This article is a summary of a wonderful dharma talk on nurturing practices given by Sister Mai Nghiem, a French nun and Dharma Teacher in the Plum Village Tradition. The dharma talk was given on April 29th, 2016 at the Earth Holder Retreat at the Deer Park Monastery last week. I was especially moved by […]
Be a Grateful POET
March 15, 2016 by
How can you be a grateful POET if you don’t even know how to write a poem? That’s easy: “When it comes to finding reasons to be grateful—I think of them as avenues of appreciation—it helps to follow a practice I call the POET approach, which stands for People, Opportunities, Experiences, and Things. I put […]
The Bells of Mindfulness from Mother Earth
March 1, 2016 by
The polar ice caps are melting. BONG! The sea levels are rising. BONG! The deserts are expanding. BONG! The temperature is rising. BONG! Species are becoming extinct. BONG! Water sources are depleting. BONG! The rainforests are disappearing. BONG! These bells of mindfulness from Mother Earth are ringing over and over again. Are we listening to […]
The Benefit of Meditation
February 24, 2016 by
Where do we look for the benefit of meditation? Is it in our ability to sit for hours at a time and not budge? Is it in our excellent record of retreat attendance? Is it in life itself? Sharon Salzberg tells us… “The place to look for the benefit of meditation is in your life, […]
We Are So Loved
February 18, 2016 by
We are so loved by the Universe and the wonders of life that we have everything we need to be happy right now in this very present moment. Here, Lissa Rankin, MD, teaches us some more factors of unconditional love. “One of my friends is in the midst of a dark night of the soul, […]
What the World Needs Now
January 28, 2016 by
What the world needs now is generosity instead of greed, kindness, gratitude and compassion instead of aggression, wisdom instead of delusion, and most of all, unconditional love instead of hatred. These were the conclusions we came to last night at our dharma discussion in the Mindfulness in Healing sangha. The discussion was sparked by the […]
Gratitude
January 1, 2016 by
Gratitude We have plenty to be grateful for every day! All day, every day. Moment-by-moment we are given gifts beyond measure. Some of the biggest—those that allow us to appreciate so many others—are the awareness to see what’s going on, the willingness to choose thisherenow, and, biggest of all I suppose, getting our Life force […]
Mindfulness Trainings
December 30, 2015 by
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 […]
Happy Thanksgiving on this Wonderful Day of Gratitude
November 26, 2015 by
I want to wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving on this wonderful day of gratitude. My feeling is that everyday is a day of thanksgiving! We have everything we need to be happy in the present moment, as Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh teaches. We should practice gratitude every day of our lives, morning […]
Happiness Boosters
October 20, 2015 by
These words of wisdom from Tal Ben-Shahar, an American and Israeli author and lecturer. He talks about happiness boosters, which are moments of instant gratification that inspire him to carry on with his life. “In the past, I often reached a point where I felt depleted, when I had little enthusiasm for work (and sometimes […]
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