Dear friends,

This week we will meet in person (3812 Northampton Street NW in DC) on Monday 7-8:30PM EDT, online on Wednesday morning from 7-8AM, and online on Friday 12-1PM.

On Monday evening, Camille will facilitate.

Plum Village, the practice center in France founded by Thich Nhat Hanh (Thay), has sought to create an environment where people can learn to “live in harmony with one another and with the Earth.” On their website they recently shared that the conflict in the Middle East and in many other places in the world are “painful to civilians on both sides and they appeal to all combatants to put an immediate stop to killing and acts of violence.” The Buddha said that “hatred cannot respond to hatred; only love and compassion can respond to hatred.” Thay says “there is no way to peace, peace is the way.”

I often sit these days of late with feeling the pain, suffering and despair of others all over the world. It is exhausting and I often feel depleted. What helps me is to be reminded by Thay to first recognize the suffering within myself and to transform the unwholesome seeds of anger, hatred or violence into seeds of peace, joy, and loving kindness. I take time to breathe in and breathe out, and then in that moment when I can cultivate those positive qualities in myself, I can begin to generate more compassion to my family and all beings who suffer.

Dear friends,

This week we will meet online on Monday 7-8:30PM EST, in person on Wednesday morning from 7-8AM EST, and online on Friday 12-1PM EST.

Magda will facilitate on Monday evening. The Chesapeake Earth Holders and members of Virginia, Maryland and Washington, DC sanghas will join us to celebrate Native American Heritage Month in a gathering dedicated to water mindfulness and contemplation. Maggie Morris, a member of the Chesapeake Earth Holders and the Cloud Floating Free sangha from Charlottesville, Virginia, will conduct a water blessing. Please bring a cup of tea - or any other beverage of your choice - to our gathering. You may also bring water you hold sacred or dear for any reason.

THE SCENT OF WATER IN THE DESERT

My reflections on water begin in an unlikely place: the desert of New Mexico. Recently, as I was practicing walking meditation through the stone labyrinth of Ghost Ranch, my sanctuary, I thought back to my conversation with Hollis, a kind young biologist I had met on a previous visit. Hollis had shown me formations of precious cryptobiotic soil, a sign of new life in the desert. He also showed me a blue sage that was growing next to the labyrinth. Encountering this plant in the desert was special, as it requires ample water in its early stages.  As I thought back to that day in Ghost Ranch I looked around me and realized that I was in the middle of a yellow wild flower oasis bordered by cottonwoods whose leaves had turned bright yellow in the fall.

Dear friends,

This week we will meet in person (3812 Northampton Street NW in DC) on Monday 7-8:30PM EDT, online on Wednesday morning from 7-8AM, and online on Friday 12-1PM.

On Monday evening, Camille will facilitate.

Thich Nhat Hanh (Thay) says our daily life is like a prayer. He also says praying is like an energy that we can touch at any time. He says if we are in touch with reality in the present moment, then “when you practice mindfulness while sitting, walking, cooking, washing, you don’t feel that you waste your life. You are living every moment of your life deeply. Your life becomes a prayer. Much happiness and peace result from that kind of living.”

Praying has been always been part of my life but has sometimes been elusive to me - not always sure about what I was looking or asking for in prayer. In the last few weeks I have been better able to bring prayer into my life in the present moment in “body, speech and mind” with the help of “meditation, concentration and insight” or “mindfulness” as Thay describes. With mindfulness Thay shares we can “produce the energy of faith and love necessary to change a difficult situation."

Dear friends,

This week we will meet online on Monday 7-8:30PM EDT, in person (3812 Northampton Street NW in DC) on Wednesday morning from 7-8AM, and online on Friday 12-1PM.

On Monday evening, Ellen will facilitate. Our focus will be on Thich Nhat Hanh’s important teachings about our “habit energy.” We’ll watch a very short video from Thich Nhat Hanh that helps us recognize our habit energy and how to compassionately tend to it.

This is a very timely topic for me. The world seems frayed, pained, pulled apart and almost at its limits these days. Pain and tension seem to be everywhere. Tragedies abound. For me, that’s somehow made my habit energies intensify. Maybe it’s a false sense of being ok if I’m busy.

Dear sangha friends,

This week we will meet on Monday evening in person 7-8:30PM at our meditation space (3812 Northampton Street NW), Wednesday morning from 7-8AM online, and Friday 12-1PM online.

On Monday evening, we will read the Third Mindfulness Training: True Love, and share our reflections on how this Training plays out in our own lives.

The Third Precept of Buddhism originally was “Refrain From Sexual Misconduct.” With great wisdom and compassion, Thay renamed the Third Mindfulness Training, “True Love” to reflect an expanded perspective on the third precept. Last year, the training was additionally revised to be more compassionate and inclusive of our LGBTQIA+ siblings.

Nowadays, we find ourselves living in a highly sexualized society, where we, and particularly our young people, are exposed to pressures to conform in terms of dress, speech and behavior. At the same time, there is often a cloud of shame and fear that prevents us from speaking openly about this topic. I hope that we may come together on Monday evening to share openly and respectfully about how we as mindfulness practitioners respond to the teachings embodied in this Training.

Dear friends, 

This week we will meet online on Monday 7-8:30PM EDT, in-person (3812 Northampton Street NW) on Wednesday morning from 7-8AM, and also online on Friday 12-1PM.

On Monday evening, we will host two special guests - Joann Malone, friend of the Washington Mindfulness Community, and Eliza King, friend of Still Water Mindfulness Practice Center - to talk about their contributions to the new book Tears Become Rain: Stories of Transformation and Healing Inspired by Thich Nhat Hanh, edited by Jeanine Cogan and Mary Hillebrand (Parallax Press).  

Susie will facilitate. 

About the book: 32 mindfulness practitioners around the world reflect on encountering the extraordinary teachings of Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh, who passed away in January 2022, exploring themes of coming home to ourselves, healing from grief and loss, facing fear, and building community and belonging.

This week we will meet in person on 7-8:30PM at our meditation space (3812 Northampton Street NW), Wednesday morning from 7-8AM online, and Friday 12-1PM online.

Annie will co-facilitate with her friend and guest facilitator Dr. Deidre Combs on Monday evening, October 9th. 

“When you begin to see that your enemy is suffering, that is the beginning of insight..” – Thich Nhat Hanh

Across the spiritual traditions we are counseled to be grateful for those with whom we may not agree. The challenging people in our lives can be stressful and even dangerous, yet the Buddha taught that our worst enemies can be our best teachers. In fact, there is a story about a Buddhist monastery in which there was a monk who the other monks all disliked and found difficult. Finally, after many years of disharmony, the difficult monk decided to leave. Surprisingly, the abbot of the monastery went out and found the monk and begged him to come back.

Dear Friends,

This week we will meet online on Monday 7-8:30PM,  in-person (3812 Northampton Street NW) on Wednesday morning from 7-8AM, and also in person on Friday 12-1PM.

On Monday evening we will have a very exciting guest teacher, Esther Freinkel Tishman, coming to us by way of sangha friend Andy Richman. 

Esther is a Zen teacher, Tarot expert, interfaith chaplain and mindfulness instructor (her full bio is below). 

Esther will be uniquely bringing together mindfulness practice and Tarot card reading! How can we use this ancient art to deepen our awareness and understanding? 

Esther’s work is about “stress reduction, mindfulness training and life path discernment” and she will be sharing with us about what she calls The Dharma of Tarot:

Tarot’s origins are modest and unspectacular. Today’s 78-card deck, used for everything from spell-casting to self-help, emerged simply as a pack of playing cards in Renaissance Italy. But all the same - perhaps even because of its modest origin - the Tarot offers a powerful dharma. It’s imagery and structure echoes Buddhist teachings regarding self, interdependence and emptiness.

Dear Friends,

This week we will meet in person on 7-8:30PM at our meditation space (3812 Northampton Street NW), Wednesday morning from 7-8AM online, and Friday 12-1PM online.

Annie will facilitate on Monday evening and we will read the Five Mindfulness Trainings together and focus on the Second training: True Happiness.

In this training (full text below), we are reminded that suffering is created when we steal, exploit or oppress others, which we do when we forget that we “already have more than enough conditions for happiness.” We don’t need to grasp or push away anything when we recognize that this moment is already enough. 

Dear Friends.

This week we will meet on Monday evening online 7-8:30PM, Wednesday morning from 7-8AM in person at our meditation space (3812 Northampton Street NW), and Friday 12-1PM online.

Annie will facilitate on Monday evening and shares:

This week we will come back to reflect on the basics of mindfulness practice as taught by Thich Nhat Hanh. What are some of the basic practices and why and how do we practice sitting meditation, following the breath, deep relaxation, walking meditation, listening to the bell, and dharma sharing? 

Annie will share some techniques for our practice as well as what obstacles and outcomes we might encounter. And we will reflect together on the challenges and joys of our practice, including any questions you might have about mindfulness and meditation.

This week we will meet on Monday evening in person 7-8:30PM at our meditation space (3812 Northampton Street NW), Wednesday morning from 7-8AM online, and Friday 12-1PM online. 

I hope everyone has had a wonderful August, enjoying the outdoors and especially last week’s “super blue” rare moon.

I have been working for a long time to truly understand and act on Thay’s many lessons about not identifying ourselves with or by our emotions and thoughts.  This relates to his larger guidance about impermanence, a concept I’ve also struggled to fully grasp.

I recently heard a podcast from Tara Brach that talked about the power of “mindful witnessing” what is happening inside us.  That made me think again of some of Thay’s writings, so I went back to his “The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh” book and found a very relevant reading, “Blocks and Knots.”  

Dear Friends,

This Monday is Labor Day, an annual celebration of American workers. The holiday has been around since the late nineteenth century, when labor activists pushed for a federal holiday to recognize the contributions of workers. 

We will meet online Monday evening, 7-8:30PM, Wednesday morning 7-8AM in person at 3812 Northampton Street, and Friday 12-1PM online.

On Monday evening, we will meditate together and then reflect on how we might consider our own labor – our work, using the lens of mindfulness.

We will listen to part of a talk by the monastic Sister True Dedication on Mindfulness and business and then reflect together on what we heard and how we might apply this to our lives.

Sister True Dedication reminds us that  in our practice, the ends of our work - our work “product” is not the only aspect that matters. How we accomplish our work is also important. What we leave behind from our work is much more than our output. What is the quality of our impact?

Dear Friends, this week we will meet on Monday evening in person 7-8:30PM at our meditation space (3812 Northampton Street NW), Wednesday morning from 7-8AM online, and Friday 12-1PM online. 

On Monday, Susie will facilitate. We will be reading and referencing the final pages in Thich Nhat Hahn’s book, Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet, pages 297-end. He writes: “Be alive – Be the miracle”

If you are looking for a way to connect with others while growing your awareness, please join us.

On the last pages in the Afterword, Sister Chan Khong writes: 
You are the Future

I have been young like many of you, and full of determination to change the situation of suffering in myself, my family, and the world. And yet, often when I achieved what I thought was "right," it was at great cost to myself and my close relationships. It was only when I met Thay that I learned how to handle those difficult moments when I felt lost and overwhelmed by anger, fear, and despair. Thay taught me to always remember to come back to my breathing, and dwell only with the breathing, from within. In this way we can be our best: we can be stillness and give rise to a clear mind. Then, deep awakening and compassion can manifest, right in that moment, in our own hearts, and it becomes possible to see it and touch it even in the heart of our so-called "enemy."

Dear Friends, this week we will meet on Monday evening online 7-8:30PM, Wednesday morning from 7-8AM at our meditation space (3812 Northampton St), and Friday 12-1PM online.

On Monday we will read the Five Mindfulness Trainings and focus on the 1st Training Reverence for Life.  Camille will facilitate. 

The Five Mindfulness Trainings are one of the most concrete ways to practice mindfulness. They are not commandments, but rather invitations to consider our ways of living. They support us in practicing compassion and understanding. 

The First Mindfulness Training: Reverence for Life

“Aware of the suffering caused by the destruction of life, I am committed to cultivating the insight of interbeing and compassion and learning ways to protect the lives of people, animals, plants, and minerals. I am determined not to kill, not to let others kill, and not to support any act of killing in the world, in my thinking, or in my way of life. Seeing that harmful actions arise from anger, fear, greed, and intolerance, which in turn come from dualistic and discriminative thinking, I will cultivate openness, non-discrimination, and non-attachment to views in order to transform violence, fanaticism, and dogmatism in myself and in the world.”

Dear Friends, this week we will meet on Monday evening online 7-8:30PM, Wednesday morning from 7-8AM in person at our meditation space (3838 Northampton Street) and Friday 12-1PM online.

We will continue reading Zen and The Art of Saving the Planet, pages 225-255: True Love: Is It The Real Thing?  

Magda will facilitate. Please bring a cup of tea or any other drink you would like to enjoy in each others’ company as we discuss how this beautiful chapter may help bring meaning to our lives. There is no obligation to read the chapter ahead of time.

TRUE LOVE FOR MY MOTHERS

Thich Nhat Hanh’s (Thay’s) message in True Love feels very personal to me during my two-week stay with my ninety-year-old Mother in Puerto Rico.  At my Mother’s vulnerable age, she needs the full presence that is at the core of Thay’s definition of love. Being with my Mother has become an act of mindfulness, understanding that every moment may be the last I spend with her physical manifestation. Thay’s words about exercising true love by taking care of the Earth could just as well be said about my Mother: I should take care of my Mother in the way my Mother has taken care of me. My Mother and I are one.

Dear Friends, this week we will meet on Monday evening in person 7-8:30PM at our meditation space (3838 Northampton Street), Wednesday morning from 7-8AM online, and Friday 12-1PM online.

On Monday we will read the Five Mindfulness Trainings and focus on the 5th training: Nourishment and Healing. Annie and Ellen will co-facilitate. 

The Five Mindfulness Trainings are one of the most concrete ways to practice mindfulness. They are not commandments, but rather invitations to consider our ways of living. They support us in practicing compassion and understanding. 

The Fifth Mindfulness Training: Nourishment and Healing

Aware of the suffering caused by unmindful consumption, I am committed to cultivating good health, both physical and mental, for myself, my family, and my society by practicing mindful eating, drinking, and consuming. I will practice looking deeply into how I consume the Four Kinds of Nutriments, namely edible foods, sense impressions, volition, and consciousness. I am determined not to gamble, or to use alcohol, drugs, or any other products which contain toxins, such as certain websites, electronic games, TV programs, films, magazines, books, and conversations. I will practice coming back to the present moment to be in touch with the refreshing, healing and nourishing elements in me and around me, not letting regrets and sorrow drag me back into the past nor letting anxieties, fear, or craving pull me out of the present moment. I am determined not to try to cover up loneliness, anxiety, or other suffering by losing myself in consumption. I will contemplate interbeing and consume in a way that preserves peace, joy, and well-being in my body and consciousness, and in the collective body and consciousness of my family, my society and the Earth.

Dear Friends, this week we will meet on Monday evening online 7-8:30PM, Wednesday morning from 7-8AM in person at our meditation space (3838 Northampton Street) and Friday 12-1PM in person.

On Monday we will continue reading Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet, pages 187-224: Brave Dialogue: The Power of Listening, and Annie will facilitate.

In this section - which, by the way is amazing -  Thich Nhat Hanh (Thay) and Sister True Dedication share the value of listening to all points of view in the society and in our personal lives (and the ways those two inter-are), the practice of transforming our anger into compassion, and techniques for practicing deep listening.

I found all of it very helpful, but especially Sister True Dedication’s writing on her “tricks” for being able to listen to differing views in a way that allows the other person to unburden themselves and that leads to healing for all.

This Monday evening we will meet in person from 7-8:30 PM and Susie will facilitate.

We will continue our summer reading of Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet. This week we will focus on pages 151-186, Right Fuel: Guard Your Mind, Nurture Your Aspiration. You don’t need to have read the book to join us.

In this section, Thay writes:

Where’s Your Horse Going?

There's a Zen story about a man on a horse galloping very quickly. At the crossroads a friend of his shouted, “Where are you going?” And the man replied, “I don't know. Ask the horse!”