mindful ness BEL L
Dear Thay, dear Sangha,
A Journal of the Art of Mindful Living
in the Tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh
Published by Plum Village
Issue 46 Autumn 2007
Sister Annabel
Advisor and Editor
Managing Editor
Janelle Combelic
Associate Editor
Judith Toy
Design
LuminArts
Proofreader
Elaine Hild
Subscriptions & Advertising
David Percival
Lien Ho
Website Design
Webmaster
Brandy Sacks
Advisory Board
Richard Brady
Jerry Braza
Barbara Casey
Thay Phap Kham
Peggy Rowe Ward
Matt Sherman
Writing Submissions: Please send us the fruits of
your practice. We welcome feature articles (1,500 to
2,500 words), essays, and stories, as well as poetry. We
especially welcome submissions from young people of
any age.
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community. Please send digital images as TIFF or JPEG
files no larger than 1 MB. We can promptly return all originals sent by mail.
Send submissions via e-mail to editor@mindfulnessbell.
org or by mail to Mindfulness Bell, 745 Cagua S.E., Albuquerque, NM 87108, U.S.A.
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David Percival, 745 Cagua S.E., Albuquerque, NM 87108,
U.S.A.
The Mindfulness Bell is published three times a year by
the Community of Mindful Living, Deer Park Monastery,
2499 Melru Lane, Escondido CA 92026, U.S.A.
On the cover: During the third day of the Great Requiem
Ceremony near Hanoi, a projection screen allowed the lay
people sitting outside to see what was going on inside the
temple; photo by David Nelson.
2 Autumn 2007
We sit on the dew-covered grass, watching the light of dawn reveal the towering
mountains all around us. Thay sits like a rock,
like a tree, like a Buddha, in front of several
hundred sleepy retreatants. It is six a.m. on
the first day of the retreat at the YMCA of the
Rockies in Estes Park, Colorado.
After a while Thay invites the little bell and we rise to walk as one to
the meditation hall. In the half-light our mass of peaceful mindful people
lumbers up the hill. That’s when I see for an instant through the present moment into a potential future. I see not a few hundred people but thousands,
millions, walking in silence. I see people descending into the streets of towns
and cities all over the world, walking together, and with our breathing
bodies, with our hearts joined in love, saying no — no to war, to injustice,
to poverty and exploitation — no to the powers that be.
I remember Princess Diana’s funeral, when over a million people
lined the streets of London standing for hours in silence, united in their
grief and their love. Even more amazing, all major U.S. television channels
broadcast her funeral live, one of them broadcasting the silence as well
as the images. Around the world as many as 2.5 billion people watched at
the same time. So imagine, imagine what power we have — to say yes to
life, to love, to paradise here on earth.
In his Dharma talks at the retreat Thay reminded us that we are all
cells in one body, part of a single organism. I have heard Thay say that
the next Buddha to be born will be a collective. This is what I see awakening all over the planet: the Cosmic Christ, the long-awaited Messiah, the
Buddha to be. It is happening now. (Read magazines like Yes!, Ode, and
Utne Reader for positive developments worldwide.)
Thay’s own happiness is his best teaching — after all he has seen and
suffered and accomplished in this life, he radiates peace and joy. When he
says that there is no birth and no death, that our only continuation is our
actions, he is the living proof.
Thay’s joy — and that of the ninety monastics traveling with him on
the U.S. tour — touched the nearly one thousand lay people at the retreat.
We sang, laughed, sat, cried, walked, ate, talked mindfully together for six
glorious days in the majestic Rocky Mountains.
And we shared the Mindfulness Bell — a joint creation of monks,
nuns, and lay people. After one of the Dharma talks, four of us, including
Sister Chan Khong, made a presentation about the Mindfulness Bell to the
sangha. I was thrilled at the response from the retreatants. We sold every
single magazine we had and collected many subscriptions and donations.
From the bottom of my heart, thank you to all!
As Sister Chan Khong said, when you support the Mindfulness Bell you
are doing more than just purchasing a magazine, which hopefully inspires
you. You are helping Thay to spread the Dharma and build sangha around
the world. Consider renewing your subscription for two or three or even five
years. And don’t forget that subscriptions make wonderful holiday gifts!
May our sangha flow like a river, each step in power and beauty.
May the turning of the seasons and the year bring peace into all aspects
of your life. Breathe on!