Author Archives: sangha

Good evening dear friends,

THIS THURSDAY evening we will be practicing the 10 Mindful Movements and Deep Relaxation as well as our usual sitting, walking, and tea meditations. We will also be singing together the Wisdom Song . Because Mountain Rain are still on sesshin, with most of the mats and cushions, you may want to bring a cushion or bench. You may also want to bring a blanket for deep relaxation. Chairs will also be available.

THIS SATURDAY we have a Day of Mindfulness from 10:00 to 3:00. We will have two periods of sitting and walking meditation, followed by a Sutra Service and a third period of sitting and walking. Please bring a brown bag lunch for our formal meal. After eating, we will have outdoor walking meditation (if the weather permits) or deep relaxation. This will be followed by Dharma study and an opportunity for Dharma discussion. Please join us for this opportunity to touch silence, stillness, peace.

Some Sangha members may also want to spend SATURDAY afternoon with other Buddhist practitioners – and many resisters – at the gathering concerned with stopping the Kinder Morgan Pipeline. See https://www.facebook.com/events/128002137658093/ for more details on the demonstration. Contact RedSara@gmail.com or Carmen@bicyclebuddha.org if you have questions about the Buddhist contingent. They will be carrying a big banner reading We Vow to Protect All Life.

You are welcome to come to the morning Day of Mindfulness to prepare your body, speech and mind!

Good morning dear friends,

Tomorrow – Thursday – we will continue with our exploration of socially-engaged Buddhism by offering the Ceremony to Support the Sick. This is such a deep and lovely service! Throughout, we see the ways in which our chanting and recitation brings us back to our hearts.

We will dedicate this Ceremony not only to our beloved ones,
but to all those who require support in the face of sickness, of deep dis-ease and ill-being.

Remembering those who are suffering through ill-health, old age, death and loss.
Remembering those who are suffering through the consequences of their actions.

Those who are suffering through violence perpetrated against them.

Their families, their friends, their communities, their race – sick at heart for what they experience day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, decade after decade, century after century.

Those who are suffering because of the pain of witnessing and not knowing how to respond.

Those who are suffering because they cannot see the consequences of the violence they perpetrate against others and thus against themselves.

Those who are suffering because they have turned away to escape the suffering of others.

Smiling, Bethan

Dear friends

This message comes from Kenley Neufield, a Dharma teacher in California:

Dharma Mamas was founded in November 2014 when a group of mindful mamas, who practice in the Plum Village tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh, gathered for a weekend retreat to share, celebrate, nourish and strengthen our self-care.

Dharma Mamas http://dharmamamas.com/ is a blog and community for mindful mothers. We share the stories of women who have passed through the dharma door of motherhood using mindfulness as compass and guide. These mothers nurture themselves, their children, relationships, families and communities with a foundation of mindful awareness. Through interviews, articles, personal essays, creative writing and poetry, we celebrate all the moments¬ of motherhood and womanhood. Every moment is an opportunity to wake up to the present moment.

If you’d like to submit an article, please see our submission guidelines at: http://dharmamamas.com/submissions/

Stay tuned for information on future events and retreats.

Good morning dear friends

A reminder to please let us know at wwsangha@gmail.com if you are planning to attend the 5th Anniversary Day of Mindfulness this Saturday on September 10 – 9:45-4:45 with Pot Luck Vegetarian social to follow – ALL WELCOME – Family and Friends

Update from One Earth Sangha: Blue Planet Practice
How will we act on climate disruption with wisdom, courage and compassion?
EcoSattva Training Registration September 7, 2016
Opening, LIVE online session on October 16
We invite you to experience a powerful collection of teachers, activists and other leaders in our annual EcoSattva Training series. Built on the foundation of last year’s inaugural online course, this year’s training offers another opportunity to come together in community to explore how the practices of wisdom and compassion can meet a challenge even as immense as global climate change.
https://oneearthsangha.org/programs/ecosattva-training/

Family Practice Program at Mountain Rain Zen Centre
Sunday, September 18, 1:00-2:30
Upcoming dates: October 23, November 27
http://mountainrainzen.us8.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=4e88e8e99df284a2b289288d9&id=8b2e0c98c8&e=fcf1fd0e54)

Film: Walk With Me –
A beautiful and meditative film Walk With Me about the Thich Nhat Hanh tradition and monastic community. It’s narrated by Oscar-nominated actor Benedict Cumberbatch. You can see the international trailer in the article in Variety magazine, which also includes a quote by director Alejandro G. Innaritu (Birdman, The Revenant).
http://variety.com/2016/film/global/benedict-cumberbatch-documentary-walk-with-me-westend-first-trailer-thich-nhat-hanh-mindfulness-1201852632/

Dear friends –

In September, we will begin our four month practice and study period of looking deeply into socially engaged Buddhism as practiced in our Interbeing/ Tiep Hien tradition. Please consider joining us for one Thursday, 10 Thursdays, an unknown number of Thursdays! Throughout this time we will also be learning and joining together in practicing loving-kindness (Metta) chants and songs for all ages.

We will begin September 1st with a recitation of the 1990 Five Wonderful Precepts – an early version of the ever evolving Five Mindfulness Trainings. We will follow this with a recitation of the 2011 version of the Six Ecosattva Vows from One Earth Sangha. There will be tea and Dharma discussion as well as our usual sitting and walking meditation.

On September 8th we will read and discuss together a 2002 portrait of Sister Chan Khong and experience a true manifestation of socially engaged practice. Our October practice will include elements of her book, Learning True Love.

September 10th is our 5th Anniversary Day of Mindfulness followed by a potluck social. We especially invite those of you present at the beginning of our Sangha, following the 2011 retreat with Thay and the Plum Village Sangha. We will sit and walk, drink tea, watch an enlightening 1997 documentary focused on the beginnings of Plum Village called “Peace is Every Step.” It is wonderful to hear and see Thay in 1997 – almost 20 years ago.. After a formal brown bag lunch and deep relaxation we will explore the meaning of Beginning Anew in the context of socially engaged practice. PLEASE, let us know if you are coming (wwsangha@gmail.com).

On September 15th we will look at the history of socially engaged Buddhism in Vietnam compiled from several sources, most especially Lyn Fine and Patricia Hunt Perry’s chapter in Engaged Buddhism in the West.

September 22nd our sitting and walking practice will be followed by a recitation of May the Day be Well and Dharma discussion concerning our everyday aspirations for social justice.

September 29th is a fifth Thursday and our tradition is to have a Tea Ceremony where we bring our songs and stories, poems and images to share with the Sangha. Our theme will be sharing our connections with people, animals, plants and minerals.

May all beings be well….

September 10: CELEBRATION!

Waves and Water Sangha will soon be five years old! Immediately following the 2011 Vancouver retreat with Thich Nhat Hanh and the Plum Village Sangha we began to practice together. Now we will begin anew….

On Saturday, September 10, we will hold a Day of Mindfulness. Beginning at 9:45 there will be two periods of sitting and walking meditation and then tea service. This will be followed by PEACE IS EVERY STEP, an early video documentary focusing on the beginnings of our tradition and the establishment of Plum Village.

For our formal mid-day meal, please bring a brown bag vegetarian lunch. Then, following deep relaxation we will explore the Ceremony to Begin Anew and how it can nourish all our relationships. We have made a wonderful addition to this Ceremony – Touching the Earth: Honouring Our Women Ancestors based on the Soto Zen Salt Spring Island Sangha’s initiative that was authorized by that tradition in 2014.

We will end with sitting and walking and then join together in A SOCIAL VEGETARIAN POT LUCK.

ALL ARE WELCOME: family and friends may want to join us at 5:00.

Please register [wwsangha[at]gmail.com] A donation of $20 is suggested – please offer what you can.

Three Month Practice Period: SOCIALLY ENGAGED BUDDHISM

This Day of Mindfulness will begin our three month practice period focusing on our tradition’s roots in socially engaged Buddhism. We will follow breath, read, chant, discuss, explore the history of our Tiep Hien :: Interbeing tradition beginning with excerpts from Sister Chan Khong’s book, Learning True Love: Practicing Buddhism in a Time of War and a chapter in Christopher Queen’s edition of Engaged Buddhism in the West. Thich Nhat Hanh and senior practitioners have provided us with many resources and we will also discover key writings, talks and videos that will deepen our understanding of what it means to practice socially engaged Buddhism. This follows wonderfully on our four month practice with, first, Diversity and, second, Irritation and Anger.

Dear friends –

I find it difficult to maintain my breath right now in the midst of so much violence against Black men, women and children. We will have our regular Day of Mindfulness on Saturday from 10-3 which will be mostly silent. As planned, we will offer a Ceremony to Support the Sick. This Ceremony can be dedicated to those who are sick across all dimensions of being. Those who are suffering through old age and death, those who are suffering through violence perpetrated against them. Their families, their friends, their communities, their race – sick at heart for what they experience day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, decade after decade, century after century. Those who are suffering because their mental and spiritual sicknesses restrict their view of the consequences of perpetrating violence against others and thus against themselves. Those who are suffering because they refuse to acknowledge what is happening around them.

And on Sunday, some of us will attend, as silent witnesses, possibly chanting, the Black Lives Matter Vigil at the Vancouver Art Gallery from 12:30 to 2:30.

Please consider joining us on either or both days so we may take refuge together in the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha – refusing to turn away from suffering. We will retreat by moving forward together.

Bethan – True Spacious Mind

Dear friends –

Many of us are practicing with our bodies coming and going during the summer! Some of us are practicing deeply with the transformation of others through old age, illness and death. We gather on Thursdays to sit and walk, drink tea and study the Dharma – sharing our presence through our breath.

This Saturday, July 9, from 9:45 to 3:00 we will have a Day of Mindfulness focused on caregiving. We offer and receive caregiving and we recognize both the challenges and rewards from each position. After sitting and walking for three periods, we will practice the Ceremony to Support the Sick. There will be a formal meal. Please bring a bag lunch and tea will be provided.

Following our meal we will nourish ourselves with deep relaxation. Then, we will share our practice of caregiving, of supporting the sick, and being support during our own ill health.

Please join us – everyone is welcome…. There will be a Dana basket for donations.

Contact us at wwsangha@gmail.com if you any questions or concerns.

Good afternoon!

We have completed (for now….) our practice period on Diversity in the context of Dharma. We have studied, read and practiced with diversity of race, culture, ethnicity, socio-economic conditions, species – as well as with the conditions of privilege and oppression that arise in our lives. We have had opportunities to listen deeply to one another’s unique expression, both in panels and Dharma sharing.

In June, we will flow into the practice period of looking deeply and practicing with anger and irritation. We will begin with a full Recitation Ceremony of the Five Mindfulness trainings tomorrow, the first Thursday in June.

Unfortunately, in May, we experienced causes and conditions that were not able to support our Day of Mindfulness. The next Day of Mindfulness will be on July 9.

NOTE: July 21-24, Mountain Lamp community is offering a Family Camp-out Retreat. Please got to http://www.mountainlamp.org/forms/2016-07%20Family%20Campout.pdf for more information.

Dear Friends,

Two senior monastics from Deer Park Monastery will be offering a residential retreat and two Days of Mindfulness in August 2016. Please visit the retreat pageof our website for more information.

Waves and Water Sangha is pleased to be able to offer a limited number of partial scholarships for the two Days of Mindfulness. Please contact us at wwsangha@gmail.com as soon as possible as space is very limited. Your scholarship application is confidential.