September 24, 2021
| “Thay turns 95 on October 11. To express our gratitude for his incredible contributions, we invite you to share about caring for Mother Earth, in particular, how we can listen to ourselves, our loved ones, and the Earth. Continuing Thay’s legacy through our own mindfulness is the most powerful gift we can offer. |
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| Since the early 1970’s, Thay has been a pioneer of ecological justice, organizing Buddhists, scientists, and local communities to care for and protect Mother Earth. Thay teaches us that the first step to taking care of ourselves and our planet is to practice deep listening – a revolutionary act, in our often noisy world.” |
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| Since the early 1970’s, Thay has been a pioneer of ecological justice, organizing Buddhists, scientists, and local communities to care for and protect Mother Earth. Thay teaches us that the first step to taking care of ourselves and our planet is to practice deep listening – a revolutionary act, in our often oisy world. In the latest book of Thay’s powerful Earth teachings, Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet (published this October), Thay calls on us all to practice deep listening to help heal ourselves, our communities, and our planet. |
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1. Listen to the Earth. Take some time and space to go outside and really be with the Earth. Sit or stand with a tree, a rock, a flower. As you come back to your mindful breathing, release tension in the body, and open up all the five senses to get in touch with Earth’s wonders, you naturally stop thinking. You wake up to the miracle that we are alive on a precious and fragile planet. In the silence, what is the Earth saying to you?
2. Listen to yourself. Set aside some moments to sit in stillness, perhaps with a relaxing cup of tea, and listen to what is going on inside. With mindful breathing we return home to our body and can really be there for ourselves, to take care of our feelings with love and understanding. Listening to ourselves is a precondition to listening to others, and is a beautiful gift to Thay and the world. What do you discover when you take time to listen to yourself?
3. Listen to a loved one. Once we have listened to ourselves and, with mindful breathing, restored our peace and freshness, we have a quality of presence that we can offer to a loved one. We can listen to hear what is being said and what is being left unsaid. With the support of our true presence, our loved ones can feel heard and can release their suffering. |
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-Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh, Plum Village.
November 25, 2020 Merci d’exister.
Creation by Jen Bloomer, Radici Studios
A Thanksgiving Prayer
Don’t get revenge when wronged, but seek reconciliation.
Don’t repay violence with violence, but seek creative and transforming nonviolent alternatives.
Don’t focus on external conformity to moral codes, but on internal transformation in love.
Don’t love insiders and hate or fear outsiders, but welcome outsiders into a new “us,” a new “we,” a new humanity that celebrates diversity in the context of love for all, justice for all, and mutual respect for all.
Don’t have anxiety about money or security or pleasure at the center of your life, but trust yourself to the care of God.
Don’t live for wealth, but for the living God who loves all people, including your enemies.
Don’t hate your enemies or competitors, but love them and do to them not as they have done to you—and not before they do to you—but as you wish they would do for you.
[Center for Action & Contemplation]
In the COVID days ahead,
‘…give us the courage of warriors,
the strength of saints,
the love of new mothers,
the resilience of gravity,
the patience of breath,
the freedom of children.’
[Steven Garnaas-Holmes]
♡
Be safe. Be strong. Love from a distance. Wear you mask. Be kind.
H A P P Y T H A N K S G I V I N G
