Monday, July 22 we will meet online.
Dear friends,
This week: we will meet Monday from 7-8:30PM EDT online, Wednesday morning from 7-8AM EDT in person at our meditation space (3812 Northampton Street NW), and Friday 12-1PM EDT online.
This Monday we will gather together online and Susie will facilitate.
We will read the Five Mindfulness Trainings passed down from our spiritual ancestors and translated by Thich Nhat Hanh (Thay). This week we will focus on the second of the five mindfulness trainings – True Happiness. True happiness means to live with happiness, even though we experience both negative and positive emotions, we know that happiness is an accessible state that can provide wellbeing and healing inside and outside of us.
Sometimes I find life so challenging that I wonder when I will have time and space for happiness. Some mornings, I wake up completely happy and aware of all the conditions I have for happiness. However, most mornings, even before opening my eyes, my mind goes right to my to-do list, work, and responsibilities. I come back to my breath and feel gratitude that I have responsibilities and purpose, meaningful work, and many opportunities ahead for being of service throughout my day. I remind myself of the opportunities for self-care, such as exercise, eating well, and sitting on my cushion.
I invite you this week to tap into what made you happy this morning, this evening, or sometime in between. What is true happiness for you?
On Monday, after our meditation period, we will read the trainings and have time to share our experiences with this training or any aspects of our life or practice.
An Introduction to the Five Mindfulness Trainings from Thich Nhat Hanh
The Five Mindfulness Trainings are one of the most concrete ways to practice mindfulness. They are nonsectarian, and their nature is universal. They are true practices of compassion and understanding. All spiritual traditions have their equivalent to the Five Mindfulness Trainings.
The first training is to protect life, to decrease violence in oneself, in the family and in society. The second training is to practice social justice, generosity, not stealing and not exploiting other living beings. The third is the practice of responsible sexual behavior in order to protect individuals, couples, families and children. The fourth is the practice of deep listening and loving speech to restore communication and reconcile. The fifth is about mindful consumption, to help us not bring toxins and poisons into our body or mind.
The Five Mindfulness Trainings are based on the precepts developed during the time of the Buddha to be the foundation of practice for the entire lay practice community. I have translated these precepts for modern times, because mindfulness is at the foundation of each one of them. With mindfulness, we are aware of what is going on in our bodies, our feelings, our minds and the world, and we avoid doing harm to ourselves and others. Mindfulness protects us, our families and our society. When we are mindful, we can see that by refraining from doing one thing, we can prevent another thing from happening. We arrive at our own unique insight. It is not something imposed on us by an outside authority.
Practicing the mindfulness trainings, therefore, helps us be more calm and concentrated, and brings more insight and enlightenment.
– Thich Nhat Hanh, Happiness: Essential Mindfulness Practices
The Five Mindfulness Trainings can be found here.
The Second Mindfulness Training: True Happiness
Aware of the suffering caused by exploitation, social injustice, stealing, and oppression, I am committed to practicing generosity in my thinking, speaking, and acting. I am determined not to steal and not to possess anything that should belong to others; and I will share my time, energy, and material resources with those who are in need. I will practice looking deeply to see that the happiness and suffering of others are not separate from my own happiness and suffering; that true happiness is not possible without understanding and compassion; and that running after wealth, fame, power and sensual pleasures can bring much suffering and despair.
I am aware that happiness depends on my mental attitude and not on external conditions, and that I can live happily in the present moment simply by remembering that I already have more than enough conditions to be happy. I am committed to practicing Right Livelihood so that I can help reduce the suffering of living beings on Earth and reverse the process of global warming.