Author Archives: Waves and Water Sangha

Good afternoon dear friends

In these difficult times sitting, walking and studying the Dharma in community – even virtual community – can help us maintain our breath. Even if we can manifest deep mindful breaths for one minute at a time, that will help.

This week we have an opportunity to practice the Ceremony to Recite the Five Mindfulness Trainings. In the following weeks we will complete our viewing of Sr Annabel’s talk and then carry on with a focus on practice songs and what we can learn from them.

For Thursday, if at all possible, please have the text of the Five Mindfulness Trainings with you (available at http://wavesandwater.org/site/practice/five-mindfulness-trainings/ ) so that you can participate in the recitation.

The Zoom link and meeting ID remains the same and can be found at : http://wavesandwater.org/site/sangha/about/thursday/

We hope you can join us. And, here is an offering – a poem by our OI brother Dzung Vo who practices with the Vancouver Mindfulness Community:

i can’t breathe
said George Floyd
the knee of four hundred years of racism
on his neck

i can’t breathe
said the woman with fear
in her eyes
her lungs attacked by coronavirus
as she was put onto the ventilator

i can’t breathe
said the nurse, exhausted
after a long shift
sweating under a hot surgical mask
and foggy goggles

i can’t breathe
said the young man
poisoned by a toxic drug supply
and generations of trauma and loss

i can’t breathe
said the one hundred thousand
dead americans
a nation and a world in mourning

i can’t breathe
said cities choked in smoke
from a planet on fire

breathe my dear
said the buddha of our time
reminding us of the way
to love and healing and transformation

breathe my dear
said the beloved community
grieving
and waking up together

breathe my dear
said mother earth
and let my oceans, mountains,
and forests embrace you
right now

when it seems so hard just to breathe
right now
just breathe

With permission….

Dear friends

Breathing In and Breathing Out

Over the next three Thursdays we will have the opportunity to listen to a Dharma Talk by Sr Annabel: Compassion is Non-Local: “Please remember that the world needs your happiness.” Sr Annabel recorded this talk on April 26, 2020. Each week we will watch and listen to approximately 30 minutes of the talk followed by Dharma discussion.

This talk is from a series of on-line offerings called THE RAFT. Created by the Thich Nhat Hanh Foundation, Plum Village Monastery, Parallax Press, and the Plum Village App team, The Raft is a special weekly series for a period of time during the pandemic, assembled to nourish and inspire your individual and collective mindfulness practice.

This is THE RAFT website: https://thichnhathanhfoundation.org/the-raft You can subscribe….

There are also many other Plum Village offerings that are being broadcast over Zoom. For example Dharma Teacher Joann Rosen who visits both here and in Victoria invites us to an on-line 21-day retreat. Starting June 7 until the 28th, we are going to begin anew together, this essential new way of holding the whole awesome catastrophe, waking up to 21 days of formal and informal practice, familiar and out of the box ways of connecting with self and others. Details for the retreat at: sugarplumsangha.org/21day-workout

If you have found anything you especially enjoy, please let us know!

ZOOM INFORMATION for our Thursday night gatherings remains the same as in the past – we welcome everyone….
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89551327240
Meeting ID: 895 5132 7240
Password: 891639
If you are joining by phone :
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kcJTaAG3iR

May all beings be well….

Dear Friends

The upcoming Thursday, April 30, is a fifth Thursday. It is a tradition of Waves and Water Sangha to offer something a little different on fifth Thursdays. This week, we invite you to each share an offering with the community. This can be anything from songs, poems, stories, activities, shadow puppetry, and skills … all are warmly welcome. We will have the usual two periods each of sitting and walking first.

If you are looking for an idea, please consider offering a story of joyful effort in times of quarantine. Where did you find that making a joyful effort benefited your spirits during this time? Was there a ritual that became meaningful? Were there surprising moments of joy within the limits of the quarantine? You could tell us this story in any way you like.

Facilitating on Zoom is a bit more challenging for us. If you are able to let us know ahead of time what your offering will be, that would help us to plan the evening.

We look forward to your stories. For further information on joining us via Zoom, please visit our web page at : http://wavesandwater.org/site/sangha/about/thursday/

Please feel free to email us at wwsangha@gmail.com.

Dear Friends

Due to impermanent causes and condition, we have had to change our Zoom link one more time.  We hope this will be the last.

Please join us for a virtual sangha gathering this Thursday.

Time: Thursdays, 07:00 PM (Pacific Standard Time) beginning Apr 16, 2020.

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89551327240

Meeting ID: 895 5132 7240
Password: 891639

If you are joining by phone :
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kcJTaAG3iR

Good afternoon dear friends
Please note: For security reasons, we have added a password for our Zoom gathering.

Link :https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89551327240
Meeting ID: 895 5132 7240
Password: 891639

If you are joining by phone :
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kcJTaAG3iR

 Thursday, April 09, we will have two periods of sitting and walking. The first will include a guided meditation from Joanna Macy’s World as Lover, World as Self. Br Phap Ho from Deer Park Monastery will offer the guided meditation, A Time  Of Collective Turning, in the first period of sitting.

Follow our sitting and walking meditation there will be a break to get tea and then we will break into groups for Dharma sharing.

Online practice resources to keep you sane during times of crisis.

One of the key aspects of Thich Nhat Hanh’s teaching is the importance of community and at a time of crisis, it is particularly important to be able to turn to each other for support.So we are very happy to showcase some of the resources that Plum Village offers to help guide your practice during this time.

1. To stay in touch with Plum Village and our practices, you can join some of our daily activities like sitting meditation and dharma talks. Please bear with us as these resources are still in an experimental phase: live from from our different practice centers

2. “Let’s be alone together” – Brother Phap Linh shares his thoughts on how to deal with isolation from his quarantine room: video blog

3. Moving your Sangha online? With much of the world in lockdown or practising social distancing, Sanghas are having to adapt and be creative as they move meetings online. Here are a few tips for making the transition

4. We have also compiled an article for you with: 10 tips from Thich Nhat Hanh to stay sane in challenging times

5. You can listen to all the recent dharma talks in the Plum Village tradition on your favourite  podcast platform:

6. And the free Plum Village app can bring our practice to you wherever you are.

7. Plum Village dharma teachers around the world are offering new dharma talks each week. You can find them on our YouTube channel

8. Would you like to exercise at home? Please enjoy these: Qi Gong exercises led by Brother Phap Dung.

 EARTHOLDER SANGHA PRACTICE

Embodying Racial and Ecological Justice in the Face of the Climate Emergency https://academy.earthholder.org/

“Just like the first offering, we’ll explore the interconnection, the intersectionality, the interbeingness of ecological-social-racial justice. We will nourish ourselves with Earth-based mindfulness practice, connect with the beauty and safety of the present moment, and gain fresh insight on how to be and do at this time of profound societal and climate disruption.”

Good morning dear friends,

Waves and Water Sangha will gather to recite the Five Mindfulness Trainings as we do every first Thursday of the month — this month, via Zoom.  The text for the recitation is available HERE

We have a new Zoom link so please be sure to use this, not the one from last week.
Join Zoom Meeting https://zoom.us/j/289941770

If you think you may need technical support, please email us at wwsangha@gmailcom as soon as possible.

We look forward to practising with you tonight.

Good afternoon dear friends –

This Thursday, March 26, will be our first Sangha gathering using Zoom. So grateful to Rebecca for setting this up. Please see our previous blogpost for information on how to join.

It’s wonderful that we have our practice as a support for any new venture…. Please be patient with whatever happens! Breathing in and out will get us through.

We will join on Zoom silently. We will have a single sit and walk. Then we will practice the Ceremony to Support the Sick. There will be a 10 minute break (while you get tea). Then we should have good time for Dharma sharing before we offer the merits of our practice.

We will have a single Chant Master since Zoom allows only one person to speak/chant at a time.. Please remember to maintain MUTE until our Dharma sharing! And feel wonderfully free to join in the chanting knowing we are chanting together.

You can find all the materials you need to participate at

http://wavesandwater.org/site/practice/ceremony-to-support-the-sick/

This site includes a .pdf document of the text for the Ceremony. It also includes mp3s of all the chants that we will be offering during the Ceremony.

Next Thursday, April 2, we will have the Ceremony to Recite the Five Mindfulness Trainings. All the materials can be found at

Ceremony to Recite the Five Mindfulness Trainings

It contains a .pdf document of the text for the Ceremony. It also includes mp3s of all the chants that we will be offering during the Ceremony. This means you have more than two weeks to practice those chants! What a wonderful way to spend time during our social isolation….

May all beings be well.

Dear friends

As we said in our last BlogPost we are setting up an online Sangha via Zoom for our Thursday night gatherings. Our Sangha member in Banff, AB, has set us up – in gratitude to Rebecca!

We highly recommend you download the Zoom app to your computer or phone as soon as possible and it will then be available when you click on the link below. It is possible to click the link without downloading the app but you will be asked to do so before you can connect.

We will be starting at 7:00 with our usual pattern of welcome, sitting and walking, sitting and walking. We can provide our own tea (!) during a 10 minute break and we will continue to Dharma discussion. If you are a bit late joining us, please enter with your MUTE already on!

Out of respect for the start time, please connect 10 minutes early, and a full 30min early if you are worried about technical errors. This will allow Rebecca to troubleshoot any problems well in advance of our first sit.

If you haven’t used Zoom before, and you require support setting it up, please feel free to write to wwsangha@gmail.com. Rebecca will schedule a phone call with you to walk you through it.

PLEASE MUTE YOUR MICROPHONE during sitting and walking meditation and during chanting! You can turn it on again when we have Dharma discussion.

This is the link for the Zoom meditation for each Thursday’s Sangha meeting (7-9PM PT).

Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/acHI0zblSP

May all beings be well….

Dear friends

The Zendo has been closed and we will not be gathering until further notice. Please remember we are all one, connected in wonderful ways even if we do not practice together in the same space.

In the next few days we will be sending information concerning the possibility of internet gatherings (via Zoom) for the Sangha. In the meantime, please be aware of this on-line retreat (information below) organized with Plum Village by Lions Roar.

May we be peaceful, happy and light in body and spirit.
May we be safe and free from injury.
May we be free from anger, fear and anxiety.

Free Online Summit
In the Footsteps of Thich Nhat Hanh

To Sign In: https://promo.lionsroar.com/free-summit-thich-nhat-hanh-aff-00urvpxn/

You’re invited to join our community for a free 5-day online summit with nine senior Plum Village teachers, hosted by the Thich Nhat Hanh Foundation in partnership with Lion’s Roar.

We hope this email finds you safe and well during this time of uncertainty. Knowing you are there, as a member of our beloved community, fills us with true happiness.

And we want to be there for you as well. If you can’t come to Plum Village, Plum Village will come to you. To help you stay grounded as our lives and communities reorganize. We hope to give you a renewed sense of ease, so that in the midst of uncertainty, you will have a gentle smile on your face, and in the midst of isolation, you will remember that we inter-are.

Thay has touched the hearts of millions with his message of peace, non-violence, and kindness. From difficult beginnings as a Vietnamese monk forced into a life of exile, he has been instrumental in making Buddhism relevant for modern times.

Join us from March 25-29 to experience Thay’s legacy with teachings, meditations, and practices offered by nine senior Dharma teachers he has trained directly. Including Sister Chan Duc, Brother Phap Hai, Brother Phap Dung, Sister Dang Nghiem, Brother Phap Luu, Anh-Huong Nguyen, Shantum Seth, Larry Ward, and Peggy Rowe-Ward, this summit is a rare opportunity to connect deeply with the heart and home of our living Plum Village tradition and community.

Sign up for free to explore 5 key themes and dozens of teachings, guided meditations, and reflections during this online event.

Day 1: Building a Foundation of Mindfulness

Explore Thay’s core teachings on mindfulness, meditation, and walking meditation, supported by guided practices and reflections.

DAY 2: Understanding our Mind with Buddhist Psychology

Dive deeper into Thay’s insight into the nature of our minds: How can we relate best to others? How can we bring mindfulness to our media consumption? And how can we work with our own strong emotions?

DAY 3: Embodying the Beloved Community: Relationships and Community Building

Get transformative insights into relationships and the importance of community, looking at topics such as the meaning of love, healing the inner child, and how to connect meaningfully and compassionately with others.

DAY 4: Interbeing: Tending to Mother Earth

How can we take refuge in the Earth, restoring our sense of ourselves as a part of a bigger picture? Discover concrete strategies to help heal our alienation from the Earth, nourish our gratitude, and dwell happily in the present moment.

DAY 5: For a Future to Be Possible

How can we remain mindfully engaged with a world that’s in turmoil? Explore practices and skillful action that can help you bring courage, kindness, and resilience to the greatest challenges of our time.
Trailer In the Footsteps of Thich Nhat Hanh

As our world shifts, we hope you will join us in continuing to turn to our practice for refuge. When we take care of ourselves, we can earnestly say to others, “I am here for you.” Our world needs our solidity and calmness now more than ever.

With deep bows of gratitude,

The monastics of Plum Village

Good afternoon dear friends

I apologize for my hasty post. I needed more Sangha eyes to clarify my earlier post!

After discussion and deep looking, we have decided to suspend our Sangha gatherings until April 2. At that time, we will have a better sense of how to go forward. Most of our core Sangha work with the public and we want them to stay healthy -= especially getting sufficient rest. Some of us have compromised health (and are of the nature to be old) and so want to be very careful!

Please let us practice together when we are apart, taking care of each other, with our hearts open and our hands clean!

Bethan