Dharma Talk: Returning Home
By Thich Nhat Hanh in January 1994
I have arrived.I am home,In the hereAnd the now.I feel solid. I feel free.In the ultimateI dwell. It is important for us to return home — to come back to the here and the now — and make peace with ourselves,…
From the Editors
Published in January 1994
We are happy to offer this new Mindfulness Bell, on the theme of returning to our true home. Thich Nhat Hanh's opening article, edited from a lecture given to 3,500 people in Berkeley last October, encourages us to become deeply rooted in our spiritual…
Touching the Earth – Six Prostrations
By Thich Nhat Hanh in January 1994
We bow down to the Earth, fall deeply, as low as possible, and touch the Earth with our forehead. We empty ourselves, surrender ourselves in order to become one with the Earth. Then we can accept anything the Earth gives, everything that arises. Unafraid,…
Other articles in this issue
True Love, the Greatest Relief
By Katherine Cook I found myself ambivalent about going to the retreat I had signed up for so many months in advance. I feared the size of the crowd (450 people) and…
Mountain Cider Meditation
By Anne Dellenbaugh In early September, fourteen women on a "Mountain Dharma" backpacking trip set camp under large white pines and firs by a stream in northern Maine. A granite ledge, worn smooth…
Is This Heaven?
By Anne Jimenez One night, I looked over at my husband who almost died of a heart attack a year ago. The thought of not having him there gripped my heart. Moving…
Raspberries as Spiritual Guide
By Rose Kramer The window of worldly function keeps inching downward as Parkinson's Disease follows its habitual path. "Progressing" is what it is called in the literature. Initially I often find myself hard…
The Anchor of Mindfulness
By Travis Masch Without knowing what to expect, I dove into the sea of 450 retreatants at "The Greatest Relief” retreat at Camp Swig in Saratoga, California. There were times during the…
Gatha for Adjusting Posture
By Thich Nhat Hanh
Feelings come and golike clouds in a windy sky.Conscious breathingis my anchor.
Losing An Old Friend
By Dewain Belgard I read somewhere that cedar trees can live to be a thousand years old. The cedar in my neighbor's yard was not nearly so old as that, but it…
Loving Deeply
By Allan Hunter Badiner A commentary on the fourth of the Five Awareness: "We are aware that understanding is the very foundation of love." While the foundation of love may be understanding,…
Ethnic Diversity
Picture the person sitting next to you in class asking you about your ethnicity. You tell this person that your ethnic background is Chinese. Now picture this person proceeding to make almond eyes,…
Poem by Mariane Eriksen
I dropped something. I picked it upand praised it that it made me stop. When I get busy I stop a whileenjoy my breath and find my smile Don't waste…
Poem: Untitled Poem 2
In darknessthoughts alight the blazing within.Torch of anger lights the wayto the forestwhere fires burn the dead leavesand foliage away,so that flowers can grow again.
Poem: Spirit Rock Walk
As a Peruvian embroidery wall hangingI see people in the distancewith their colorful clothingin the wheatened California hillslooking like poetry in motionas they walk in meditation followingThich Nhat Hanh Mona…
Poem: Resting Hands
My hands rest in my lap, white in noon sunlight.For so long they've grasped and held,pointed and mended.Now they can rest a bit.The cuts in the nails reach beyond the…
Poem: Sangha Body
Tender grasses made me.Summer breeze and stars made me.A mother's gentle hands made me.Sharp pains and fevers made me.Noble dreams and friends' love made me who I am. What made…
Writing in Community
By Maxine Hong Kingston
During 1993, I have had one of the most gratifying years of my life working with the Community of Mindful Living giving writing workshops to war veterans. We called each day…
“Mother Night” Writing
By Therese Fitzgerald A small group of us gathered in the O'Neill Room of the UC Berkeley Faculty Club for a Winter Solstice meeting with Maxine Hong Kingston. Maxine welcomed us to…
Buddhist Persecution Continues
By Stephen Denney On November 15,1993, four Buddhist monks and five laypeople were tried and sentenced in Hue, Vietnam, in connection with a May 24 demonstration in the city during which a police…
Announcements
June 1995 Retreat on Nuns' Practice The Sangha of nuns at Plum Village is a organizing a seminar on "The Shaping of Communities of Nuns in the West," from June 17-22, 1995,…
