“Mindfulness practice is simple and completely feasible, says Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche. "Just by sitting and doing nothing, we are doing a tremendous amount.” In mindfulness meditation, or shamatha, we are trying to achieve a mind that is stable and calm. What we begin to discover is that this calmness or harmony is a natural aspect of the mind. Through mindfulness [...]
Beginning Anew
Thich Nhat Hanh on how to make the meaningful ceremony of "Beginning Anew" part of your life — including his unique practice of mindfulness, "hugging meditation." Beginning Anew is not to ask for forgiveness. Beginning Anew is to change your mind and heart, to transform the ignorance that brought about wrong actions of body, speech, and mind, and to help you cultivate your [...]
Building a Community of Love: bell hooks and Thich Nhat Hanh
bell hooks meets with Thich Nhat Hanh to ask: how do we build a community of love? Thich Nhat Hanh has been a presence in my life, as a teacher and guide, for more than twenty years. In the last few years I began to doubt the heart connection I felt with him because we had never met or spoken to one another, yet his work was ever-present in my work. I began to feel the [...]
Just Sitting, Going Nowhere
The Zen practice of just sitting, says Lewis Richmond, doesn’t help us to reach our destination. It allows us to stop having one. But how do you “go” nowhere? The practice of “just-awareness” is the essence of Zen meditation. The Japanese word for this, shikantaza, is usually translated as "just sitting," but Dogen, the founder of the Soto school of Zen, specifically taught [...]
Rooting Around
The roots of a word contain a rich bank of associations and metaphors that reveal the marvelous ways in which disparate ideas link and interrelate. Some 2500 years ago, ancient Indian grammarians contemplated how it is that sound becomes meaning. Panini, who is thought to be the first in human history to scientifically study speech and language, wrote that when the mind has [...]
Transforming Anger into Love
Thich Nhat Hanh offers advice on using mindfulness to take care of your anger, and ultimately transform it into love and understanding. When you are angry, close your eyes and ears and return to yourself in order to quell the flames. Smile, even if it takes effort. Smiling relaxes hundreds of tiny muscles, making your face more attractive. Sit wherever you are, and look [...]
Hearty Discipline
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche on the philosophy of Naropa University. At Naropa Institute we approach the whole educational system according to the principles of buddhadharma. We would like to present a traditional approach, similar to the Victorian style of education or other European approaches. Recently, education in America has been based on entertainment. That is to say, [...]
Learning Where You Are The Experience of Place Based Education
Where are you? Who are you? How does where you are affect who you are? Place based education is interested in examining these questions. Place based education is interested in a deep experiential inquiry into who and where we are, and the relationship between the two. Earlier this year, public school students in the Patagonia, Arizona Elementary School got a taste of place [...]
Naropa University: Where East Meets West and Sparks Fly
Bringing meditative discipline to modern education, Naropa University cultivates both intellect and the wisdom beyond words. On Naropa’s 25th anniversary, Stephen Foehr profiles a unique experiment in American higher education. John Baker and Marvin Casper approached the old trailer, its red primer coat in high contrast to the surrounding pines of the Rocky Mountains. Waiting [...]
“That’s What a Teacher Does and I’m Going to be One”
"One shouldn’t identify with one’s successes or failures; one had to remain detached. A teacher served, but couldn’t identify with the results." When I was an undergraduate I took an advanced English composition course from Professor Werner White, a fastidious man who held high, but often rigid, academic standards. One day while he was passing back graded papers, one of the [...]