Green Island Sangha

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

http://www.savorthebook.com/savor-the-book

I recieved the following email about this new book.

Dear Sangha,

I offer you a lotus flower on this day.

As some of you know, over the last year Thay and I have worked together to write Savor: Mindful Eating, Mindful Life. The book is being released today by HarperOne. Our intention is to raise awareness of the suffering caused by unmindful consumption and to provide the tools to transform suffering into well-being.

As a complement to the book, we have built a website with resources and a space to further cultivate mindfulness practice in our daily lives. In particular, we hope the website will provide an online Sangha to share and support mindful living and eating.

We invite you to visit and share this site with your Sangha, friends and greater community:

www.savorthebook.com

The website includes:

· Savor Community: A forum for sharing our experiences with mindful eating and living. Post recipes, videos, share thoughts on practice.
· Resources: Download printable content such as Five Mindfulness and Five Contemplations.
· Links: Discover a library of over 100+ websites related to mindfulness, nutrition, and healthy living.

We hope that this is a space to connect all of us to explore our practice and plant seeds of compassionate living. Please join us in establishing a Savor community to look deeply at the benefits of mindful eating and living in ourselves and others.

Peace in oneself, peace in the world.

With a smile and great compassion,

Dr. Lilian Cheung

Editorial Reviews from Amazon
Review
“Among Buddhist leaders influential in the West, Thich Nhat Hanh ranks second only to the Dalai Lama.” (New York Times )

“Authored by an eminent spiritual leader and a renowned nutritionist, this work infuses science into wisdom and wisdom into science. It is a practical guide to eating mindfully and points the way to attain a healthier weight and a more satisfying life.” (From the foreword by Harvey V. Fineberg, M.D., Ph.D. President, Institute of Medicine )

“Hanh and Cheung explore the convergence of nutritional science with Buddhist teaching and find complementary insights. Together, they provide approaches that help to heal both the individual and societal illness that is being manifested as an epidemic of obesity. Everyone can learn from this book.” (Walter Willett, M.D., author of Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy and Chair, Department of Nutrition Harvard School of Public Health )
Product Description
Common sense tells us that to lose weight, we must eat less and exercise more. But somehow we get stalled. We start on a weight-loss program with good intentions but cannot stay on track. Neither the countless fad diets, nor the annual spending of $50 billion on weight loss helps us feel better or lose weight.

Too many of us are in a cycle of shame and guilt. We spend countless hours worrying about what we ate or if we exercised enough, blaming ourselves for actions that we can't undo. We are stuck in the past and unable to live in the present—that moment in which we do have the power to make changes in our lives.

With Savor, world-renowned Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh and Harvard nutritionist Dr. Lilian Cheung show us how to end our struggles with weight once and for all.

Offering practical tools, including personalized goal setting, a detailed nutrition guide, and a mindful living plan, the authors help us to uncover the roots of our habits and then guide us as we transform our actions. Savor teaches us how to easily adopt the practice of mindfulness and integrate it into eating, exercise, and all facets of our daily life, so that being conscious and present becomes a core part of our being.

It is the awareness of the present moment, the realization of why we do what we do, that enables us to stop feeling bad and start changing our behavior. Savor not only helps us achieve the healthy weight and well-being we seek, but it also brings to the surface the rich abundance of life available to us in every moment.

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Green Island Sangha

The Green Island Sangha is inspired by the teachings and practice of Vietnamese Zen Buddhist Master Thich Nhat Hanh; we belong to the international Sangha which he founded: the Order of Interbeing, a "fourfold community" of lay women and men, nuns and monks. We are a grassroots Sangha, beginners and more experienced practitioners learning from and supporting one other on the path of awakening. We are also a part of The Community of Mindfulness New York Metro.

Our aspiration is to bring mindfulness, concentration, and insight to daily living. During our sessions, we apply the practice of conscious breathing to sitting and walking, as well as communicating with compassionate listening and loving speech. Our gatherings also reflect the values of openness. For example, many members continue to participate within other religious or ethical traditions. We are a Sangha of practitioners from the entire length and breath of Long Island and consider ourselves to be part of a world wide Sangha. Beginners are welcome.

Sitting & Walking Meditation

Sitting Meditation

"Sit or lie down in a way that allows your body to rest. Sitting, your head and spine form a straight line. Relax all your muscles. Find a way of sitting that allows you to sit for at least 20 minutes without becoming too stiff or tired. As soon as you sit down, pay attention to your breath. Then notice your posture, a little bit everywhere. Relax the muscles in your face. If you are angry or worried, those muscles will be tense. Smile lightly, and you will relax hundreds of muscles in your face. Then notice your shoulders, and let go of the tension there. Don’t try too hard. Just breathe mindfully, and scan your whole body."

Thich Nhat Hanh, The Mindfulness Bell, Issue 23, pages 1,4.

Walking Meditation

"Walk more slowly than you usually do, but not too slowly, while breathing normally. Do not try to control your breathing. Walk along this way for a few minutes. Then notice how many steps you take as your lungs fill and how many steps you take as they empty. In this way, your attention includes both breath and steps. You are mindful of both.... Your half-smile brings calmness and delight to your steps and your breath.... After a few hours of serious practice, you will find that the four of them — the breath, the counting, the steps, and the half-smile — blend together in a marvelous balance of mindfulness. This is equanimity, created by the practice of walking meditation. The four elements of breathing, counting, stepping, and the half-smile become one."

Thich Nhat Hanh, A Guide to Walking Meditation.

Five Mindfulness Trainings

Five Mindfulness Trainings

The Five Mindfulness Trainings were developed during the time of the Buddha to be the foundation of practice for the entire practice community, including monastic and lay members. The basis for the trainings is mindfulness.All Sangha members and guests are requested to observe these trainings to support our practice of mindfulness and living harmoniously together. No smoking, no drinking and no sexual misconduct constitute part of the Five Mindfulness Trainings to be observed at a practice center. The Five Mindfulness Trainings protect our freedom and make life beautiful. As guidelines for our daily lives they are the basis of happiness for individuals, couples, families and society.
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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.

True Happiness

Aware of the suffering caused by exploitation, social injustice, stealing, and oppression, I am committed to practicing generosity in my thinking, speaking, and acting. I am determined not to steal and not to possess anything that should belong to others; and I will share my time, energy, and material resources with those who are in need. I will practice looking deeply to see that the happiness and suffering of others are not separate from my own happiness and suffering; that true happiness is not possible without understanding and compassion; and that running after wealth, fame, power and sensual pleasures can bring much suffering and despair. I am aware that happiness depends on my mental attitude and not on external conditions, and that I can live happily in the present moment simply by remembering that I already have more than enough conditions to be happy. I am committed to practicing Right Livelihood so that I can help reduce the suffering of living beings on Earth and reverse the process of global warming.

True Love

Aware of the suffering caused by sexual misconduct, I am committed to cultivating responsibility and learning ways to protect the safety and integrity of individuals, couples, families, and society. Knowing that sexual desire is not love, and that sexual activity motivated by craving always harms myself as well as others, I am determined not to engage in sexual relations without true love and a deep, long-term commitment made known to my family and friends. I will do everything in my power to protect children from sexual abuse and to prevent couples and families from being broken by sexual misconduct. Seeing that body and mind are one, I am committed to learning appropriate ways to take care of my sexual energy and cultivating loving kindness, compassion, joy and inclusiveness – which are the four basic elements of true love – for my greater happiness and the greater happiness of others. Practicing true love, we know that we will continue beautifully into the future.

Loving Speech and Deep Listening

Aware of the suffering caused by unmindful speech and the inability to listen to others, I am committed to cultivating loving speech and compassionate listening in order to relieve suffering and to promote reconciliation and peace in myself and among other people, ethnic and religious groups, and nations. Knowing that words can create happiness or suffering, I am committed to speaking truthfully using words that inspire confidence, joy, and hope. When anger is manifesting in me, I am determined not to speak. I will practice mindful breathing and walking in order to recognize and to look deeply into my anger. I know that the roots of anger can be found in my wrong perceptions and lack of understanding of the suffering in myself and in the other person. I will speak and listen in a way that can help myself and the other person to transform suffering and see the way out of difficult situations. I am determined not to spread news that I do not know to be certain and not to utter words that can cause division or discord. I will practice Right Diligence to nourish my capacity for understanding, love, joy, and inclusiveness, and gradually transform anger, violence, and fear that lie deep in my consciousness.

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.

Green Island Sangha

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

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Thich Nhat Hanh