PEACE is something we can learn to practice ...

[Sandrine]

If we may change the destiny of our planet only by using our free will, it meens that it all begins within ourselves.

Practicing peace is something we should decide at a personal level ... and only then, it could transcend the edges of our limited lives ...

Here I would like to share with you some of the inspiring teachings I have found in the writings of a Zen Buddhist Monk :

"Peace Is Every Step" by Thich Nhat Hanh :The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday life

This small book is a reminder that happiness is possible only in the present moment. It’s an invitation to come back to the present moment and find peace and joy.

Peace and happiness are available in every moment. Peace is every step. We shall walk hand in hand.

Twenty-Four Brand-New Hours :

Every morning, when we wake up, we have twenty-four brand-new hours to live. What a precious gift! We have the capacity to live in a way that these twenty-four hours will bring peace, joy, and happiness to ourselves and others.

Peace is present right here and now, in ourselves and in everything we do and see. The question is whether or not we are in touch with it. We don't have to travel far away to enjoy the blue sky. We don't have to leave our city or even our neighborhood to enjoy the eyes of a beautiful child. Even the air we breathe can be a source of joy.

We can smile, breathe, walk, and eat our meals in a way that allows us to be in touch with the abundance of happiness that is available. We are very good at preparing to live, but not very good at living. We know how to sacrifice ten years for a diploma, and we are willing to work very hard to get a job, a car, a house, and so on. But we have difficulty remembering that we are alive in the present moment, the only moment there is for us to be alive. Every breath we take, every step we make, can be filled with peace, joy, and serenity. We need only to be awake, alive in the present moment.

Smiling :

If a child smiles, if an adult smiles, that is very important. If in our daily lives we can smile, if we can be peaceful and happy, not only we, but everyone will profit from it. If we really know how to live, what better way to start the day than with a smile? Our smile affirms our awareness and determination to live in peace and joy. The source of a true smile is an awakened mind.

Smiling helps you approach the day with gentleness and understanding.

A tiny bud of a smile on our lips nourishes awareness and calms us miraculously. It returns to us the peace we thought we had lost.

Our smile will bring happiness to us and to those around us. Even if we spend a lot of money on gifts for everyone in our family, nothing we buy could give them as much happiness as the gift of our awareness, our smile. And this precious gift costs nothing

If you have lost your smile and yet are still capable of seeing it around you … the situation is not too bad. You still have enough mindfulness to see that the smile is there.

In fact, everything around you is keeping your smile for you. You don't need to feel isolated. You only have to open yourself to the support that is all around you, and in you.

Conscious Breathing :

There are a number of breathing techniques you can use to make life vivid and more enjoyable. ...

You recognize your in-breath as an in-breath and your out-breath as an out-breath... As you practice, your breath will become peaceful and gentle, and your mind and body will also become peaceful and gentle. This is not a difficult exercise. In just a few minutes you can realize the fruit of meditation.

Breathing in and out is very important, and it is enjoyable. Our breathing is the link between our body and our mind. Sometimes our mind is thinking of one thing and our body is doing another, and mind and body are not unified. By concentrating on our breathing, "In" and "Out," we bring body and mind back together, and become whole again. Conscious breathing is an important bridge.


Nourishing Awareness :

We who live in North America and Europe are accustomed to eating grains and other foods imported from the Third Worlds, such as coffee from Colombia, chocolate from Ghana, or fragrant rice from Thailand. We must be aware that children in these countries, except those from rich families, never see such fine products. They eat inferior foods, while the finer products are put aside for export in order to bring in foreign exchange. There are even some parents who, because they do not have the means to feed their children, resort to selling their children to be servants to families who have enough to eat.

Before each meal, we can join our palms in mindfulness and think about the children who do not have enough to eat. Doing so will help us maintain mindfulness of our good fortune, and perhaps one day we will find ways to do something to help change the system of injustice that exists in the world.

[Johnson]

Sandrine...as always, thank you for your wonderful and inspiritational thoughts and words. I was thinking about your last few lines regarding "nourishing awareness". Giving thoughtful prayer and respect at every meal we partake in is so important as part of our complete consciousness of our world and everything in it. Dr. Dahesh has taught us that EVERYTHING has a consciousness...not just the things we deem as being 'alive'. For us to exist, we need the foods we take in to nourish our bodies. Everything we eat, at one point was (technically still is, depending on one's definition) alive. In order for US to live, other entities; fruits, animals, grains, coffee...anything and everything, 'gives of themselves' for our bodies to be maintained. Think about this. THIS is the reason we pray (or should pray, or acknowledge in our hearts, or give thanks...) for "this meal we have before us..."

[Sandrine]

Giving thoughtful prayer and respect at every meal we partake in is so important as part of our complete consciousness of our world and everything in it. Dr. Dahesh has taught us that EVERYTHING has a consciousness...not just the things we deem as being 'alive'.

That’s so true David and it reminds me of my youth, when we were visiting The Doctor with my parents. HE always offered us fruits, cakes, drinks … but sometimes I didn’t want to eat them because I wasn’t very hungry or even because I didn’t like a specific cake/fruit …

My mother always insisted on the fact that I should eat them … and I didn’t realize why … later I understood the mechanism of fluids – that everything we eat contains spiritual fluids, spiritual energy … and Imagine, I was refusing what The Doctor was offering … and it seemed to be such a "fault" for my mother ... I couldn't understand why ... what was wrong ?!

For us to exist, we need the foods we take in to nourish our bodies. Everything we eat, at one point was (technically still is, depending on one's definition) alive. In order for US to live, other entities; fruits, animals, grains, coffee...anything and everything, 'gives of themselves' for our bodies to be maintained. Think about this. THIS is the reason we pray (or should pray, or acknowledge in our hearts, or give thanks...) for "this meal we have before us..."

... yes, and unfortunetaly when we eat, we are so often worried about unimportant things that we do not even enjoy our foods the way we should … as a Gift from God, as A Celebration and – as you said so truly – as A perfect moment to offer A Prayer of thanks.

And to echo back to your thoughts David, the following Buddhist teachings from the same master, call us to a spiritual awakening ... we are alive and we should learn to recognize LIFE as a gift ... be happy where we are and try to use every moment we live as many occasions to practice "Thanks" to God :

..... "Happiness and enlightenment are living things and they can grow. It is possible to feed them every day. If you don't feed your enlightenment, your enlightenment will die. If you don't feed your happiness, your happiness will die. If you don't feed your love, your love will die. If you continue to feed your anger, your hatred, your fear, they will grow. The Buddha said that nothing can survive without food. That applies to enlightenment, to happiness, to sorrow, to suffering.

First of all, enlightenment is enlightenment about something. Suppose you are drinking some tea and you are aware that you are drinking some tea. That kind of mindfulness of drinking is a form of enlightenment. There have been many times that you've been drinking but you didn't know it, because you are absorbed in worries. So mindfulness of drinking is already one kind of enlightenment.

If you can focus your mind on the act of drinking, then happiness can come while you have some tea. You are capable of enjoying that tea in the here and now. But if you don't know how to drink your tea in mindfulness and concentration, you are not really drinking tea. You are drinking your sorrow, your fear, your anger-and happiness is not possible."

....

[Johnson]

later I understood the mechanism of fluids – that everything we eat contains spiritual fluids, spiritual energy …

And how wonderful is all that? Imagine the beauty of the TRUE universe, that even the food we eat, while it nourishes us physically, it also contains spiritual fluids and spiritual energies that in some form or another are meant for us...spiritually...

If you can focus your mind on the act of drinking, then happiness can come while you have some tea. You are capable of enjoying that tea in the here and now. But if you don't know how to drink your tea in mindfulness and concentration, you are not really drinking tea. You are drinking your sorrow, your fear, your anger-and happiness is not possible."

Thank you Sandrine, I am always inspired by your posts. And the Zen beauty of the 'peace of tea' is that it is not about the 'peace of tea'... If we can learn to appreciate all the apects of the very least of moments such as this (our in-out breathing as you said), the simplest of actions and be mindful of ourselves; our God, our thoughts, our intentions of our very being and every detail of everything around us...this is our source of peace.