Popping in to say hi. Hi!
What I’ve been doing:
What James has been doing:
And yesterday James and I had a Day of Mindfulness at a local Vietnamese Buddhist Temple that practices in the Plum Village tradition as taught by Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh. There were several monastics visiting from Magnolia Grove Monastery in Mississippi.
It was a beautiful day filled with walking meditation, sitting meditation, eating meditation, tea meditation, deep relaxation, a dharma talk and sharing, and lots and lots of singing. So much peace and joy!
I thought I would share with you a little bit from the Dharma talk (dharma means teachings of the Buddha). Buddhists love lists–The Four Nobel Truths, The Five Mindfulness Trainings, The Noble Eightfold Path are only a few. I love lists too, so maybe that is one reason I enjoy practicing Buddhism so much. Heh. So here is a list!
Seven Steps to Peaceful Living
- Talk less, listen more
- Complain less, appreciate more
- Frown less, smile more
- Judge less, accept more,
- Think less, feel more
- Fear less, love more
- Watch (in the broadest sense of the word) less, do more
As Thich Nhat Hanh says, “There is no way to peace, peace is the way.”
May you all find and walk the path of peace.
Now I’m tossing around in my mind what it means to say “there is no way to peace.” Does that mean we often struggle to peace and the only approach is to be peaceful instead of struggling? I wonder. I do love it, but for some reason my brain wants to analyze the difference. I guess you could say I’m not naturally peaceful, lol. I do a lot of positive self-talk all day long. That’s my peaceful. I’ve started making Nick consider positive self-talk, too, as things have been rather unpleasant at work lately because the direction of the department is unclear.
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Good question Melanie! We always say if we do this and this and this then there will be peace making peace contingent on a list of conditions, thus there is no way to peace. In order to have peace we must each be peace because if we are not peaceful in ourselves, we cannot manifest peace in the world. It’s a nice little thinker 🙂 Sorry to hear things are unpleasant for Nick at work right now. I hope it gets better!
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Me, too! Due to the economy, his employer has a hiring freeze but they aren’t laying people off, so he’s both lucky and stuck.
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The jam! The berries! Beautiful! Thank you for sharing your experience and lessons from the Day of Mindfulness. It’s cool to read about. I think Buddhism is fascinating.
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think less, feel more is a hard one!
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Thank you for these pieces of wisdom and reminder!
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Those are profound and simple truths: thanks for sharing them with us and creating a tiny spot of peace as we read (at least). Enjoy the barbelderliciousness (I like the barb at the beginning, it feels like it stings in my mouth at the end… but of course I’m not telling YOU how to name your jam, I’m just saying that when IIIII’m imaginging eating it, the barb gets chewed up and a sweet bit is at the end!!
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Glad you enjoyed them!
As for the jam, we don’t use sugar and elderberries are not sweet, so first comes the earthy sort of astringent elder flavor that is brightened up by the rhubarb which, when combined with the elderberry, loses it’s tartness. It’s a really nice combination inspired by the rhubarb-aronia jam we made last year. Would have made more of that this year but the aronia were not abundant enough. Maybe next year!
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