An occasion to practice mindfulness

[MagnoliaVillage]

Dear friend,

The Rose Festival was heartfelt and memorable to many of our friends.
Brother Phap Dung shared with the children the art of offering flowers
to their parents without having to buy any flower at the supermarket.
The children are encouraged to join their palms and said to their
parents with much love and happiness, "Mom, dad, I have a flower for
you." This simple sentence is a bell of mindfulness to the parents as
well as to the children. Sr. Hy Nghiem shared with the friends the art
of coming back to ourselves to take care of ourselves. Taking care of
ourselves mean taking care of our parents. So that if one day our
parents are not longer with us, we do not have regrets. While
listening to THE ROSE OF YOUR POCKET and letters from children written
to their parents, number of our friends could not hold their tears
during the Rose Festival. The day was very hot and humid, but we hope
that many wonderful seeds were watered.

This upcoming Sunday, there is a Day of Mindfulness for our English
Speaking friends. We had received DVD teachings of our Teacher from
Plum Village from the Summer Retreat 2010. We will share with you the
latest teachings from our Teacher and we hope you will be able to join
us for this day. Due to the large presence of the monastics, from now
on, on Sundays we will have formal lunch. During the time of the
Buddha, the Buddha and his disciples made alms round every morning and
come back to the monastery to have lunch together. This is a wonderful
form of practice. Each monastic will be holding an alms bowl, practice
walking meditation and breathing meditation as they serve their food
and walk to the meditation hall. Our friends will follow the monastic.
We all wait for each other and then start to have lunch as a big
family. More information will be shared to you at the monastery.

Below is the program for the day:

9:00am- Walking Meditation
10:00am- DVD Teachings (Dharma Talk)
12:00pm- Formal lunch
Afternoon activity to be announced.

We look forward to seeing you at the mindfulness day. May you be
peaceful and happy.

--
A lotus for you
The Brothers and Sisters of Magnolia Village Monastery,


Magnolia Village Monastery
123 Towles Rd
Batesville, MS. 38606
Tel: (662) 578-2077
E-mail: off...@magnoliavillage.org
Web: http://www.magnoliavillage.org

"There is no way to peace, peace is the way."
Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh