The World We Are By Felipe Viveros, Miranda van Schadewijk, and Bas Bruggeman photos courtesy of Felipe Viveros Look at the flower. Could it possibly exist without the rain, the sun, the soil, the gardener, the minerals or even without your consciousness? It could not exist if only one of…
Search results for “is nothing something”
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Always at the Beginning
My First Retreat Experience By Haven Tobias A friend and I set out from Oklahoma, bound for the Rocky Mountains, and my first mindfulness retreat. Two years before I knew nothing of Buddhism or Thich Nhat Hanh. Now, I still feel uninformed, but trust my friend, Marla, and my well-intentioned…
Practicing Reverence for Life
By David Gates Snail at Cabo da Roca; photo by David Gates Reverence for life is a simple three-word phrase reverberating with meaning and truth, perhaps more than any other three words possibly could. At least that is how it struck me in 2010 when I discovered the Five Mindfulness…
Practicing Acceptance
By Svein Myreng I was born with an organic heart disease that has limited my physical activity and more than once has brought me to the brink of death. Mental aspects of this handicap have, on the whole, been hardest to handle. The gap between my wish to be active and the limits set…
Letter from the Editor
Dear Thay, dear Sangha, While this issue was coming together, I spent an evening reading our teacher’s poetry on his experiences in war. Afterward, I dreamt that people in my community were drafted into military service and a war was going to break out within a few days. I was…
Touching Sunlight
By Peter Smith When the tree died, she continued as a violin, a chopping board, and a floorboard. At first the violin was very content. She felt grateful for the skill, care, and love with which she had been crafted. But, over time, the violin started to feel a little…
The Collective Bodhisattva
Sisterhood and Brotherhood in the Twenty-First Century By Sister Annabel, True Virtue If you were to ask me what could save this planet Earth I would say not eating meat, not using fossil fuels—but only if based on sisterhood and brotherhood. Sisterhood and brotherhood come first. Whatever we do we…
Writing in Community
During 1993, I have had one of the most gratifying years of my life working with the Community of Mindful Living giving writing workshops to war veterans. We called each day we gathered a Day of Mindfulness. We introduced ourselves by telling about our lives as veterans and as writers. After this, I…
Freedom Is the Purpose of Our Practice
By Thich Nhat Hanh August 22, 2001 Deer Park Monastery photo by Paul Davis The purpose of practice is not to become a Dharma teacher; a Dharma teacher is nothing at all. It is not to become a Sangha leader; to be a Sangha leader does not mean anything at…
The Gift of Plum
By Emily White One day, Ocean looked at Sky and thought, “I love Sky so much that I must give him a gift!” So Ocean took some of her water and made a present. She made Sky a cloud. Sky was thrilled. He loved his beautiful cloud so much that…