How to restore harmony to ourselves and our nation? In this extract from a talk just after the inauguration of Barack Obama, Thich Nhat Hanh draws parallels between a president’s task of uniting a nation and a meditator’s task of bringing their different elements into harmony. He invites us to…
Search results for “is nothing something”
1403 Results
Healing the Past in the Present
By Ann Moore In a New Year’s Eve Dharma sharing session at Blue Cliff Monastery, Sister Anh Nghiem invited us to write on the phrases: “It had been,” “But then,” and “I realize.” In response to her invitation I offer the following story in three chapters: Chapter 1: It Had…
A Winter Peacewalk
By Judith Toy It is the third Sunday in December. As usual, wearing white, I am the first person to arrive at an empty Pack Square in the city of Asheville, North Carolina, while Philip parks the car. I slowly circumambulate the rounded brick walk below the obelisk of Vance…
The Sound of the Bell
By Susan Hadler It’s Sunday afternoon in mid-August and still hot when I arrive at Carolyn’s for the bell training. Eric is standing at the end of the upstairs hallway, smiling and bowing, showing the way to Carolyn’s door. The first thing I see is the big bell sitting on…
Making Peace
By Tracey Pickup photo by Tracey Pickup I had wanted to find a solution to family violence without being fully present to the pain. For most of my career I have been working on finding ways to prevent or end violence. More recently I have been gifted with work to…
The Last Walking Meditation
By a Young Monastic Sister from Bat Nha Monastery In September 2009, over 350 monastic disciples of Thich Nhat Hanh were violently expelled from Bat Nha (Prajna) Monastery in Vietnam’s central highlands. They took emergency refuge at Phuoc Hue temple in the nearby town of Bao Loc. Following is an…
Drawing from the Well
By Nancy Hawley My brother, sister, and I decided to meet with my aging parents to discuss this stage of our life as a family. As we sat together discussing health proxies, wills, and funeral arrangements, I was filled with a sense of interconnection with them, how deeply the roots go. I was also…
What It Means to Be White
By AJ Johnston Blue Cliff Monastery; photo by Paul Davis Several years ago at a fundraiser for the East Bay Mediation Center in Oakland, California, activist Angela Davis asked Jon Kabat-Zinn, “In a racially unjust world, what good is mindfulness?” As a white woman inviting white people to look into the causes…
The New Gurudharmas for Monks
Before the Sangha traveled to Vietnam, Thay wrote a code of conduct for monks with regards to nuns, to update the ancient code of conduct for nuns with regards to monks. Sister Annabel graciously wrote this commentary for the Mindfulness Bell. The Sangha of the Buddha is known as the…
The Turning of My Wheels
By Matthew Huston Recently attending my first retreat with Thich Nhat Hanh at Stonehill College in Easston, Massachusetts, a few folks asked me how I do walking meditation, since I was disabled when I was a little over a year old and have needed to use a wheelchair since then.…