This Monday July 31, we will meet in person.
Go to calendar for our schedule
Address for the OHMC meditation space:
3812 Northampton St. NW
Washington DC 20015
Please arrive a few minutes early so we can invite the bell on time. You may also arrive 15 minutes early to practice working meditation by helping us set up cushions.
Dear Friends, this week we will meet on Monday evening in person 7-8:30PM at our meditation space (3838 Northampton Street), Wednesday morning from 7-8AM online, and Friday 12-1PM online.
On Monday we will read the Five Mindfulness Trainings and focus on the 5th training: Nourishment and Healing. Annie and Ellen will co-facilitate.
The Five Mindfulness Trainings are one of the most concrete ways to practice mindfulness. They are not commandments, but rather invitations to consider our ways of living. They support us in practicing compassion and understanding.
The Fifth Mindfulness Training: Nourishment and Healing
Aware of the suffering caused by unmindful consumption, I am committed to cultivating good health, both physical and mental, for myself, my family, and my society by practicing mindful eating, drinking, and consuming. I will practice looking deeply into how I consume the Four Kinds of Nutriments, namely edible foods, sense impressions, volition, and consciousness. I am determined not to gamble, or to use alcohol, drugs, or any other products which contain toxins, such as certain websites, electronic games, TV programs, films, magazines, books, and conversations. I will practice coming back to the present moment to be in touch with the refreshing, healing and nourishing elements in me and around me, not letting regrets and sorrow drag me back into the past nor letting anxieties, fear, or craving pull me out of the present moment. I am determined not to try to cover up loneliness, anxiety, or other suffering by losing myself in consumption. I will contemplate interbeing and consume in a way that preserves peace, joy, and well-being in my body and consciousness, and in the collective body and consciousness of my family, my society and the Earth.
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Ellen writes:
This is a particularly timely training for me. So often I have turned to food and drink in mindless, mind-numbing ways when I am very stressed, such as when I am working under a lot of pressure or when I'm very tired. It never comforts or nourishes me; in fact, I typically feel worse afterwards -- which then becomes a cycle of regret and self-criticism. I've focused on mindful eating ever since I read Annie's book, and then discovered Thai's little "pocketbook" on mindful eating.
It's a constant struggle, an ever-present goal. Taking a breath before I eat, focusing on the food, thinking gratefully about those who produced it -- these are ways that I can bring real nourishment. I've even started drinking coffee in a mindful meditative way in the morning, allowing me to savor the flavor, the warmth of the drink.
Summer is a wonderful time to be thinking about nourishment. The fresh fruits and vegetables from the farmers market or from a farm-stand in the country provide the most wonderful ways to connect food and the land. Delighting in juicy strawberries or bursting tomatoes is a reminder of how much I can enjoy good foods and be focused on eating mindfully.
Being present, being mindful about nourishment has been hard for me but I am grateful for the resources, the tools, the learnings and inspirations from the trainings and other writings from Thai and others.
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We look forward to being with you on Monday. After sitting and walking meditation and reading the trainings, we will have time to reflect together on our journey with nourishment and healing.