Dear the Mindfulness Bell magazine, 

I am writing to thank you for sending me a copy of your magazine. The articles regarding meat-free diets are very enlightening and have caused me to reconsider the foods that I eat and how that food is grown. 

I look forward to receiving the current edition of your magazine with the subscription you were gracious enough to provide for me. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to read your magazine even though I do not have the financial resources to pay for a subscription. 

I anticipate learning a great deal more about Buddhist philosophy and the Buddhist way of life as I read your magazine. Thank you again. 

Sincerely, 

Eric Eaves 

Dear friends at the Mindfulness Bell, 

I want to say a deep and heartfelt thank you for the Summer 2019 edition of the magazine and the focus on the Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings. I live in Scotland, and I am an aspirant joyfully on the path toward receiving the trainings. 

What a joy it was to read the writers’ words! Whenever I hear real-life experiences of the trainings, the words feel less dry and more accessible. I also loved the honesty with which they expressed their reservations regarding some of the ways in which the trainings are worded. Leslie Rawls put our focus on openness beautifully when she said: 

“The mindfulness trainings are not intended to be shackles that bind us to one way of doing things, but are practices that set us free and help us respond to suffering.” 

In particular, I enjoyed the responses to the Fourteenth Mindfulness Training “True Love,” especially the articles by Jane Ellen Combelic and Sheila Canal. I wanted to shout, “At last!” as I read them. Someone is speaking openly and joyfully about their sexuality in the context of our practice. Breaking the silence, the taboo, the shame … courageous and wonderful! 

For the first time, I sat this morning and journalled about my sexuality. I resonated so much with what both said. It has prompted me to take a look at my own sexuality and resistance to intimacy that has grown over the years, in a long-term marriage with children, and seek guidance and help. I now recognise that the training is in essence about non-harm in sexual relations, and that suppression of these natural urges and desires can in itself cause harm to myself and my partner. It has also prompted me to talk to my fourteen-year-old son about healthy sexuality, something that my parents never had the ability or courage to do with me as a teenager, and which contributed to my own confusion and shame. 

Thank you again, dear friends, for courageously publishing these fresh, wise, and beautifully human expressions of the trainings. They brought them to life and brought a new dimension to my mindfulness path. 

With a deep bow and a smile, 

Orla