A Mindfulness Book of Hours
Friday, 27. July 2007, 03:04:49
How do we practice? Let me count the ways.
Or, Thoughts on a Mindfulness Book of Hours
Recently someone e-mailed to ask about how to practice.
Luckily, our tradition is rich with ways to practice, and most of them don't involve sitting quietly on a cushion (although of course, some do!).
People don't even need to consider themselves "practitioners" or "Buddhists" to make many of these practices their own.
For example, a dear friend of mine used to have a little program on his computer at work called "The Mindful Clock." Every fifteen minutes, his computer would make the sound of the bell, and he would stop what he was doing to breathe and smile.
At first, people in the office asked him about it. "What is that sound?" "What are you doing?" "What is that for?"
He would explain that it was a chance to just stop and take a breath.
Before too long, everyone in the office was delighted to hear the sound of the bell. It gave them all a moment to pause and come back to themselves.
Click here to download the Mindful Clock.
You can also stop to breathe three times each time you hear the telephone ring. This, too, is a sweet practice.
In my room, I have a little bell that we use at our meditation sessions. My little nieces were immediately drawn to it. After all, it makes such a beautiful sound!
From the first time they saw it, I began to teach them the way to hold the bell, how to wake it up, then how to invite it to make a sound.
Once it sounds, we stop to breathe in and out three times, then we smile at each other.
The first time we did this, they immediately stopped an argument they were having. As soon as we had finished breathing together, they instantaneously hugged each other, disagreement forgotten.
Now they like to come into my room, sit down, and say "Can we do the bell?" They particularly like the looking and smiling part at the end part, and often rush through the three breaths to get there.
There are so many practices, and, luckily for all of us, so many resources to support us wherever we may be on our journey. Here are a few of my favorites:
- Peace is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life is a fun and accessible primer. In 1992 I discovered this gem on the bookshelf of a Peace Corps Volunteer in Honduras. While he was not even there at the time, his book collection had a huge influence on me, as this was the first book I ever read by Thich Nhat Hanh. I still love it!
- Thay and dharma teacher Anh Huong Nguyen have created a DVD/CD set called Walking Meditation that I am certain is a rich resource for those wanting to make this simple and powerful practice a regular part of their lives.
These resources and others are available through Parallax Press: http://www.parallax.org/
- On the Plum Village website is the entire text of a booklet entitled How to Enjoy Your Stay in Plum Village: Introduction to Plum Village. One of our sangha members recently discovered this online and felt she got a much better sense of how to integrate the practices we do on Monday nights into everyday life. Visit http://www.plumvillage.org/HTML/practice.htm
Finally, I will close with a recommendation for my very favorite recording:
- Touching the Earth: The Five Prostrations with Deep Relaxation, by Thich Nhat Hanh with Sister Chan Khong ~ available from http://store.soundstrue.com. For years, deep relaxation was my primary practice. I would come home from work and listen to the recording of Sister Chan Khong leading deep relaxation, and my worries would begin to tone down a bit. I would listen to her before bed, and before long, I was falling asleep quickly and effortlessly, in spite of a stressful Washington, DC lifestyle. If I awoke in the middle of the night, I listened to her and was immediately soothed.
So there. Some beginnings of an answer to the question about practice. There will be more on this subject in the coming weeks.
Enjoy.
And, as always, if you would like to join us on Monday evening, you are welcome.
If you'd like to write back and share stories about some of your favorite ways to practice, you're welcome to do that, too!
