By Jennifer Shumaker Driving from Arkansas through Taos and the Carson National Forest, I had plenty of time to fantasize about the next six days. I was on my way to a mindfulness retreat with Therese Fitzgerald, Wendy Johnson, and a group of practitioners from activist professions at the Vallecitos Mountain Refuge in northern New…
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From Soldier to Buddhist Monk
Brother Phap Uyen shares his path of practice from Brother Phap Uyen’s writings and an interview by Sister Steadiness My mom and I met Thay at a retreat in Redlands, California in 1989. I took the five mindfulness trainings and received the name Tam Houng, Strength of the Heart. Two…
Always Hug the Dharma!
Sangha Building and Growing Pains By Katie Hammond Holtz It is natural that we will experience growing pains as we go through the stages of life — and the same is true for Sanghas. If we expect our Sangha to fit our ego-definition of “perfect” all the time, we will…
Sangha Dot Com
A twenty-first century phenomenon is the “virtual community”—a gathering of people who share a common interest and develop personal relationships, without ever meeting face to face—thanks to the Internet. For practitioners who don’t have easy access to a live Sangha, these virtual solutions can be a blessing—an electronic raft that…
Finding Joy in the Present Moment
I was raised in the Christian tradition, but as an older adult, I became more and more interested in meditation. I began with Centering Prayer, a form of Christian meditation. I was introduced to the teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh at an annual retreat for Centering Prayer. The retreat facilitator…
Love Letter from Auschwitz
By Peter Kuhn Auschwitz Memorial; photo by Peter Kuhn Dear Friends, Auschwitz, the site of the most notorious concentration camp in Nazi-occupied territory during World War II, may not sound like a vacation destination, but it is a powerful spot for retreat. Last summer, my wife Jackie and I joined…
Wholesome Boundaries, Happy Communities
By Dennis Bohn My first exposure to the Fourteen Precepts (as they were called at the time) was in a Barnes and Noble bookstore in Cooper Square in New York’s East Village. I read the First Precept, saw “not be idolatrous or bound to any doctrine, theory or ideology, even…
The Hare in the Moon
A Traditional Buddhist Tale Retold by Teri West Once, in a far-away land, in a time long ago, in a deep forest, lived four friends. They were a jackal — which is a kind of wild dog — an otter, a monkey, and a hare. The four friends lived very…
Finding Ways to Help
In 1975, Thich Nhat Hanh and I moved with several fliends to a house near Fontvannes, France. The war in Vietnam had ended and we were cut off from our country with no way to help. We named our community Les Patates Douces, Sweet Potatoes. In Vietnam, when peasants have no rice, they eat dried sweet potatoes.…
Practicing with Kyrre
By Svein Myreng and Eevi Beck We sat down to meditate for the first time in weeks, and it felt wonderful. Then we heard small, unhappy noises from our baby boy, Kyrre, crawling on the floor next to us. Seeing Mom and Dad sitting still and withdrawn, was quite scary. Practicing mindfulness with a child is…