Reverence for Life

Reverence for Life is the first of the Five Mindfulness Trainings authored by Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh (known as “Thay” by his followers.) In the time of the Buddha it was known as the first precept and, in fact, at that time, all of the precepts were simple statements like, “Not to kill,” “Not […]

Mindfulness Trainings

The Five Mindfulness Trainings of the Plum Village Tradition and the Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings of the Order of Interbeing are guiding wisdom for how we can be mindful in our daily lives. They were written by Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh (Thay) and modified over the years by Thay and the monks and nuns in […]

Teachings on Mindful Consumption

Tricycle.com titled this daily dharma post, “Concentration and Meditation,” as you can see below. However I think these words of wisdom are teachings on mindful consumption. This is because Roshi Bodhin Kjolhede is telling us concentration and mindfulness can bring us back to our true home and away from the shiny objects and entertainment videos […]

Paying Attention to Others

This lesson from Sharon Salzberg is about paying attention to others. She tells that when people give us a gift or annoy us we do pay attention. In normal circumstances, we listen to each other almost halfheartedly. They fail to make an impression on us and we fail to listen properly. One advantage of participating […]

The Mindfulness Trainings are not Formulas for Absolute Virtue

In these words of wisdom from Hannah Tennant-Moore, we learn that the precepts or the Mindfulness Trainings are not formulas for absolute virtue. Every single one of them, whether we are talking about the Five Mindfulness Trainings or the Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings of the Order of Interbeing, is relative and depends on what is happening […]

Deep Listening with Thich Nhat Hanh

Aren’t we lucky today? Yes we are! We have a video from Super Soul Sunday in which Oprah Winfrey interviews Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh. In this video, we will learn about compassionate listening or, what we call in our sangha, deep listening with Thich Nhat Hanh (known as Thay by his followers) and its […]

5 Questions to Ask At the Dinner Table

These words of wisdom come from Dr. Anil Gupta through Mindvalley. I am happy to share this with you and your children. Dr. Gupta suggests 5 questions to ask at the dinner table. Your relationships, above all else, determine how happy you feel on a day-to-day basis. The quickest and most effective way of improving […]

Vipassana Meditation Day 2

The video in this article is from the Dhamma Discourses of Vipassana Meditation day 2 as taught by S. N. Goenka. This follows from the Dhamma Discourses of Vipassana Meditation day 1 that we presented on June 30, 2014. In the video from day 1, we learned about the preliminary practices of vipassana meditation which mostly […]

Ethics from the Heart

These words of wisdom from Lin Jensen talk about the precepts of Buddhism. Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh, known as Thay by his followers, likes to call these Mindfulness Trainings. In either case, they teach us to practice ethics from the heart. The Zen attitude about the precepts corresponds quite nicely with Thay’s teachings. In […]

Giving Up Addictions

These words of wisdom from Pema Chodron came from the Tricycle Daily Dharma on April 15. Pema is the director of Gampo Abbey – one of the few Buddhist centers in North America that maintain the traditional monastic precepts. Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh calls these the Five Mindfulness Trainings, which his has revived from […]