Dear Thay, dear Sangha,

Last Spring, after the International Business Retreat: Mindful and Compassionate Leadership in Plum Village, I encountered Kai Romhardt at the Bergérac airport. To my delight, I learned we boarded the same plane to London. During the flight, we shared about various fruitful Sangha-related topics. As a dedicated reader of the Mindfulness Bell, Kai mentioned that he would love to see an issue about mindful business. I agreed with his suggestion and invited him to be a guest editor. After several email exchanges, we chose the theme of mindfulness at work to invite contributions from managers, employees, and self-employed for this issue.

The first section, “Mindfulness is our Business,” features a Dharma talk from Sister Chan Dieu Nghiem at the business retreat, insights from a Work’Inspir Sangha member about organizing the business retreat, and excerpts from Thich Nhat Hanh’s latest book How To Fight. “Practical Tools” offers contemplations and concrete tips to apply to your work life. In “Changing Perspectives,” we learn about the different transformations in lifestyle and right livelihood. “Mindful Living” focuses on daily work life, and “Young at Heart” reflects on mindful parenting and studying.

Whether you work in an office, from home, or you are a full-time parent, may these offerings nurture your right livelihood, transform your working environment, and inspire you to a path of joy and peace.

With love and gratitude, 

Hong-An, Conscious Aspiration of the Heart

Dear friends on the path,

Imagine a small camera following you throughout your day to film your interactions with others and your work time alone. Do you look happy while sitting in front of your laptop? Is there loving kindness in your face and heart, while you are sitting in a long meeting with your colleagues? What are you striving for?

One of our greatest challenges is to find honest and wholesome answers to these questions, and integrate the realm of work into our spiritual life. At first, this could seem like an impossible mission.

This issue of the Mindfulness Bell is a great expression of this miracle. Our joy, clarity, heart, courage, and compassion are needed in the workplace. We can reinvent our work inside and outside of us, and reshape working environments. While working in the Network for Mindful Business for thirteen years, I have seen this wonderful transformation in hundreds of lives. Work does not have to make us suffer, but we should also not think that there is a perfect,
non-suffering workplace waiting somewhere for us. Work is never perfect, but it can become holy, step by step. Let’s patiently transform ourselves. Let’s build Sangha at work without preaching and invite others to experience the miracle of mindfulness in the workplace for themselves.

With a bow from Berlin, Germany,

Kai Romhardt, True Precious Practice