Community of Mindful Living

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The Community of Mindful Living (CML) is a Buddhist community located in Berkeley, California. [1] It was founded in 1983 by followers of the Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh and was incorporated in 1990 in California as a nonprofit religious organization. [2] CML provides support for individuals and meditation groups (sanghas) worldwide who wish to practice in the tradition of Zen Buddhism associated with Thich Nhat Hanh. [1] It also assists with the organization of retreats offered by Hanh and lay teachers in the United States and Canada. In December 1999, CML officially became a “Doing Business As” (DBA) arm of the Unified Buddhist Church, the governing body for Hanh's various affiliated organizations. [2]

Buddhism World religion, founded by the Buddha

Buddhism is the world's fourth-largest religion with over 520 million followers, or over 7% of the global population, known as Buddhists. Buddhism encompasses a variety of traditions, beliefs and spiritual practices largely based on original teachings attributed to the Buddha and resulting interpreted philosophies. It originated in ancient India as a Sramana tradition sometime between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE, spreading through much of Asia. Two major extant branches of Buddhism are generally recognized by scholars: Theravada and Mahayana.

Berkeley, California City in California, United States

Berkeley is a city on the east shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and Emeryville to the south and the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington to the north. Its eastern border with Contra Costa County generally follows the ridge of the Berkeley Hills. The 2010 census recorded a population of 112,580.

Buddhism in Vietnam Buddhism in Vietnam

Buddhism in Vietnam, as practised by the ethnic Vietnamese, is mainly of the Mahayana tradition. Buddhism may have first come to Vietnam as early as the 3rd or 2nd century BCE from the Indian subcontinent or from China in the 1st or 2nd century CE. Vietnamese Buddhism has had a syncretic relationship with certain elements of Taoism, Chinese spirituality, and Vietnamese folk religion.

Contents

The Community of Mindful Living is one of centers from which the Plum Village Tradition approach is disseminated in the West. [3]

Plum Village Tradition

The Plum Village Tradition is a school of Buddhism named after the Plum Village Monastery in France, the first monastic practice center founded by Thích Nhất Hạnh. It is an approach to Engaged Buddhism mainly from a Mahayana perspective, that draws elements from Zen and Theravada. Its governing body is the Plum Village Community of Engaged Buddhism.

The Mindfulness Bell magazine is published by CML three times a year and contains “Dharma Talks” by Thich Nhat Hanh, articles by members of the Order of Interbeing, both monastic and lay, and announcements of retreats, activities, and other items of interest. [2] [4]

The Order of Interbeing is an international Buddhist community of monks, nuns and laypeople in the Plum Village Tradition founded between 1964 and 1966 by Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thích Nhất Hạnh.

See also

Engaged Buddhism refers to Buddhists who are seeking ways to apply the insights from meditation practice and dharma teachings to situations of social, political, environmental and economic suffering and injustice. Finding its roots in Vietnam through the Zen Buddhist teacher Thích Nhất Hạnh, Engaged Buddhism has grown in popularity in the West.

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Thích Nhất Hạnh Buddhist monk, peace activist, author on meditation and mindfulness

Thích Nhất Hạnh is a Vietnamese Buddhist monk and peace activist, founder of the Plum Village Tradition.

The Plum VillageMonastery is a Buddhist monastery of the Plum Village Tradition in the Dordogne, southern France. It was founded by two Vietnamese monastics, Thích Nhất Hạnh and Chân Không, in 1982.

Deer Park Monastery

Deer Park Monastery is a 400-acre (1.6 km2) Buddhist monastery in Escondido, California. It was founded in July 2000 by monastic and lay practitioners from the Plum Village Tradition. The monastery is under the direct guidance of Thich Nhat Hanh and his Order of Interbeing in the Vietnamese Zen tradition.

Gāthā is a Sanskrit term for "song" or "verse", especially referring to any poetic metre which is used in legends, and is not part of the Vedas but peculiar to either Epic Sanskrit or to Prakrit. The word is originally derived from the Sanskrit/Prakrit root gai, which means, to speak, sing, recite or extol, cognate to the Avestan term gatha.

Chân Không Vietnamese nun and peace activist

Chân Không is an expatriate Vietnamese Buddhist nun, peace activist, and has worked closely with Thích Nhất Hạnh in starting the Plum Village Tradition and helping conduct spiritual retreats internationally. She wrote her autobiography, Learning True Love: How I Learned & Practiced Social Change in Vietnam in 1993.

Magnolia Grove Monastery is a Buddhist monastery in the Plum Village Tradition in Batesville, Mississippi. The 120-acre (0.49 km2) grounds are located near Memphis, Tennessee. In October 2005 Thich Nhat Hanh officially accepted the monastery. They are closely in touch with the Plum Village Monastery for resources and support. Magnolia Grove Monastery is one of the three monasteries in the United States which are under the spiritual guidance of Thich Nhat Hanh. The other two are Blue Cliff Monastery in New York and Deer Park Monastery in California. According to Magnolia Grove Monastery's website, "Magnolia Grove Monastery is a residential monastery and is simultaneously, Magnolia Village, a Mindfulness Practice Meditation Center in the tradition of Plum Village, founded by Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh"

The Plum Village Community of Engaged Buddhism, Inc. and its sister organization, the French Congregation Bouddhique Zen Village des Pruniers are the governance bodies of the monasteries, press and fundraising organizations established by the Zen Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh. The name Unified Buddhist Church, which originated in Vietnam, was intended to signify that this tradition practices to embrace all the teachings of the Buddha, whether they belong to the Mahāyāna or Theravāda stream.

The Unified Buddhist Sangha of Vietnam (UBCV) is a Buddhist organization in Vietnam. The Unified Buddhist Sangha of Vietnam was founded in 1964 in order to unify 11 of the 14 different sects of Vietnamese Buddhism which were present in the country at the time. The unification also came in response to a government that was increasingly being seen as hostile to Buddhists during the Vietnam War.

Buddhism in the United Kingdom

Buddhism in the United Kingdom has a small but growing number of supporters which, according to a Buddhist organisation, is mainly because of the result of conversion. In the UK census for 2011, there were about 178,000 people who registered their religion as Buddhism, and about 174,000 who cited religions other than Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Islam, Jainism and Sikhism. This latter figure is likely to include some people who follow the traditional Chinese mixture of religions including Buddhism.

Tuệ Trung Thượng Sĩ (慧中上士) (1230–1291) was an influential Buddhist monk and skilled poet of the Thiền (Zen) tradition during the Tran Dynasty in Vietnam. Tue Trung authored treatises on Pure Land and Thien teachings.

Cheryll Ann Maples was an American police officer, peace activist and dharma instructor, ordained by Thích Nhất Hạnh in January 2008.

Nhat Chi Mai Vietnamese nun

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Blue Cliff Monastery

Blue Cliff Monastery is an 80-acre (0.32 km2) Zen Buddhist monastery located in Pine Bush, New York. It was founded in May 2007 by monastic and lay practitioners from the Plum Village Tradition.

Vietnamese Thiền

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Frank Jude Boccio is a teacher of mindful yoga.

References

  1. 1 2 Irons, Edward (2008). Encyclopedia of Buddhism. New York, NY: Checkmark Books. p. 502. ISBN   9780816077441.
  2. 1 2 3 Irons, Edward. Encyclopedia of Buddhism. p. 378.
  3. Irons, Edward. Encyclopedia of Buddhism. pp. 176–177.
  4. "About: Mindfulness Bell". The Mindfulness Bell. Plum Village Community of Engaged Buddhism, Inc. Retrieved 15 May 2018.