Mindfulness is the blood of our psyche. It is exactly like the blood in our body—it has the power to wash away the toxins and heal our pain, the pain in our consciousness. When we are not mindful, we ingest many poisons into our consciousness. In fact, we water the…
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Compassionate Action
By Allen Sandler Last spring, the Mindfulness Community of Hampton Roads raised funds so that, following the retreat with Thay in China, a Sangha representative could become personally involved in a service project in Vietnam. The project would be sponsored by the Sangha. We consulted with Anh-Huong Nguyen, who founded the Committee for the Relief of…
Pain, Love, and Happiness
By Khanh Le Van The University of California at Santa Barbara campus was huge. "Wait till you see the gym," said my Dharma brother Arnie. Indeed, for the next five days we 1,300 retreatants would sit together in that gym for meditation and Dharma talks. A team beaded by Wendy Johnson was busy arranging the…
Nurturing Bodhicitta in Vietnam
I found Sister Thoai Nghiem at Lower Hamlet before the Breath of the Buddha retreat, mindfully hacking away at overgrown bushes behind the Dharma Nectar Hall. We met for this talk after the retreat, on June 25, 2006. Mindfulness Bell: You’ve spent a lot of time in Vietnam since Thây’s…
The Collective Bodhisattva
Sisterhood and Brotherhood in the Twenty-First Century By Sister Annabel, True Virtue If you were to ask me what could save this planet Earth I would say not eating meat, not using fossil fuels—but only if based on sisterhood and brotherhood. Sisterhood and brotherhood come first. Whatever we do we…
Letter from the Editor
Letter from the managing editor of the Mindfulness Bell
Letter from the Editor
Dear Thay, dear Sangha, While this issue was coming together, I spent an evening reading our teacher’s poetry on his experiences in war. Afterward, I dreamt that people in my community were drafted into military service and a war was going to break out within a few days. I was…
Report from Jerusalem
By Yacov Granot Learning of the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in November 1996, Michael Rosenbush invited Thich Nhat Hanh to Israel to plant seeds of healing. Thay agreed and in May 1997 led two short retreats and gave Dharma talks in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Following his visit, several new Sanghas began, and…
Meditation and Healing
The first act of the meditator is to go back to his or her body as the object of mindfulness. Breath is the vehicle with which we go back to our body. The breath belongs to the body. It is a link between body and mind. As soon as you go back to your in-breath…
Renewing Communication
By Lennis Lyon Smiling nuns; photo courtesy of our monastic friends The last sentence in the Eighth Mindfulness Training encourages us to “be active in finding ways to reconcile and resolve all conflicts however small.” The words “however small” have challenged me for years. If I have discomfort in my…