One of the few upsides of the last year is that there is no doubt that we are living “in history”. As the famous quote by Lenin states: “There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks when decades happen.” However, one of the fiercest critics of the man behind this particular quote was George Orwell. If we have not all read Animal Farm and 1984 then we are all at least aware of their themes. I would be surprised if there is any author living or alive who has been more often quoted over the last year than Orwell. In the last couple of weeks those on the left, right and middle could all be seen/heard throwing out their various Orwell quotes in support of their own beliefs and actions of others.

So what you might think has this got to do with our practice and what if anything might Orwell be able to offer our Sangha. Reflecting on this there are some pretty rich pickings not only from the aforementioned books but also from his numerous short articles. Picking on just one of his many recurring themes is his skepticism of anyone or anything which promises happiness. Orwell, observed that at best such moments of happiness would be fleeting and astutely he observed first hand the powerful allure of promises made by leaders of returning people either to a happier past or promise of a happier nirvana like a future. He equally observed at close quarters suffering (or as we term it Dukkah) and its root causes and communicated this in words which engage readers to this day.

In our practice this evening I would like to share with you a 13 minute video that I find both comforting and nourishing. In this video the Plum Village monks and nuns are chanting Avalokitesvara. Avalokitesvara is the Bodhisattva of Compassion.

While the past several months I have practiced deep compassion for those who have suffered greatly from the pandemic, racial violence, oppression, loss of homes and loss of family members, I have practiced the least in my own back yard ignoring calls for help and understanding and causing suffering to myself and loved ones.

In the last couple Monday night gatherings our discussions have revolved around how to practice together during times of stress and how to let go of what gets in the way and to practice self compassion. The Five Mindfulness Trainings consistently remind us to practice compassion and understanding in all we do. They encourage us to build peace and happiness in ourselves and family and then naturally allowing that to radiate to others. The practice for me is to practice - and not just hear the words but to engage in body and mind.

An experience this morning reminded me of how I can easily forget to share that compassion and understanding with family. My husband who has been suffering greatly with family issues and, like many others in this pandemic, has had challenges with his business, has been reaching out for help and I have not really been present for him…

Dear Thay, dear friends,

Last week, we had a rich exploration of the Fifth Mindfulness Training, Nourishment and Healing. Many of us shared how certain habit energies prevent us from being in the present moment and how difficult it is to change them - even when we know they are not helping.

No wonder this is challenging! These practices are difficult, even in the easiest of times, let alone now, amidst growing inequality, extreme suffering and uncertainty throughout the world. After all, we interare.

This week, we will watch part of a Dharma Talk, Practicing in a Stressful Environment in which Thich Nhat Hanh describes a concrete process that can help us to transform these habit energies by carefully tending to the seeds in our consciousness. Here is a brief description of the process, from his book, Touching Peace: According to Buddhist psychology, our consciousness is divided into two parts, like a house with two floors. On the ground floor there is a living room, and we call this “mind consciousness.” Below the ground level, there is a basement, and we call this “store consciousness” In the store consciousness, everything we have ever done, experienced, or perceived is stored in the form of a seed, or a film. Our basement is an archive of every imaginable kind of film stored on a videocassette. Upstairs in the living room, we sit in a chair and watch these films as they are brought up from the basement.

The past eight months have brought glaring change, uncertainty and a new experience of life. In this experience that has often included heightened anxiety, and frustration it has become all the more apparent that just like the breath and the body, the mindfulness teachings are something that are always there for us. We always have the capacity to pause, to stop and breathe and take care of ourselves. One of the greatest fruits of the practice for me over the years has been the practice of learning to be with strong or challenging feelings…

The Earth Touchings are a Buddhist meditation practice where we bow down or prostrate ourselves, and surrender to the Earth to offer gratitude and respect. We join the mind and body to help us "return to the Earth and to our roots, and to recognize that we are not alone but connected to a whole stream of spiritual and blood ancestors. We touch the Earth to let go of the idea that we are separate and to remind us that we are the Earth and part of life. When we touch the Earth, we breathe in all the strength and stability of the Earth, and breathe out our suffering - our feelings of anger, hatred, fear, inadequacy and grief. This is a wonderful practice." (From Plum Village website).

During this practice, we will begin by joining our palms together in the shape of a lotus bud place them on our hearts and listen to the first part of one Touching. Then we will either fully prostrate on the ground, take a child’s pose, or simply bow where we are. If you are prostrating, our palms will face up, showing our openness to the Three Jewels - the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha. While we are bowing, we will listen to the remainder of the reading of the Touching and experience it as fully as we can. The additional touchings will follow in the same way. The Five Earth Touchings can be found here.

Dear Friends,

We will come together this week to meditate together and reflect on Thich Nhat Hanh (Thay)'s engaged practice during the war in Vietnam, and how it might support our practice today.

During the war, Thay spoke out for peace many times, fighting injustice while trying not to demonize one side or the other or create division and hatred. It seems like we can learn something from these teachings.

The words above and the poems below have been supporting my own processing of the U.S. election this week and how I might move forward to most completely live into my practice and my Bodhisattva vows.

The main questions that I have been chewing on are these:

• How do we care for our feelings of anger/protectiveness, disappointment, and fear while not simultaneously excluding anyone from our hearts?

• How do we support the awakening of every single being-- not just those we agree with-- and invite them to join our healing movements and practices?

Here we are on the eve of one of the most anticipated and hotly contested elections of our lifetime. On the eve of election day, which may likely become election month, how vital it is that we come together to practice. With the suffering of recent years, compounded by the suffering from deep historical wounds, our minds and bodies have been so busy holding and processing strong emotions.. Many in our sangha have taken great skillful action to raise awareness of inequities, and to ensure the democratic process. Mindfulness practice and Thich Nhat Hanh’s teachings have greatly influenced these skillful actions and engagement. In his book Creating True Peace, he shares that he started “reflecting and writing on the possibility of Engaged Buddhism in the 1950’s “ (94). His writings in the 1960’s focused on social service and Engaged Buddhism in a time of war and social injustice. He knew that he and other activists had to go out and help, but “would become exhausted if we did these things without nurturing our spirit” .(95)

Dear Thay, Dear friends

Over the last six months, I’ve experienced more grief than ever before: from the grief about our planet and the people and animals living on it to the grief of having friends and family members die.

I noticed that how I grieved varied. Did I rush through it? Bury it? Give it time? The impact of my grieving process had a huge impact on how I felt during and “after” the grief (recognizing that there is no ‘after’ - the grief has softened and it is still there). Sometimes, I got in the way of my own experience (for example, feeling frightened to feel pain and then deciding to avoid it) and at others, I was able to care for the pain as well as for the parts that felt scared of it. Sometimes, I grieved alone and at others, I reached out to loved ones to share how I felt.

I became increasingly curious about the whole process of grief and started reading, watching and experimenting with new ways of understanding and being with grief.

Mary invites you to join Monday night for our monthly recitation of the Five Mindfulness Trainings. The Five Mindfulness Trainings are one of the most concrete ways to practice mindfulness. Current times press us all to reflect deeply on which ethical values can support us to cross the wide river of suffering to arrive on the other shore. The 5 Mindfulness trainings serve as a compass to reach the other side, the shore of freedom from suffering and the root causes of suffering..

As we come out of the past six months of daily accommodations to Covid 19 compounded by a deepened reckoning of racial injustice in our country and in the world, I am so grateful to Thay’s skillful transmission of the Buddha’s teachings, to my sanghas and to my practice. Together they create a generous raft of support. They give me confidence that, with diligence, I will reach the other shore…

Dear Friends,

We will explore our mindfulness/Buddhist ancestors, focusing on one of our spiritual ancestors, the mother of the Buddha, also known as Mahāpajāpatī Gotami, and her students.

Mahāpajāpatī was not the biological mother of Siddhartha, but she raised him from the time he was only a few days old, after the death of her older sister Maya after she gave birth to Siddhartha.

Pajāpatī and her sister Maya were both married off to a chief of the Sakya clan, Suddhodana, and lived with him in the capital town of Kapilavatthu. Maya became pregnant and when it was time to give birth, she traveled to her hometown, as was the custom. They stopped at Lumbini for a rest, and Maya gave birth to Siddhartha under an asoka tree.

After Maya's death, Pajāpatī raised Siddhartha as her own child and said good-bye to him when he left home as a young man and new father. When he returned to Kapilavatthu after his enlightenment, Pajāpatī greeted him warmly, and listened to his teachings.

Eventually, Pajāpatī became a student of her son. As a result of her wisdom, she became the one who women came to seeking advice and support. Many of these women had been left by husbands who were looking for enlightenment many of whom had become monks in the Buddha's sangha.

The concept of non-attachment is a core tenet of Buddhism and always an interesting concept to explore. Be it non-attachment to views, in particular ideas and constructs you might feel most ownership of, or to material objects that you might take particular comfort or meaning from is difficult and hard to grasp. Attachment to family, friends, colleagues and pets are also obviously some of the strongest attachments within our lives.

I would guess that all of us are deeply attached to all of the above - people, ideas and things. For example if I lose some meaningful possession, I literally will turn the house upside down for days looking for this item and will either not relax until I either find it or reconcile to the fact that it is gone forever and feel upset.

Marie shares:

Last week we recited the Five Mindfulness Trainings and focussed on the Fifth Training from ARISE “Welcoming as Nourishment and Healing”. When I returned to this Training, the next day, I was struck by this line: “I will cultivate joy to support me toward individual and collective wholeness.”

With all that is going on in the world and in this country, I welcomed this guidance and was curious to learn more. In “The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching”, Thay writes “It is true that the Buddha taught the truth of suffering, but he also taught the truth of ‘dwelling happily in things as they are...’ Please ask yourself, “What nourishes joy in me? What nourishes joy in others? Do I nourish joy in myself and others enough?”

What a wonderful question! As I explored it, I realized that, for me, joy and inter-being inter-are. When I feel one, I feel the other, and these feelings ground me in ways that help to deepen my practice, my awareness and my actions.

On Monday, please come experience joy, share what brings you/others joy and explore its impact. After our first sit, you can learn to dance (or watch others dancing) to Jerusalema, a song from South Africa that has swept the world, bursting with exuberance and connecting people as they dance together. The Jerusalema “dance challenge” has become a global phenomenon, and you can learn more about that here.

We will begin by enjoying a relaxing guided meditation to unwind our bodies and prepare us to read the Five Mindfulness Trainings together.

After reading the trainings, we will focus our attention on the Fifth Mindfulness Training. Below you will find both trainings. The highlighted text will be most relevant to our discussion about how to find the middle way of consumption of media.

The ARISE version of the Fifth Mindfulness Training reminds us that most of us have had inadequate education in the history of racial inequalities, and we need to learn the true history and then be aware of how this inequity shows up in many websites, TV shows, films, conversations, etc.

How might we blend the traditional training's suggestions not to consume toxins along with the ARISE suggestion to become more aware of the inequities built in to so much of the communication we consume?

Music is a major part of the Plum Village tradition. Whether it is in singing, chanting, humming, drumming, instrumentals, music is practiced lovingly by monks, nuns and lay people in Plum Village, in retreats, in sanghas, and also of course with families, in ceremonies, in nature with the birds and wild animals, and just about everywhere. When people sing on the streets it brings us together and sustains our energy.

At Plum Village retreats, we sing songs to help us cultivate joy and peace, and remember to be mindful. As our teacher Thich Nhat Hanh says a song can help us to remember to "take refuge in ourselves by using our breathing to come back to a place of calm and stability".

During these challenging times, music can be very healing. Scientifically "music and musical elements of rhythm, melody, harmony and tempo stimulate a cognitive and emotional response that comprises the affective component of pain, which helps to positively affect mood and results in improved healing". The bottom line is that in all cultures and all over the world music has a special place among all people and animals as well, and it affects us in very positive ways. We don't need science to tell us this…

Photo by Silas Baisch on Unsplash-- https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/

In the book Peace is Every Step, Thich Nhat Hanh shares that “When we want to understand something, we cannot just stand outside and observe it. We have to enter deeply into it and be one with it in order to really understand.” He calls this kind of understanding “non-duality.” Not two. Now more than ever we can realize and feel the truth of inter-being. From the Corona Virus, to the civil unrest our thoughts, speech, and actions are connected and intertwined.