By Caleb Cushing A decade ago, on the infamous exercise yard of San Quentin State Prison, an inmate sat upright by himself along the fence. A few close friends approached and asked what he was doing. He said he was practicing Zen meditation, and they sat down with him. All…
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Letter from the Editor
Letter from the managing editor of the Mindfulness Bell
Pain, Love, and Happiness
By Khanh Le Van The University of California at Santa Barbara campus was huge. "Wait till you see the gym," said my Dharma brother Arnie. Indeed, for the next five days we 1,300 retreatants would sit together in that gym for meditation and Dharma talks. A team beaded by Wendy Johnson was busy arranging the…
Dharma Talk: Diet for a Mindful Society
Mindfulness is the blood of our psyche. It is exactly like the blood in our body—it has the power to wash away the toxins and heal our pain, the pain in our consciousness. When we are not mindful, we ingest many poisons into our consciousness. In fact, we water the…
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…
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…
Here Is the Pure Land. The Pure Land Is Here.
One day, Queen Vaidehi asked the Buddha, "Is the place with no suffering very far away?" The Buddha replied, "No, it is not far away." And then the Buddha taught the queen how to touch the land of Great Happiness in her own heart and in her own mind. We talk about "the Pure Land." In…
The Twelve Steps Meet the Eightfold Path
By Jim Tillman In October of 2014, Magnolia Grove Meditation Practice Center hosted the first mindfulness retreat for people in twelve-step programs and their extended community. The retreat was called “True Nourishment and Healing” in reference to the Fifth Mindfulness Training, establishing common ground with people in twelve-step programs who…
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…