Mindful Consumption Can Save Mother Earth

In 1985, I heard Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh, “If the West stops drinking alcohol by 50%, there would be enough food to feed the world.” I never was a big drinker, and this statement made sense to me. After his lecture, I no longer shared wine of beer with my 49er or tennis buddies. […]

Don’t Despair – Take Action

The response to Peter Cutler’s article about the bombings in Boston repeated in All You Need Is Love have sparked another very interesting set of comments from other OI members. In particular, Mitchell Ratner, posted an article on the website of the Still Water Mindfulness Practice Center in Washington, D. C. His article, Despair Is the […]

The Horrible Conditions Of Human Trafficking

Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh is now offering a retreat in Ayutthaya, Thailand. This particular day, Comeron Conaway’s attention was drawn to the horrible conditions of human trafficking, which is a major problem in places like Thailand. In this article which appeared in the Woman News Network on April 12, 2013, he ponders how mindfulness […]

A Lovely Poem By Merrit Malloy

During an elaborate discussion online with fellow OI1 members, one member offered a lovely poem by Merrit Malloy. The poem was offered in response to a thread of emails prompted by an article that appeared in the Guardian on April 7, 2013 in which Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn is consulting with high officials in the British government […]

All You Need Is Love

Peter Cutler is another OI1 friend with whom I’ve communicated many times. He is a radical health coach who works with cancer patients and other people with chronic diseases. It seems like we are in the same business! He sent out a lovely posting on the OI discussion board on Wednesday after the bombings in […]

A Marine And An Army Veteran

This article is related to two previous articles. The first one is on Jon Kabat-Zinn‘s consultation with top leaders in the United Kingdom last week about cutting health care costs (see Mindfulness In Health Care) and yesterday’s article about US Marines getting mindfulness training and yoga (see Marines Learning Push Ups For The Brain). On April 8, […]

Marines Learning Push Ups For The Brain

Push ups for the brain is what one general called pilot program of mindfulness training for Marines Corps troops at Camp Pendleton, California starting today. The pilot program is designed to help troops deal with the stressful conditions that they may find at work. The Marine Corps plans to adopt mindfulness-based activities such as meditation […]

Mindfulness In Health Care

Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn is now in the process of having top level discussions with political leaders in the UK about mindfulness in health care. Dr. Kabat-Zinn is the founder of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) at the University of Massachusetts in 1979. The article in The Guardian dated April 7, 2013 by Madeleine Bunting states, …Kabat-Zinn has a […]

2500 Years Of Social Revolution

This quote by Roshi Joan Halifax came to me by email in December. This ties in with The Story of the Buddha from earlier this week and reflects on 2500 years of social revolution. Also, I have been listening to a podcast by Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh in which he talked about how the Buddha […]

What Happened In Myanmar?

Last night, we watched an extremely moving movie called, “The Call It Myanmar: Lifting the Curtain.” The movie tells the story of what happened in Myanmar. The movie was filmed by Cornell University physics professor and filmmaker Robert H. Lieberman. It was shot over a period of two years while he was in Myanmar (Burma) to […]