By Dennis Bohn My first exposure to the Fourteen Precepts (as they were called at the time) was in a Barnes and Noble bookstore in Cooper Square in New York’s East Village. I read the First Precept, saw “not be idolatrous or bound to any doctrine, theory or ideology, even…
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Plover Mind
By Michael Petracca I unlock the plover shed, a cinder block storeroom atop a cliff overlooking the Pacific. Through the shed’s salt filmy window, the sea looks glassy under a thick batting of overcast. Rust-colored kelp undulates slowly at low tide. Pelicans glide parallel to shore, pull up abruptly, plunge,…
Always Hug the Dharma!
Sangha Building and Growing Pains By Katie Hammond Holtz It is natural that we will experience growing pains as we go through the stages of life — and the same is true for Sanghas. If we expect our Sangha to fit our ego-definition of “perfect” all the time, we will…
Compassion in the Courtroom
By Gerard B. Wattigny Not long ago, my job called me to sentence a man who was 76 years old. He had killed two men and wounded another. These shootings occurred in a small town where all of those involved knew one another. His son and family were very upset over the incident, feeling…
The Joy of Practice Cannot Be Contained
By Leslie Rawls and Carl Dunlap, Jr. photo by Nyanayasha Shakya To our respected and beloved teacher, Thay Nhat Hanh, and to the stream of ancestral teachers who have preserved and transmitted the teachings, we offer an ocean of gratitude. From Carl December 5, 1988 was the coldest, darkest day…
Finding Joy in the Present Moment
I was raised in the Christian tradition, but as an older adult, I became more and more interested in meditation. I began with Centering Prayer, a form of Christian meditation. I was introduced to the teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh at an annual retreat for Centering Prayer. The retreat facilitator…
Finding Ways to Help
In 1975, Thich Nhat Hanh and I moved with several fliends to a house near Fontvannes, France. The war in Vietnam had ended and we were cut off from our country with no way to help. We named our community Les Patates Douces, Sweet Potatoes. In Vietnam, when peasants have no rice, they eat dried sweet potatoes.…
Ordination Gift to My Sister
By Megan Phelps Sister Thanh Trí and Megan, Solidity Hamlet, Deer Park, 2018 On September 9th, 2018, my sister was ordained at Deer Park Monastery along with nine other new monastics. It was an unusual experience to watch my sibling become a nun; I felt a mixture of pride, excitement,…
Salt in Clear Water
By Jennifer Shumaker Driving from Arkansas through Taos and the Carson National Forest, I had plenty of time to fantasize about the next six days. I was on my way to a mindfulness retreat with Therese Fitzgerald, Wendy Johnson, and a group of practitioners from activist professions at the Vallecitos Mountain Refuge in northern New…
Walking the Path
Order of Interbeing member Lisa November shares how she actively engages with Thầy’s teachings to respond to suffering.