about mindfulness

Thich Nhat Hanh

 

An Engineer's Guide to Mindfulness Meditation

fonte: mural aa

Listening is an Act of Love

Meditation

Some people think that the purpose of meditation is to stop the mind. They sit, and they try. Soon they get into a fight with their mind, a fight that they lose. Frustrated, they give up. Do you recognize yourself in this scenario?

Calming the mind is a more appropriate goal, and a good way to do it is by paying attention to the breath. When we are daydreaming, the breath follows the rhythm of our thoughts. That rhythm can be irregular, because we are going from thought to thought, from one thing to another. As we continue to follow the breath instead of our thoughts, the breath gets into a steady, regular rhythm.

Usually we follow our thoughts without any attention to the breath. Here, we reverse that— we follow our breath. At the beginning, we treat our thoughts a little bit like the way we treat the radio in the background. As we do other things, we are aware that the radio is playing, but we do not follow it actively. For example, when the announcer says, “Go and buy that car right now, because it is so amazing,” we do not drop everything and rush out to buy it. We have learned to take an attitude of sophisticated detachment with regard to the radio. Now we cultivate the same detached attitude toward our thoughts.

Our work in meditation right now is concentrating on the breath. This means staying with the breath and the sensations of the breath continuously. I don’t know if you have ever followed a single breath from end to end and paid attention to all the sensations that occur. One single breath can make you aware of your posture, of how tight your belt is, and of any tension in your abdominal muscles.

The breath is like a swing on the playground. As you breathe in, first it accelerates. Then it slows down near the end. Then it comes to an unstable stop and starts going again in the other direction. The speed is always changing. To notice all this, you need not only awareness, but also concentration. You need to concentrate so that you are not only aware during brief moments of this cycle, but you are continuously aware of it during the whole cycle, cycle after cycle.

I Can Feel My Breath in a Number of Ways:

I can feel it in my diaphragm.

I can feel my clothes adjusting as my diaphragm changes shape.

I can feel the rush of air in my nostrils.

I can also feel a coolness around my nostrils as I breathe in.

If you have trouble noticing that last item, put your finger horizontally against your nostrils for a few seconds. You will feel the change of temperature as you breathe in and out.

By concentrating on the breath, we are offering the mind something other than thoughts to chew on. This works better than fighting with it to get it to slow down.

Within a few minutes, something different starts to happen: the breath finds its natural rhythm. In normal wakefulness, thoughts are zipping through the mind, and the breath is irregular and staccato. Now the breath follows a more regular rhythm, like that of the waves on the beach. Like the waves, the breath comes from somewhere we don’t know. Then it goes inside, and gets lost, like the waves that get absorbed into the sand. Some of the water gets returned back to the ocean, but it is not exactly the same. Now it has cleaned the beach and is carrying back some debris and also the warmth of the sand with it. The breath has also just cleaned the body, and the out breath is warm and full of carbon dioxide. You can let yourself be guided by this mental imagery. Involve all your senses and now bask in the sunshine on that beach for a few minutes and enjoy the whishsh of the waves.

Another metaphor: What is happening in the mind at this point is also a little bit like the difference between city driving and long- distance driving. In city driving, there is much stopping and starting and emotions like impatience or irritation. When you settle into long-distance driving, all those calm down. The rhythm changes.

During this breathing exercise, you may find that, after a while, concentration comes naturally. At the beginning, concentration required effort. Now this natural rhythm of the breath takes over. Thoughts lose their urgency at this stage.

----An excerpt from 'Buddha’s Book of Sleep'

 

Planting Seeds (Mindfulness)

Thich Nhat Hanh describes a story of a young girl who was using her computer all day long, every day, and her mother asked him how she can solve this problem. This is an Indiegogo update video for the crowdfunding campaign for the Planting Seeds: The Power of Mindfulness Film, which you can see and support here:

http://www.indiegogo.com/plantingseedsfilm

See also (comments form previous removed video):

"PLANTING SEEDS" THE POWER OF MINDFULNESS

French, German, Italian and Spanish 
(coming Soon)

"In the world we are asking, How can our children grow up to be peace-builders? How can they learn to use the conflicts of the past to provide compost for lasting harmony in our communities, our nations, and the world?

Planting seeds is a film to answer these questions.

It is a project to show us how mindfulness can help to water the seeds of beauty and goodness in each child, and, importantly, how each child can learn to water those seeds in themselves and others for their lifetime, and for successive generations.

We are beyond the time of saying that such an education is desirable. For the health, sustainability, and happiness of our global community, it is now our only real option."

- Brother Phap Luu, Plum Village, France

THE FILM

“Planting Seeds” The Power of Mindfulness (Working title) is based on the book, Planting Seeds: Practicing Mindfulness with Children,by Thich Nhat Hanh and the Plum Village Community
.

This feature documentary and animated film will give children and adults an embodied experience of peace and wellbeing as well as effective tools for creating peaceful, happy lives long after the film is over. It will be shot this July in Plum Village, France, during the month-long Summer Retreat, in which thousands of families from all over the world learn how mindfulness can enrich and heal people of all ages.

The film is the fruit of Plum Village’s thirty years of sharing mindfulness and compassion with children, parents and educators. Planting Seeds offers meaningful, fun and engaging activities that children can do at home, in school settings, or in their local communities, either self-guided or led by and adult. Key practices presented include mindful breathing, mindful walking, inviting the bell, pebble meditation, the Two Promises or ethical guidelines for children, eating meditation and dealing with conflict and strong emotions.

Children will learn inspiring songs that reinforce the practices of peace and be engaged by personal stories of how families and other children apply mindfulness in their daily life courageously and creatively.

The film will help children relieve stress, increase concentration, nourish gratitude and confidence, deal with difficult emotions, improve communication with ourselves and others, and touch our interconnection with nature.



The film will also feature parents, teachers and children from several countries, plus Thich Nhat Hanh, Sr. Jewel, Brother Phap Dung, and other monks and nuns, who will share their experience and practice of mindfulness.



The sustainably packaged Double DVD and Blu Ray Limited Edition DVD will contain the film, plus music from Joe Reilly and other Sangha musicians, great educational material and exercises that a teacher, a parent or child can easily use to bring the “Power of Mindfulness” into their classroom, their home and their lives.

15% of the profits from all sold comic books, ibooks and dvds will be happily donated to Plum Village. 

Mindfulness is a powerful tool to help children, parents, teachers and communities develop the skills to promote peace in themselves and in the world around them.

Help us to creatively introduce young people around the world to the transformational power of Mindfulness via the engaging medium of film.

HOW YOU CAN HELP

You can help by making a financial pledge of any size, even $10 will be an enormous help in making the dream of completing the film a reality.

You can also help by directing people to this page and sharing the project on your Facebook and Twitter pages.


WHY WE NEED THE FUNDING


Making films is expensive. Normally a production of this nature would cost $500,000. We've managed to keep the costs low because our team is willing to work for 45% less then their normal and fair rates, we love the Plum Village community, what they stand for and also sincerely believe that mindfulness is a tool that can help transform ourselves and our world.

All funds raised via IndieGoGo will go toward the production of the film which will begin at Plum Village France, in July 2012 (our team will be there the entire month of July) and will continue throughout the fall of 2012. This includes inexpensive travel and accommodation (Plum Village and the E.I.A.B in Germany) for our small film crew, camera & lighting equipment rental, and insurance, as well as post-production, animation work, sound mixing, AND 



- Filming simultaneously in several locations (and languages) in Plum Village


- Editing and mastering

- Language translation (French, German, Italian and Spanish)

- Film color correction

- Sustainable DVD 2 pack & Blu-Ray DVD production

- Graphics and artwork


- Comic Book & IBook production

- Film festival submissions

- Accounting & Administration

- IndieGoGo / PayPal / Credit Card processing fees

ABOUT THE FILM TEAM

Our "Peace is The Way" - film team “Sangha” has been honored to be asked to produce this film for the Plum Village community. Our team consists of social and environmental activists who are beginning practitioners of Mindfulness. Our lives and are work are continually being positively transformed by mindful compassion.

Smiles, Gratitude and Humble Bows__()__