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Our Mindfulness Article On Elephant Journal!

“Meditation is simply about being yourself and knowing about who that is. It is about coming to realize that you are on a path whether you like it or not, namely the path that is your life.” ~ Jon Kabat-Zinn.

Check it out on Elephant Journal.

 

Free Download Friday - Thich Nhat Hanh Being Peace

 We are indeed proud to work with Thich Nhat Hanh - This title is part of our ongoing Free Download Friday program. Being Peace will be free for downloading through Sunday Morning. Enjoy

This recording offers the rare opportunity to listen to Thich Nhat Hanh deliver the teachings that inspired the creation of his best-selling and perhaps most well-known book Being Peace, considered a classic of contemporary religious literature. An assembly of 700 people gathered at Green Gulch Farm in Muir Beach, California, on November 3, 1985 to listen to the wisdom and guidance of this world-renowned Vietnamese Buddhist monk.

Click here to listen to a sample and download for free.

Excerpt from "Looking Deeply" by Thich Nhat Hanh

Beloved Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh offers teachings on mindfulness in a series of lectures titled "Looking Deeply."  The following transcribed lecture from this program gives us a taste of how Thay -- Thich Nhat Hanh's nickname -- approaches the sometimes overwhelming subject of realization with simplicity, making it accessible to all of us.

Ladies and gentlemen, during this retreat we will learn to do together some of the things like smiling, breathing, sitting, walking, looking, eating, and so this is not difficult, but I think we can learn from each other a lot. We talk about realization. Realization is a difficult word but it is not really so difficult. For instance when we smile, that’s realization. We realize a smile. You are smiling and you realize something very important. So realizing is what we are going to realize. Breathing, sitting, smiling, eating, looking, all of things are realizations, and we do not need a lot of time on order to do so.
 

Excerpt from "Being Peace" by Thich Nhat Hanh

Beloved Vietnamese monk and Buddhist master Thich Nhat Hanh shares his profound wisdom in talk he gave called "Being Peace."  In this excellent excerpt, Thay - as his followers call him -- remind us that our spiritual practice is not just about suffering.  It's also about fully experiencing the beauty of life.

When you look at the blue sky, you see the beauty of the sky. Do you have to make a special effort in order to enjoy it? That is the hard question. That is the question of the practice also. Because to practice hard, we have to make a lot of efforts in order to practice. To us who have one to four days of practice, we think that practicing is a very pleasant thing and each second of the practice, each minute of the practice should be a second of joy, a minute of joy. Do you have to practice enjoying the blue sky? No, I guess not. You just enjoy it.

Excerpt from "The Heart of Understanding" by Thich Nhat Hanh

In "The Heart of Understanding", world-renowned Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh takes listeners throug the Prajñāpāramitā -- or Heart -- Sutra.  The following transcribed excerpt from this program shows how readily accessible these teachings are when presented by Thich Nhat Hanh.

Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to ask you to participate in this meditation. Here is a piece of paper. Usually we don’t pay very much attention to this piece of paper because when we take out one piece of paper, we think of other things than the piece of paper itself. If we look at this sheet of paper carefully enough, we can see that there is a cloud floating in it even if we are not a poet.

Excerpt from "The Way of the Boddhisattva"

 

Shantideva’s "Way of the Bodhisattva" is a guide to cultivating the mind of enlightenment, and to generating the qualities of love, compassion, generosity, and patience. "The Way of the Boddhisattva" is treasured by Buddhists of all traditions; we are pleased to share this excerpt with you. 

 

 

With joy, I celebrate the virtue that relieves all beings from the sorrows of the states of loss, exalting in the happy states and joyed by those who yet are suffering. I revel in the stores of virtue, cause of gaining the enlightened state, and celebrate the freedom won by living beings from the round of pain. And in the buddhahood of the protectors I delight, and in the grounds of realization of the buddhas heirs, their enlightened attitude, an ocean of great good that seeks to place all beings in the state of bliss and every action for the benefit of beings, such is my delight and joy, and so I join my hands and pray the buddhas who reside in every quarter kindle now the dhama’s light for those who grope bewildered in the dark of pain. 

 

I join my hands beseeching the enlightened ones who wish to pass into nirvana - do not leave us wandering in blindness. Stay among us for unnumbered ages. Through these actions now performed and all the virtues I have gained, may all the pain of every living being be wholly scattered and destroyed. For all those ailing in the world, until their every sickness has been healed, may I myself become for them. The doctor, nurse, the medicine itself. Raining down a flood of food and drink, may I dispel the ills of thirst and famine and in the eons marked by scarcity and want, may I myself appear as drink and sustenance. For sentient beings, poor and destitute, may I become a treasure, ever plentiful and lie before them closely in their reach, a varied source of all that they might need. My body, thus, and all my goods besides and all my merits gained and to be gained, I give them all and do not count the cost to bring about the benefit of beings.   

 

Nirvana is attained by giving all.Nirvana is the object of my striving. And all must be surrendered in a single instant; therefore, it is best to give it all to others. This body I have now resigned to serve the pleasure of all living beings. Let them ever kill, despise, and beat it, using it according to their wish. And though they treat it like a toy, or make of it the butt of every mockery, my body has been given up to them. Why should I make so much of it? And so let beings do to me whatever does not bring them injury. Whenever they may think of me, let this not fail to bring them benefit, and if in my regard they have a thought of anger or respect, may these states always be the cause, whereby their good and wishes are fulfilled. All those who slight me to my face, or do to me some other evil, even if they blame or slander me, may they attain the fortune of enlightenment.

Click here to check out the Shambhala Audio Complete Collection

Click here to listen to a preview of this recording and to order

 

 

BetterListen! Free Sampler Mix with Thich Nhat Hanh, Shlomo Carlebach, Gloria Steinem, Coleman Barks

Welcome to the First BetterListen! Sampler Mix.

Our sampler mixes offer you a taste of our titles. This Mix features Gloria Steinem, Thich Nhat Hanh, Shlomo Carlebach, Coleman Barks, Beryl Bender Birch, The Indigenous Peoples Message To The World and more.

As far as we know, we've never seen a sampler mix anything like this, both in format and content. So please let us know how the technology works and how you enjoy the content.

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