By Scott Plous Last fall, I attended a wonderful mindfulness retreat at the Omega Institute. For four glorious days, 800 people practiced sitting, walking, and smiling together. Thay gave a series of eloquent Dharma talks on how to love one another, and several hundred retreat participants ended up taking the precepts. Halfway through the retreat,…
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North American Gathering
By Michael Trigilio On October 10, 1998, North American Order of Interbeing members gathered for a three-day retreat at Green Mountain Dharma Center in Vermont. Seasoned practitioners and "rookies" like me traveled from all over the continent to share the joy of being together. One of the first things Sister Annabel told us upon…
Sangha Building in Southern California
Thich Nhat Hanh has said that the Buddha of the twenty-first century may manifest as Sangha. The simplest definition of Sangha is a community of friends practicing mindfulness together and offering spiritual support to one another. I practiced on my own in the tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh for ten…
Awakening a Great Togetherness
photo by Paul Davis The first Earth Holders retreat was held at Deer Park Monastery this spring. What happiness it was to have 130 people come together and feel the love of our community encompassing Bodhisattva Gaia and one another. The climate issues we are encountering everywhere on our planet…
The Friend of the Desert
Existential and curiously hypnotic, Pablo d'Ors evokes the sharp stylized prose of Bolaño, Bernhard, and DeLillo in this strange tale of one man's repeated forays into the desert, and the ultimate silence it contains. "Thanks to the back cover of a book I knew that there lived in Brno a…
Touching Roots in Vietnam
By Cynthia Jurs In November 1992, Sister Annabel, Joan Halifax, Hugh Wheir, and I went to Vietnam on a pilgrimage to the Buddhist sacred places in the north and to visit Thay's homeland and temples in Hue. Here are some impressions. A small boat gliding gently through channels of water carved into rocky landscapes…
Staff Pick: The Energy of Prayer, How to Deepen Your Spiritual Practice by Thích Nhất Hạnh
Read about our latest Staff Pick: The Energy of Prayer, How to Deepen Your Spiritual Practice by Thích Nhất Hạnh
Making up Songs
Do you ever make up songs? Sometimes when we write the words to a song we don’t have music for it, so we use the music from another song that we already know. In English we have a very old song called “Greensleeves,” but the words are not inspiring. The…
This Difficult Thing of Being Human
We all long for someone to offer us unconditional love and support. But what if that person is us? The practice of mindful self-compassion creates the space we need so that observation, acceptance, and real love can enter, no matter how judgmental or disconnected we may feel. It sounds like…
Cracking the Walnut
Zen Master Thích Nhất Hạnh's commentary on Nagarjuna's Treatise on the Middle Way, one of the most famous Buddhist texts in existence Nagarjuna is a giant in the Buddhist canon, thought to be the greatest Buddhist philosopher after the Buddha. He lived in southern India in the 2nd century CE.…