Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Partial March/April Schedule

Green Island Sangha
Sangha Generosity Practice non perishables and canned goods for a local food pantry
Collection at March 28th sit

SUNDAY March 28th

St Ignatius Retreat House
10:30- 12:45 PM
Our Regular Sitting Practice
A little 10 min video for us all




SUNDAY April 4th
No Sit

Enjoy a Mindful Holiday in whatever tradition you are practicing http://www.cultureunplugged.com/play/2438/The-Alchemist





SUNDAY April 11th

St Ignatius Retreat House
Beginners Mind Gathering 9:40 to 10:30 AM Our Once a Month Pre Sit Intro Meeting for Those new to Mindfulness or New to the Tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh
10:30-12:45 PM
Our Regular Sitting Practice will meet after Beginner's Mind Gathering
5 Mindfulness Training Recitation (New Version) Please Bring your Chanting Books with you if you have them, if not we can share.

SUNDAY April 18th
St Ignatius Retreat House
10:30 -12:45 PM
Our Regular Sitting Practice


Your Free Will Donation Helps to Support Our Community and our hosts St Ignatius Retreat House

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Help Relocate Bat Nha Monastics


Hello Friends,

Here is a message about our Bat Nha monastics and plans to relocate some of them.


"Dear Friends,

I am writing to report the latest situation with the Bat Nha (Prajna) monastics and to convey Plum Village's request for financial help to relocate them for temporary asylum outside of Viet Nam.

As you know, despite much effort at intervention by the international community, by the end of 2009 the nearly 400 young monks and nuns of Bat Nha were all ejected by force and totally dispersed from the monastery. Bat Nha is history. Some of the monastics have ended in small numbers at a few temples here and there which are willing, quietly, to let them stay, some trying hard to maintain the practice by themselves at home, and about 160 went to Thailand where they have been receiving a lot of support by the local community.

Despite the difficult situations, the spirits are reported to be high. The monastics are confident of their spiritual direction and of the support from Plum Village, as well as many of us around the world.

The stories they tell of their last days together, of the brutal treatment they received, and what they are having to do to maintain diligence in the practice, are both heart breaking and heart warming. The whole saga is an shining example of how the practice of love and compassion--as manifested through the non-violence on the part of the monastics towards the brutality they received--can offer not only peace but also strength in difficult times. Many of the details could be found at helpbatnha.org.

Plum Village is making plans to help over 300 of the monastics to obtain temporary asylum in Thailand, France, the US and other international locations. (We on the East Coast may see an increase in the monastic population at Blue Cliff itself.) The main costs associated with this process are for visa and passport fees, and especially for air transportation from Viet Nam. Plum Village is making a request for financial support to make the location of the monastics possible. Any amount you can give would be gratefully accepted. Donations to Plum Village are tax-deductible.

If you could help, please send check or money order made out to Unified Buddhist Church (legal name for Plum Village) to:

Sr. Dang Nghiem/Sr. Huong Nghiem
Deer Park Monastery
2499 Melru Lane
Escondido, CA 92026

with a note indicating that the donation is for the Bat Nha fund.


Thank you for helping.


With a deep bow,


Dat"

Friday, March 19, 2010

Thich Nhat Hanh on Mindful Eating Oprah.com


A Conversation with Thich Nhat Hanh About Savor
- Oprah.com

http://www.oprah.com/spirit/A-Conversation-with-Thich-Nhat-Hanh-About-Savor

"World-renowned Buddhist master Thich Nhat Hanh has teamed up with nutritionist Dr. Lilian Cheung to change the way we eat with their book Savor: Mindful Eating, Mindful Living. Get his take on the root of our weight problems, what he eats every day and how to change your own eating habits forever."

Spring Forward with Mindfulness!


Green Island Sangha
SUNDAY March 21st
at St Ignatius Retreat House
10:30 -12:30 PM
Our Regular Sitting Practice
Peace is Every Step Reading
(please bring your copy with you if you have one...if not we can share!)

Please see the below email detailing other events this weekend.....

Community of Mindfulness New York Metro
Inspired by the Teachings and Practice of Thich Nhat Hanh
www.communityofmindfulnessnewyorkmetro.blogspot.com


Dear Friends,
Below are 4 events happening on the March 20-21 weekend. The first two are Sangha Days of Mindfulness. The third event is an event sponsored by the Buddhist Council of NYC, of which the CMNY is a member. The fourth event is the 'Truth Commission on Conscience in War' at Riverside Church, where Thay has spoken several times and our Riverside Sangha practices. The Buddhist Peace Fellowship is one of many supporting organizations.
Take care,
David Flint

FLOW LIKE A RIVER:
A DAY OF MINDFULNESS

in Collaboration with Mindful Peace Building*
Saturday, March 20, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Riverside Church, Room 8-T
91 Claremont Avenue, NY, NY

Water flows over these hands.
May I use them skillfully,
To preserve our precious planet.
--Thich Nhat Hanh

On this day, which coincides with World Water Day, we will practice sitting meditation and walking meditation by the river. We will share stories, poems and reminiscences about waters we have loved, share a vegetarian lunch, practice deep relaxation, touching the earth, and dharma sharing.

Please bring something vegetarian for lunch and a blanket for deep relaxation.

Facilitated by David Ostwald (True Path of Equanimity) and Birgitte Moyer-Vinding (True Path of Light). David and Birgitte practice with the Riverside Sangha , the Sunday Morning Sangha, which they founded in 2006, and with Lyn Fine in Berkeley, CA.
Please feel free to come for all or part of the day. If you have questions, please call David or Birgitte at (212) 645-0834.
* Mindful Peace Building was founded by Dharma Teacher and CMNY co-founder Lyn Fine. For more information, see www.mindfulpeacebuilding.org.
________________________________________________________________

Rock Blossom Sangha Afternoon of Practice
Sunday March 21
1012 8th Avenue, Church of Gethsemane, Basement
Dear Thây, Dear Sangha,
This coming Sunday, March 21st, on the first full day of spring, there will be an Afternoon of Practice at the Rock Blossom Sangha, in addition to our regular evening gathering. We will gather at 2:30, and spend some time in sitting meditation and looking a little further into the Sutra on Breath Mindfulness, which is one of the Buddha's explicit guides to meditation. Perhaps we will review sections one and two, and look a bit into section three, as Thây has taught it over a number of years.
Later we will have the opportunity for walking meditation, dharma sharing and a mindful (vegetarian) meal together at around 5:30. You may come for only the afternoon, or remain for our evening gathering for a longer (stronger?) practice experience.
metta,
dennis
____________________________________

Buddhist Council of New York, Annual Buddhist Forum, 2010 “What is sustainable sangha? : Buddhist perspectives on environmental and economic longevity”Date: Saturday, March 20th, 2010
Time: 10:00am – 4:00pm (note: registration with light breakfast will begin at 9:30am and lunch will be served at 11:30am)
Location: Brooklyn Zen Center – 505 Carroll St. Suite 2A, Brooklyn, New York (between 3th and 4th Avenues)
________________________________________________________________________

March 21, 4-8 pm
Public hearing of Truth Commission on Conscience in War
Location: The Riverside Church Nave, New York City
· Screening of Soldiers of Conscience
· Testimony from Veterans
· Briefings from Expert Witnesses
The Truth Commission on Conscience in War, a national gathering of community and religious leaders, advocacy groups, and artists, will receive personal testimony from veterans and briefings from expert witnesses about:
· moral and religious questions facing soldiers both before and during combat
· moral and religious criteria of just war
· international agreements governing the justification and conduct of war
· limits of military regulations on Conscientious Objection
See www.conscienceinwar.org for more information


__._,_.___

National Day of Unpluging

Join in fighting back against the tidal wave of technology taking over society and our lives. Are you sick of having conversations with people with their noses buried in an iPhone? Are you that person?

Put down the cell phone, stop the status updates on Facebook, shut down Twitter, sign out of e-mail and relax, as part of our National Day of Unplugging.

People across the nation will tune out to reclaim time to slow life down and reconnect with friends, family, the community and themselves for 24 hours, starting at sundown, Friday, March 19. The Sabbath Manifesto’s principles were created for individual styling, but for one day we are asking you to take on the challenge of Principle Number 1: AVOID TECHNOLOGY. For those of you who can’t resist the temptation we created cell phone sleeping bags.

http://www.sabbathmanifesto.org/unplug


Tuesday, March 9, 2010

March Schedule

Green Island Sangha March Schedule


SUNDAY March 14th
at St Ignatius Retreat House
10:30 -12:30 PM
Our Regular Sitting Practice


SUNDAY March 21st
at St Ignatius Retreat House
10:30 -12:30 PM
Our Regular Sitting Practice
Peace is Every Step Reading
(please bring your copy with you if you don't have one, we can share!)


SUNDAY March 28th
at St Ignatius Retreat House
10:30- 12:30 PM
Our Regular Sitting Practice
Sangha Generosity Practice non perishables and canned goods for a local food pantry
Collection at March 28th sit

Your Free Will Donation Helps to Support Our Community and our hosts St Ignatius Retreat House

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.

Thursday, March 4, 2010

New Video

A New Video focusing on our sisters in practice in Plum Village has been posted at the bottom of this blog! Please scroll down to enjoy.
The Video comes from a project entitled The Journey TV.


The Journey is a non-funded and not for profit documentary project that aims to raise awareness to sustainable ideas, projects and lifestyles by documenting people who are committed to creating a sustainable future. The project concentrates on the positive action that is taking place today, and how in the heart of these actions could be real solutions to global issues.

March Schedule


Green Island Sangha March Schedule


SUNDAY March 7th
St Ignatius Retreat House
Beginners Mind Gathering 9:40 to 10:30 AM
Our Once a Month Pre Sit Intro Meeting for Those new to Mindfulness or New to the Tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh
Our Regular Sitting Practice will meet after Beginner's Mind Gathering
10:30-12:30PM
5 Mindfulness Training Recitation (New Version)
Please Bring your Chanting Books with you if you have them, if not we can share.

SUNDAY March 14th
St Ignatius Retreat House
10:30 -12:30 PM
Our Regular Sitting Practice


SUNDAY March 21st
St Ignatius Retreat House
10:30 -12:30 PM
Our Regular Sitting Practice
Peace is Every Step Reading (please bring your copy with you if you have ...if not we can share )


SUNDAY March 28th
St Ignatius Retreat House
10:30- 12:30 PM

Our Regular Sitting Practice
Sangha Generosity Practice non perishables and canned goods for a local food pantry Collection at today's sit


Your Free Will Donation Helps to Support Our Community and our hosts St Ignatius Retreat House

Monday, March 1, 2010

Audio of Thich Nhat Hanh with Oprah


http://www.oprah.com/oprahradio/Celebrate-Happiness-Audio


Thich Nhat Hanh Quotes from the Oprah website


~ "Freedom is not given to us by anyone; we have to cultivate it ourselves. It is a daily practice… No one can prevent you from being aware of each step you take or each breath in and breath out." ~

~ "People have a hard time letting go of their suffering. Out of a fear of the unknown, they prefer suffering that is familiar." ~

~ "Enlightenment is always there. Small enlightenment will bring great enlightenment. If you breathe in and are aware that you are alive—that you can touch the miracle of being alive—then that is a kind of enlightenment." ~

~ "Many people are alive but don't touch the miracle of being alive." ~

~ "It is possible to live happily in the here and now. So many conditions of happiness are available—more than enough for you to be happy right now. You don't have to run into the future in order to get more." ~

~ "People suffer because they are caught in their views. As soon as we release those views, we are free and we don't suffer anymore." ~

~ "Mindfulness helps you go home to the present. And every time you go there and recognize a condition of happiness that you have, happiness comes." ~

~ "Life is available only in the present. That is why we should walk in such a way that every step can bring us to the here and the now." ~

~ "When you love someone, the best thing you can offer is your presence. How can you love if you are not there?" ~

~ "To be loved means to be recognized as existing." ~

~ "Every thought you produce, anything you say, any action you do, it bears your signature." ~

~ "We have to continue to learn. We have to be open. And we have to be ready to release our knowledge in order to come to a higher understanding of reality." ~