A Retreat in Ireland By Caroline Dwyer photo by Sarah Dawson The realization of a long-held vision of the Irish Sangha was brought to fruition when dear Thay and fifty monastics were joyfully welcomed to Irish soil and led a four-day retreat in Killarney, County Kerry in April 2012. It…
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Vietnam: From Notion to Reality
By Therese Fitzgerald As soon as Arnie and I joined Thay for a retreat in St. Petersburg, Russia, he encouraged us to join Sister Annabel for two weeks, visiting temples and other Buddhist Pilgrimage sights around Hanoi and Hue. We were hesitant at first to make such a long trip for such a short…
Tributes to Jim
Dear Jim, We were contemporaries, close to the same age, survivors of the Vietnam era, and coordinators of our respective Sanghas, so you will probably appreciate the line from the James Taylor song that has been running through my head: "Just yesterday morning, they let me know you were gone." I opened The Mindfulness Bell…
Dharma in the Deep South
Reflections on the Roots Retreat Close-up etching of children enslaved by the Haydel family, Wall of Honor memorial, Whitney Plantation.Photo by Edissa Nicolás-Huntsman Some journeys take us out into the world, anchoring us in history; others bring us back to ourselves, connecting us with our past. The Mindful Peacebuilding Roots…
The Helping Hand
Brother Phap Dung (pronounced FAP YUNG) gave the children’s Dharma talk before Sister Annabel spoke during the Colorado retreat, 24 August 2007. I enjoy my life very much as a monk. I live with my brothers and sisters at Deer Park Monastery in California. We live together as a family.…
Soymilk Sangha
by Susan Hadler After dinner I walk to the kitchen to check on the soymilk we’ve made today. It should be cooling by now. Later, after evening meditation we’ll put it in the refrigerator, so we can have fresh soymilk for breakfast. The clean-up crew fills the kitchen with activity…
Being In Touch with Vietnam
Flood Relief Last winter, heavy floods brought severe devastation to Vietnam during two months. Sanghas throughout the world sent $10,000 to help Vietnamese people. In Central Vietnam, we assisted the most impoverished villages where there were no schools, health care systems, or bridges. In the rainy season these villages flood with water. In the summer,…
Mind in a Jar
During a retreat in South Africa, for the children’s program, a mother shared an activity. She brought out a large, glass vase filled with water and set it in the middle of the circle of children. Then she set out several containers of colored sand. She explained that the vase…
What’s Now?
Dear beloved Thầy, Please allow me to open my heart and express my deepest gratitude to you—a teacher, a leader, and a legend. You have helped us learn how to be human, how to connect, how to love, how to see each other as flowers in one garden of humanity.…
Making up Songs
Do you ever make up songs? Sometimes when we write the words to a song we don’t have music for it, so we use the music from another song that we already know. In English we have a very old song called “Greensleeves,” but the words are not inspiring. The…