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Special Issue on Sangha Building Leading with Courage and Compassion by Thich Nhat Hanh Summer 2009 A Publication of Plum Village Issue 51 $8/€8/£6 Special Issue on Sangha Building Leading with Courage and Compassion By Thich Nhat Hanh A Net of Sangha Jewels By Jack Lawlor The Plum Village Sangha in India ISSUE NO. 51 - Summer 2009 38 Together in Beauty, Together in the Everyday By Sara Becker 39 Intersein-Zentrum: Ten Years of Practice in Community By Karl and Helga Riedl 42 A Sangha With Heart By Jim Scott-Behrends, Natascha Bruckner, Miriam Goldberg Dharma Talk 4 Leading with Courage and Compassion Nuts & Bolts By Thich Nhat Hanh 44 Is There Harmony in the Community? By Jerry Braza 8 An Invitation to Support President Obama’s Sangha 45 Deep Listening By Brian Kimmel Sangha Fruits 45 Giving a Talk 10 Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindful- By Joseph Emet ness at the Presidential Inauguration By James Figetakis 46 A Noble Silence Manifesto By Philip Toy 12 War, Conflict, and Healing in Belfast By Bridgeen Rea 47 Continuing Care Committee By Deborah Brooks 14 The Gift of True Freedom By Trish Thompson 48 Mindful Meeting Guidelines By Tony Silvestre 16 Seeing Ourselves in Each Other: The Collaborative Art of Brett Cook 49 Sangha Dot Com By Natascha Bruckner By Elaine Sparrow, Marvin Brown, Val Stepien Buddha’s Medicine Order of Interbeing & Beyond 18 A Net of Sangha Jewels 51 Mentoring and the Aspirant Process By Jack Lawlor By Joanne Friday 20 Two Poems 53 Shining the Light By Bill Menza 54 Someone Committed to Your 21 The Collective Bodhisattva: Sisterhood Full Awakening and Brotherhood By John Bell in the Twenty-first Century By Sister Annabel, True Virtue Thay in India 26 Sangha Building: A Lesson in Love 56 The Plum Village Sangha in India — By Joanne Friday Autumn 2008 By Sister Chan Khong Living Sangha 58 Buddha Walks Where Buddha Was Born 27 Buddhist Enough Haiku By Irpinder Bhatia By Charles Suhor Book Reviews 28 Why Build Sangha? By Caleb Cushing 61 Peaceful Action, Open Heart: Lessons from the Lotus Sutra 29 Sangha Building in Southern California Thich Nhat Hanh By Karen Hilsberg 61 Tuning In: Mindfulness in Teaching 31 One View from the Cedar Cabin and Learning By Nancy Stewart Irene McHenry and Richard Brady, Editors 32 Form Is Emptiness 62 Be Like A Tree: Zen Talks by Thich By Hope Lindsay Phuoc Tinh Edited and Illustrated by Karen Hilsberg 33 Always Hug the Dharma! By Katie Hammond Holtz 62 The Best Buddhist Writing 2007 Edited by Melvin McLeod 36 Morning Sun Rising By John Young 63 Stupa By David Percival Dear Thay, dear Sangha, In conjunction with Thich Nhat Hanh’s 2009 U.S tour, we are delighted to publish this special issue on Sangha building — the first time in many years that we’ve had a whole issue devoted to a single theme. Even with sixty-four pages, we didn’t have room for all the excellent submissions; A Journal of the Art of Mindful Living our heartfelt gratitude to all who In Memoriam Serafina in the Tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh contributed. Sept. 1994 – 1 May 2009 Published by Plum Village “Ever since I was a young monk,” Thay writes in Joyfully Together: The Art of Building a Harmonious Community, “my dream has been to build a happy Issue 51 Summer 2009 Sangha. Now, after sixty years of monastic practice, I continue to feel that Sangha building is the most precious work that we can do as practitioners. The Sangha is our community of practice, and it is also our refuge. We rely on it and trust it Advisor and Editor Sister Annabel to support our deepest aspirations and to give us energy and inspiration on the Managing Editor Janelle Combelic path of practice.” Associate Editor Judith Toy Anyone who has been to Plum Village or Deer Park or Blue Cliff knows that Thay Design LuminArts has succeeded in building a happy Sangha. Anyone who has been on retreat with Thay’s monks and nuns or his Dharma teachers has felt a touch of Sangha joy. Proofreader Elaine Hild Subscriptions & Advertising David Percival At my first big retreat, in Colorado in 2003, I knew no one. By chance, in our first Dharma discussion, I was the first one to introduce myself. I said my name and Website Design Lien Ho explained that I was from Fort Collins, just an hour away. The person to my left Webmaster Brandy Sacks then introduced himself, and said he, too, was from Fort Collins. And so on around the circle, all twenty-some of us! A number of them met regularly in town and so Advisory Board Richard Brady I started to attend Peaceful Heart Sangha. My life has never been the same. Jerry Braza The Dharma talk in this issue is the speech on “Leading with Courage and Com- Barbara Casey passion” that Thay delivered to the Parliament of India when he was there last Thay Phap Kham fall. It is followed by a moving article about President Obama’s inauguration; the section on “Sangha Fruits” explores the wider meaning of Sangha — our Peggy Rowe-Ward place in the world. Matt Sherman “Buddha’s Medicine” provides wisdom from Dharma teachers who have been building Sangha for decades. A host of practitioners describe their personal Writing Submissions: Please send us the fruits of experiences in “Living Sangha,” and then specific practices are described in your practice. We welcome feature articles (1,500 to “Nuts & Bolts.” A few articles delve into more advanced practice in “Order of 2,500 words), essays, and stories, as well as poetry. We Interbeing & Beyond.” especially welcome submissions from young people of any age. Sister Chan Khong sent us a report on the India trip, which closes out the issue, Art & Photo Submissions: We welcome photos, art- along with the book reviews. As usual, Thay and his monks and nuns traveled and work, and cartoons from your local Sangha, family, and taught tirelessly; we have room for only a few stories from the trip. community. Please send digital images as TIFF or JPEG files no larger than 1 MB. We can promptly return all origi- A personal note: one Sangha that is not mentioned elsewhere is the Mindfulness nals sent by mail. Bell Sangha. For the last four years, I have had the privilege of immersing myself Send submissions via e-mail to editor@mindfulnessbell. in this amazing worldwide community. Most of you I have not met in person; nor org or by mail to Mindfulness Bell, 745 Cagua S.E., Albu- do you know each other. Yet your love for the Dharma, for our beloved teacher, for querque NM 87108, U.S.A. your Sangha brothers and sisters comes through in many ways — your beautiful Advertising Inquiries and Subscriptions: ads@ submissions, the comments you make in e-mail or in person, your subscriptions, mindfulnessbell.org, [email protected] or David Percival, 745 Cagua S.E., Albuquerque NM 87108, your donations, the copies you send to prisoners. You reprint articles in your U.S.A. newsletters and in major newspapers in Israel and India; you share readings in The Mindfulness Bell is published three times a year by your Dharma discussions. the Community of Mindful Living, Deer Park Monastery, 2499 Melru Lane, Escondido CA 92026, U.S.A. These are challenging times. As Thay has often said, we need not sink in the sea Website: Read selected articles, download the maga- of despair — we can take refuge in the raft of Sangha. May all beings find Sangha zine, subscribe, and view the worldwide Sangha directory and realize their deepest aspirations. online at www.mindfulnessbell.org. On the cover: The Plum Village delegation on the River Ganges in Varanasi (photo courtesy of Ahimsa Trust) 2 Summer 2009 Subscription Database Glitch Because of recent difficulties with the Mindfulness Bell database, approximately forty-five renewal records (only renewal, not new sub- scriptions) have been lost. All is well now, but those forty-five folks won’t 2009 Retreats & Events get issue #51. If you are someone who renewed, Plum Village CALIFORNIA or know anyone who renewed be- plumvillage.org English Retreat: The World tween February 26 and April 13, Twenty-One Day Retreat: We Are – Planting Peace, 2009, please pass the word that they The Path of the Buddha - Harvesting Happiness need to e-mail, phone, or write David Buddhist Elements for a Deer Park Monastery, Escondido, CA, September 8-13 Percival (see p. 2) with their name, Global Ethic address, amount paid for the renewal, 1 – 21 June Public Talk: Our True Agenda - the number of renewal issues they will Tending to the Space Inside Summer Retreat be receiving, and the issue number of Pasadena Civic Auditorium, CA, 7 July – 4 August September 19 the issue when the renewal expires. David will need to recreate the re- Vietnamese Retreat cord. Thank you. Blue Cliff Monastery Deer Park Monastery, CA, bluecliffmonastery.org September 23-27 Summer Family Retreat 29 June – 5 July NEW YORK We love to receive your Also see US tour, below. Blue Cliff Retreat: Enlightenment letters and suggestions. is Now or Never Blue Cliff Monastery, Pine Bush, NY, Deer Park Monastery October 2 - 6 Please e-mail editor@ deerparkmonastery.org mindfulnessbell.org or write Public Talk: Building a Peaceful Teen Camp and Compassionate Society to Mindfulness Bell, c/o David 17-21 June Beacon Theatre, New York, NY, Percival, 745 Cagua S.E., October 9 Summer Family Retreat Albuquerque NM 87108, U.S.A. 1-5 July Day of Mindfulness at the Meditation & Education Omega Institute 6-8 November New York City, NY, October 10 Also see US tour, below.
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