As we move towards Easter Sunday, we witness the blossoming of spring and the warmer days of summer approaching. We prepare to celebrate Earth Day on April 22. We bring our love and compassion to Mother Earth and pray for the end of suffering. Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh puts is so beautifully in this […]
Giving Up Addictions
April 18, 2014 by
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 […]
Zen Practice
April 16, 2014 by
Peter Matthiessen is famous for his book, The Snow Leopard. He passed away on April 5, 2014 at the age of 81. It turns out the Matthiessen was a Zen Buddhist. I did not know this until these words of wisdom came in an email. Zen is really just a reminder to stay alive and […]
Awareness Is A Life-and-Death Matter
April 15, 2014 by
These words of wisdom come from my teacher, Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh. We call him Thay, meaning beloved teacher. This teaching is important because in everything we think, say, or do, awareness is a life-and-death matter. When I had breakfast with Thay in 2006, I witnessed the way he would grasp his bowl with […]
Living With Compassion
April 14, 2014 by
As we saw recently in Worthiness, Thomas Merton was an American Trappist monk who was a friend of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh, known as Thay by his followers. They met together only one time at Father Merton’s monastery in Gethsemani, Kentuckey in 1966. They were both quite outspoken against the war in Vietnam. They […]
Desmond Tutu Speaks Out For Climate Change
April 13, 2014 by
The situation with climate change is getting rather desperate. As shown last Thursday, Harrison Ford and Don Cheadle are also very concerned about climate change. See What Do Harrison Ford And Don Cheadle Know That We Should. Now Desmond Tutu speaks out for climate change. He thinks we need an anti-apartheid style of boycott of […]
What Is Worth Clinging To?
April 12, 2014 by
Bhikkhu Samahita has a lot of Buddha’s teachings on his main website, http://What-Buddha-Said.net. He also sends out a daily email with much of the same material. His email a couple of days ago raised the question in my mind, “What is worth clinging to?” As you may know, clinging is one of the causes of […]
Why Sit?
April 11, 2014 by
These words of wisdom from Lama Surya Das are straight out of Tricycle magazine. He answers the question, “Why sit?” Basically, he is saying that sitting is necessary to cultivate contemplative practice to help us develop aspects of nonviolence and compassion. He is saying that we need to balance these practices with local political action, […]
Where Happiness Comes From
April 6, 2014 by
There have been many articles about where happiness comes from on Meditation Practices over recent months. Happiness is something we seek and some of us are fortunate enough to find every now and then. Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh teaches that happiness can only be found in the present moment. One of the songs from […]
The Buddha Never Said
April 4, 2014 by
The Buddha never said, “There is no self.” When I first read this in Tricycle Magazine, I was as surprised as anyone. Yet, when I thought about it, I considered what Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh teaches. He puts it like this: There is no such thing as permanent and separate. There’s nothing that can […]
You must be logged in to post a comment.