and love to KB’s family, as well as anyone feeling the pain of this death. The Buddha taught us to open to suffering and impermanence, but experiencing the manifestation of those realities in this episode is painful beyond words.

 

For those community members who may find themselves troubled by these details, we have compiled a list of resources that you can turn to for help in the event of a mental health crisis.

 

Finally, we recognize the need to come together in practice in challenging times. We are continuing to work through the complex process of separating the organization from its founder in the wake of his serious violation of our Code of Ethics and subsequent resignation. For the time being, we need to continue to keep the center closed and all programming on pause. 

 

We are committed to keeping lines of communication open and will update you immediately as we decide on next steps. If you’d like to be in touch with us, please email BoardPIMC@portlandinsight.org.

 

May we all remember KB and, in so doing, remember the preciousness of life. 

 

The PIMC Board 

(Vik Anantha, Tracy Cullen, Shane Dixon Kavanaugh, Dan Leif and Doug Pullin)