“Mindfulness Is A Way Of Living Your Life”

“Mindfulness is a way of living your life as if it really matters and that involves being in the present moment with open hearted presence and kindness towards yourself” says Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn in the video on this page. Jon Kabat-Zinn is the founder of the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program at the University of […]

Development Of Character

Suzuki Roshi was the founder of the Zen Center in San Francisco, Green Gulch Farm in Sausalito, and the Tassajara Hot Springs monastery in Carmel Valley. Unfortunately for me, he died before my first Zen sesshin at the San Francisco Zen Center in 1972. Fortunately, he lives on through the excellent dharma teachers at the San […]

Mindfulness Is Not Just Bare Attention

Poep Sa Frank Jude is an OI1 member and a dharma teacher. He joined the conversation we had about the Boston bombings a couple of weeks ago. For example, see Don’t Despair – Take Action, All You Need Is Love, We Need To Root Out Seeds Of  Anger, and A Marine And An Army Veteran. I’ve been meaning to […]

Planting Seeds Of Compassion

On Monday, I posted the Words of Wisdom chosen by Lama Surya Das in an article titled Acceptance, Joy, Peace And Love. The quote in that article was from Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh, affectionately known as Thay by his followers. This quote is also from Thay and it came to me Wednesday morning from […]

Happiness And The Experience Of No Self

Polly Young-Eisendrath is a scholar of  Buddhism and Western psychology. She gave this Tedx talk at Middlebury University on Getting Free Of Self-Importance Is The Key To Happiness. The gist of her talk was that self-consciousness and self-centeredness lead us into the experience of self conscious emotions. She lists shame, guilt, envy, and jealousy as the […]

Acceptance, Joy, Peace And Love

Dear Friends: This post is the 500th post on Meditation Practices For Healing and Well-Being! Thank your for your continued support. Jerome This week’s Words of Wisdom chosen by Lama Surya Das were spoken by my teacher, Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh. Thay, as he is affectionately called by his followers, is constantly talking about being […]

Three Numbers You Should Know About Global Warming

In my recent article, Mindful Consumption Can Save Mother Earth, Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh called our attention to the extent of damage to global warming and water pollution caused by livestock and the political, social, and economic environment around it. Drawing on this article I would like to add that at each monastery founded by Thich Nhat […]

Quantum Entanglement Is The Source Of Interbeing

This short video shows how quantum entanglement is the source of interbeing. Quantum entanglement means that two particles are interconnected in such a way that if you do something to one of them, the same thing happens to the other. This is well explained in the video. Interbeing is a term coined by Zen Master […]

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. […]

Shake It Off!

One day a farmer’s donkey fell down into a well. The animal cried piteously for hours as the farmer tried to figure out what to do. Finally, he decided the animal was old, and the well needed to be covered up anyway; it just wasn’t worth it to retrieve the donkey. He invited all his […]