Sunday, October 6 at UU

Pete will share about the eleven guidelines for daily living, based on the insights found in the sutra The Eight Realizations of the Great Beings, from Awakening of the Heart by Thich Nhat Hanh.

Tuesday, August 13 at DBT

Pete will share the Discourse on the Eight Realizations of Great Beings:

• Awareness that the world is impermanent
• Awareness that desire brings more suffering
• Awareness that the human mind is never satisfied
• Awareness that laziness is the cause of all setbacks in practice
• Awareness that ignorance is the cause of endless cycles of suffering birth and death
• Awareness that poverty creates more hatred and anger, which in turn causes more hatred and anger
• Awareness that all five categories of desire lead to difficulties
• Awareness of the suffering of others — and the great vow to help others to attain release and joy

Tuesday, April 30 at DBT

Anita will share from Thay's The Other Shore and the Heart Sutra.

Tuesday, April 23 at DBT

Earth Day is everyday!

Heather will share from Thay Phap Hai's A Buddhist approach to consumption, which includes the Four Nutrients and the Eighteen Realms of Being.


For Earth loving tips, visit the Thich Nhat Hanh Foundation and the Earth Holder Community.

Sunday, April 21 at UU

Steve will share about the Ānāpānasati Sutta (Discourse on the Full Awareness if Breathing)

Tuesday, April 16 at DBT

Karen will share about mindfulness of the mind, the third of the Four Establishments of Mindfulness.

Sunday, March 24 at UU

We will contemplate parts of the Discourse on the Eight Realizations of the Great Beings, a Buddhist scripture on simplicity, generosity and compassion.  Marge will focus on the aspects of this sutra that address simple living.

Here is a chant of the sutra.

Tuesday, March 5 at DBT

Heather will share about mindfulness of the body in the body, the first of the Four Establishments of Mindfulness.

For further reading: Transformation and Healing: Sutra on the Four Establishments of Mindfulness by Thich Nhat Hanh

Here is a guided meditation (starts 3 minutes in) from Thay Phap Hai that we will practice with.

Sunday, January 6 at UU

Steve will share about the Four Nutriments.

Here is the Discourse on the Four Kinds of Nutriments

Tuesday, November 13 at DBT

Donna will share about the Four Nutriments and will read from Thay Phap Hai's Nothing To It.

Here is the Discourse on the Four Kinds of Nutriments

Tuesday, September 11 at DBT

Pete will share about nourishing the Seven Factors of Awakening in our life and practice.

Tuesday, July 24 at DBT

Pete will facilitate with Dave Kenneally, formerly Brother Heart on “knowing happiness.”

Here is a link to the Discourse on Happiness.

Tuesday, June 26 at DBT

Marge will share on the Discourse on Knowing the Better Way to Live Alone:

This sutra is not really about living alone, but about living deeply in the very here and now. Waiting until tomorrow is too late!

Sunday, June 10 at UU

Marge will facilitate:

According to the Buddha, there are four kinds of nutriments: edible food, sensory impressions, volition, and consciousness.  The Fifth Mindfulness Training addresses consumption and preserving peace, joy and well-being through mindful consumption.  I invite the sangha to consider how we may eat in a way that we try not to cover up loneliness, anxiety, or other suffering by losing ourselves in consumption.  Steve will lead walking meditation.

Sunday, April 15 at UU

The Five Skandhas (also know as The Five Aggregates, which are form, feelings, perceptions, mental formations and consciousness) are the components that come together to make an individual. Everything that is thought of as “I” is a function of the Skandhas. The Buddha wove his explanation of the skandhas into many of his teachings. The are not you or I, they are temporary. 

Clinging to the idea this is you/I is an illusion. When we realize these are temporary we can begin to correct our thinking by questioning our perceptions, and then we are on our way to freedom and the path of enlightenment.

Perhaps we can begin to practice this week by questioning our perceptions and thinking, especially in situations that are stressful or when we are sure we are right; by asking ourselves; Am I sure? Is it true?

I look forward to our time together.
Smiling,
Tree

Dharma talks related to the Five Skandas

New Heart Sutra translation by Thich Nhat Hanh

Tuesday, March 20 at DBT

Tree will share on concentrating the mind in meditation from the Sutra on the Full Awareness of Breathing:

Concentration empowers us to see into the true nature and roots of many of our wrong views that cause our anger, anxiety, craving and despair. We have been offered tools to look deeply and generate mindfulness through our breath to find liberation.

Sunday, January 28 at UU

Nick will facilitate the recitation the Five Mindfulness Trainings, which may include some of the ceremonial chanting (Incense Offering, Touching the Earth, Opening Verse, The Heart Sutra, The Three Refuges, Closing Verse) in the Plum Village tradition.