Deep Listening and Diagnostic Assessment I first meditated with Thich Nhat Hanh at a retreat at Nottingham University in 2012. One day on the retreat, I was quite tired and decided to miss the mindful walking with Thay and go back to my room and rest. I paused on a…
Search results for “is nothing something”
1429 Results
A Frolic Down the Path of the Buddha
A Buddhist retreat at Plum Village is unlike any other Buddhist retreat (as far as I know). There’s relatively little sitting meditation, which surprises and disappoints some folks. But there are lots of other forms of meditation — in fact the practice of mindfulness means meditating twenty-four hours a day,…
On Karma
By Barbara Casey For over six years Barbara corresponded with a prison inmate named Claude. He had been convicted of aggravated assault, which means that he did someone serious harm. In a letter to her, Claude asked Barbara for insight about karma, and she asked some dharma teachers to respond…
The Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings and Sangha Building
Sister Annabel, True Virtue THE EIGHTH MINDFULNESS TRAINING:TRUE COMMUNITY AND COMMUNICATION Aware that lack of communication always brings separation and suffering, we are committed to training ourselves in the practice of compassionate listening and loving speech. Knowing that true community is rooted in inclusiveness and in the concrete practice of…
My Mind is a Stage
Introducing Mindfulness to High School Students and Teachers I grew up on Chicago’s Northshore, the area which, I later learned, had the highest teenage suicide rate in the country at the time. My own high school years were uneventful, but my younger brother’s were very troubled. I suspect that this was…
Loving the Whole
Reflections on Touching the Earth Aspirants from the Beech family during the Rains retreat, Upper Hamlet, Plum Village, 2018; photo courtesy of monastic Sangha Mist drifted across the Pacific mountain meadow as Sister Chan Khong’s voice guided several hundred retreatants in meditation beneath towering redwoods. It was 1993 and my…
Dharma Talk: The Way to Well-Being
At the retreat at the YMCA of the Rockies in Estes Park, Colorado, Sister Annabel offered this Dharma talk on August 24, 2007. In her soft British-accented voice, Sister Annabel gave a brilliant elucidation of the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path. Dear Sangha, today please allow me to…
Beach Cleaning Meditation
By Penelope Thompson Several months ago, our small sangha met at the beach for a morning of mindfulness. First we sat together, then we did forty-five minutes of "cleaning the beach meditation." After that we shared our experiences together and ended with walking meditation. The experience was extraordinary for all of us, and we have…
Zero And One
By Elizabeth Wood For me personally, the story of Thay's visit to Moscow last September began two nights before his arrival. I dreamed I was trying to hold the numbers zero and one together in my mind. As I woke up, the dream felt like a koan. Emptiness and form, zero and one, how…
Hospice Work: Responding Authentically
In working as a hospice volunteer for the past four years, I have found mindfulness to be the key to visiting with dying people and their families. I follow my breathing to bring myself completely into the present moment so that can respond to the situation at hand with authenticity…