Beginning Our Practice of Mindfulness

August 26, 2013. 87-minute dharma talk given by Thich Nhat Hanh from Blue Cliff Monastery in Pine Bush, New York during the 2013 Nourishing Great Togetherness teaching tour. This is the first dharma talk for the 6-day retreat with the theme Transformation and Healing – The Art of Suffering. We begin with two chants from the monastics. Topics * Why do we want to practice breathing-in and breathing-out? We don't have to suffer and we can produce the energy of joy. * First exercise of mindful breathing * Walking in the kingdom is an end in itself * Three Energies: Mindfulness, Concentration, Insight * Second exercise of mindful breathing * Third exercise of mindfulbreathing - aware of body * Fourth exercise of mindful breathing - relax body * Fifth exercise of mindful breathing - producing joy * Sixth exercise of mindful breathing - producing happiness * Seventh exercise of mindful breathing - aware of painful feeling * Eighth exercise of mindful breathing - embrace painful feeling * Store and mind consciousness with mental formations * Teaching of The Second Arrow * Five Universal Mental Formatioms (Contact, Attention , Feeling , Perception, Volition) * Five Particular Mental Formations (intention, resolution, mindfulness, concentration, and insight) http://youtu.be/RVYnN8mBejY