Meeting Sunday at 9am

[Breathing Heart Sangha]

Dear Friends,

     The Co-arising Mindful Heart Sangha will gather online Sunday, August 30, from 9am  to 10:30amish. (connection info below)

We will share introductions, sitting meditation, and a period of dharma sharing.

Five Mindfulness Trainings

Plans are being made for anyone interested in receiving the transmission of the Five Mindfulness Trainings. 

Please see below for the letter by Becky Lockman.

Update on Thay

Sister Annabel Laity offers a personal view on how Thich Nhat Hanh is being now.

Connection Information 

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84741922975?pwd=d2dXTTU3NitqYmduSTlvS05QR2xkZz09

Meeting ID: 847 4192 2975  -  Password: iamhome

On your phone, tap: +19292056099,,84741922975#,,1#,556500# 

Or dial it:  929-205-6099  -  Meeting ID: 847 4192 2975  -  Password: 556500

May you all be well and safe,

Earl Daniels

Communications Coordinator

Our calendar: http://goo.gl/mhM3w 
Our Facebook page:https://www.facebook.com/Breathing.Heart.Sangha

--- Letter from Becky Lockman of the Mindful Breath part of our Sangha ---

Dear Friends,

Later this Fall, there will be an opportunity to receive the Five Mindfulness Trainings.  This is a ceremony in which one makes a public commitment (because of COVID it will be via zoom) to try to pattern one's life according to the Trainings.

Please let me know if you would like to formally receive or renew the Five Mindfulness Trainings. In this Ceremony, you will have an opportunity to take Refuge in the Buddha, Dharma, Sangha and to receive the Mindfulness Trainings. You may choose to receive any or all of the Five Mindfulness Trainings. At the same time, others may choose to renew or add to their earlier transmission.

The trainings enter us most deeply when we receive them formally, in a Five Mindfulness Trainings transmission ceremony. This transmission publicly joins us with the tradition of mindfulness practice passed from teacher to student in an unbroken line from the Buddha, through many Indian, Chinese and Vietnamese teachers, through Thich Nhat Hanh, to us.
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You will be asked to talk with Al Lingo, a member of the Order of Interbeing and an ordained Dharma Teacher who will counsel you in regards to the Trainings and what it means to have them transmitted to you.
Coming forward to take Refuge and receive the Mindfulness Trainings is an act of generosity. You are expressing generosity not only to yourself, your family and friends but also to all beings – animal, vegetable, and mineral. As we are taught, none of us are separate-self entities. All our actions of body, speech and mind are interconnected.

The Five Mindfulness Trainings were adapted from the Five Precepts (common to all Buddhist traditions) by one of the best known Buddhist teachers in the West, Thich Nhat Hanh or, Thay (pronounced Tie), as he is called by his students.  They are a list of ethical guidelines. They are not commandments. Just as the finger pointing to the moon is not the moon, the Five Mindfulness Trainings are not the Truth; but they usually point to the kindest alternative.

In Buddhism, mindfulness, concentration, and insight always go together.  Practicing the mindfulness trainings brings about concentration, and concentration is needed for insight.  Mindfulness is the ground for concentration, concentration allows us to look deeply, and insight is the fruit of looking deeply.  When we are mindful, we can see that by refraining from doing this, we prevent that from happening.  We arrive at our own unique insight, not something imposed on us by an outside authority.  It is the fruit of our own observation.

The Five Mindfulness Trainings are love itself.  To love is to understand, protect, and bring well-being to the object of our love.  The practice of the trainings accomplishes this.  We protect ourselves and each other and we obtain even deeper peace and joy. Practicing the mindfulness trainings, therefore, helps us be more calm and concentrated, and brings more insight and enlightenment.

In reading the Five Mindfulness Trainings, use them as a guide to take an inventory of your patterns, looking deeply into how you can use them to bring mindfulness into your reactivity to everyday activities.  Let them be your ally, not your master, says Thich Nhat Hanh.

If after much sitting, contemplating and, and reflecting on the Trainings, if you decide that you would like to have them transmitted to you, please email {Al at clon...@aol.com}

Becky

--- the text of the trainings can be found on the Plum Village website ---

[Breathing Heart Sangha]

Dear Friends,

     The Co-arising Mindful Heart Sangha will gather online Sunday, September 6, from 9am  to 10:30amish. (connection info below)

We will share introductions, sitting meditation, and a period of dharma sharing.

We will be reciting the Five Mindfulness Trainings

Upcoming Meetings

September 6, 12, 20, 26 - 9am - see our calendar. 

Planning meetings every Tuesday at 7pm - please join us - via the same link as regular meetings.

Books We're Reading from last Sangha Meeting

We were asked about influential books we're reading or have recently read. Here are the responses from the meeting chat.

• Ha & Earl:  Fragrant Palm Leaves by Thich Nhat Hanh.
• Linnea Halsten: Parable of the sower- Octavia Butler
• Kate Cummings: The World Could be Otherwise - Norman Fischer - and - What is the What - Dave Eggers
• Daniel Ward : The Seat of the Soul by Gary Zukav
• Emily Horton : Buddhism and Ecology (1997), Editors: Tucker and Williams
• Debbie: The Energy of Prayers by Thich Nhat Hanh
• Carol Sandiford : Ibram Kendi. " Stamped"

There were others that we did not document....

From Plum Village

• Touching our Inner Goodness
• Listen to The Sutra of the Insight that Brings Us to the Other Shore (Heart Sutra)