Parallax Press’s Comments (group member since Sep 26, 2014)

Parallax Press’s comments from the Reading Peace group.

Thank you all for watching our first ever live discussion that took place yesterday! We have over 200 viewers during the entire hour-long show and me and my co-hosts enjoyed our time discussing the life and teachings of Sister D and answering questions from the audience.

For those of you who missed it, the entire show is available on YouTube at: http://bit.ly/sisterd

For our next show, I will be working on getting a monastic to join the show, but this is a logistical challenge due to the poor internet and technology at monasteries.

Thanks and please look forward to our next discussion -- likely in May.

Jason at Parallax

Lisa wrote: "I am looking forward to the live discussion tomorrow!"

Thanks, looking forward to it myself! :)

Hello RP friends!

I recently had a chance to talk with Sister Dang Nghiem, the author of book club favorite Healing: A Woman's Journey from Doctor to Nun and the forthcoming 2nd book "Mindfulness as Medicine" and here is how it went:

Jason Kim: What would you say is the essence of your teaching and your two books Healing and Mindfulness as Medicine?

Sister Dang Nghiem: Healing is always possible, especially when we have a spiritual practice to take care of our body and mind. In fact, to be aware that you have a body and to learn to listen to it is already healing. The healer, the healed, and the healing process are in each other, they are each other— they interare.

My latest book Mindfulness as Medicine is about True Love. In fact, the title for the book was originally "Soul Mate: A Modern Nun's Story of True Love." Through the practice of mindfulness, I am learning to be my own soul mate.

This means learning to love my own body and mind; to love my own life, including the past, present, and future, with all of its joys and sorrows, flowers as well as garbage; to love others, whether they have brought me happiness or suffering; to love this beautiful path, and to choose it again and again.

JK: It's unusual for a monastic to reveal such personal details with so much emotional rawness. How have other monastics reacted to your stories?

DN: (Laughs.) It can be embarrassing, but fortunately I practice non-self!

Many of my younger brothers are especially curious, while others have gotten upset with me about what I reveal about myself. There is a deep, sincere intention within me to share my experiences with others. In fact, these experiences aren’t my own— the experience of trauma, grief, chronic pain, and illness are the experiences of many men and women as well, and not only my own.

JK: How are mindfulness and physical pain or illness connected?

DN: I suffer from Lyme disease, but whether your pain or illness is chronic or acute, you can benefit from a mindfulness practice. The idea that “I can’t meditate because I’m too sick” is a false one. The truth is, we practice with whatever comes to us.

My condition has helped me to practice even deeper. I don’t wish it on anyone, but my illness and pain have deepened my love for my own body, my life, and my self. For many years, whenever something difficult arose, I thought about suicide and it became a habit.

But to sit in meditation is to realize how amazing the body is, and when you recognize this, you are overwhelmed with gratitude for your body and this is healing.

Take Thay, for example. Many people would have already died from the stroke, but he is recovering slowly and learning to speak again. And that love, that appreciation for life, that is my practice also. It’s not that I want to live so badly, to cling to my life as if it will never end, but as long as I’m alive, I want to show gratitude to my body and live fully.

JK: Your mentioning of Thay's illness made me realize something. Just a few weeks ago, I read that Thay had his first cup of tea since November.  When I read that, I thought to myself, "How wonderful that tea must have felt as it went down Thay's throat. How much joy it must have brought to him." Thay is learning to drink, to walk, and to speak again, but he has never stopped teaching.  

Has your connection to Thay become stronger as a result of his illness and your own experience with Lyme?

DN: Yes, I feel a stronger connection to Thay since his illness. If we breathe mindfully, then Thay is there. I’ve been a nun for fifteen years, but only lived in Plum Village for four years, and so I have learned to cultivate Thay inside of me.

Since his illness, the practice has become more real for me— my back feels more upright, and I feel that I breathe like Thay, and for Thay. Since he isn’t able to sit up or walk, I feel that is my deep connection to Thay— he’s been going through this process with such courage and tenacity, but because he has given us all this time to practice, I’m deeply grateful to him.

It is because of him that I am ready to live as fully as possible.

JK: I know you just finished your 2nd book, but what’s next for Sister D? 

DN: I shouldn’t be planning too much for the future— when we live each moment with joy and with meaning, then anything can happen, but I do have a wish to write something for teenagers.

As I wrote in my first book Healing, many young people in Vietnam at Bhat Nha Temple met me and became monastics through encountering me, and in that way, my connection to young people is very special to me.

No matter what they’ve gone through, their hearts are still so open, and their minds are like a white sheet of paper, which is also why it's so important we take part in Wake Up tours around the world.

When I first became a nun, I avoided young people since I was suffering so much and didn’t have enough energy to help them, but as I practiced, I went back to young people again. I always had young people in mind for my two books.

In fact, three 10-year-olds were interested in reading Healing while on retreat, and had read up to page 41 on their own before they were caught. One of their parents told the children they needed to ask me for permission to continue reading, and they did with all their hands joined together in sincerity.

One child even asked me what "abuse" was, and I answered, "When you are not kind to people."

I sincerely hope that these two books reach as many young people as possible. When young people learn to be mindful and to love their own body and mind, they will be able to avoid causing themselves and others a lot of suffering.

They can touch peace and joy in their daily life, and they would not have to sacrifice their youth and health running after shiny objects and meaningless dreams. They can help build this world to be a safer and more loving place, so that people feel more comfortable to be themselves and to be beautiful inside out.

Get 30% off Healing until 3/27, pre-order Mindfulness as Medicine, and catch our live discussion on the life and teachings of Sister Dang Nghiem on the 31st!

Parallax Press, Plumline, and the Reading Peace Book Club are pleased to announce that we will be holding our first ever live web show to discuss the life and teachings of book club favorite Sister Dang Nghiem, her critically acclaimed first book Healing: A Woman’s Journey from Doctor to Nun and her highly anticipated second book, Mindfulness as Medicine: A Story of Healing Body and Spirit.

The web show will take place on March 31st at 12pm EST / 9am PST via Google Hangouts & YouTube.

Go to: http://bit.ly/healing-dang-nghiem for links to the stream and to download the special preview chapter as a PDF which we'll read as a group together for this month.

You may also decide to preorder here from Amazon for a big discount.

The live show will be uploaded to YouTube after the event, so if you can't make the time, you can still watch the show and read along with us!

Dear book club friends!

I am back from my hiatus and to celebrated, I've posted the complete guide to book club favorite, "Healing" by Sr. Dang Nghiem to the forums as well as a beautiful PDF version you can freely download, print, and share at:

http://www.parallax.org/blog/complete...


Next month, we'll be having a special live web show and book club event that features myself, and 2-3 other special guests to discuss the life and teachings of Sister Dang Nghiem, her book "Healing", and an book club-exclusive SNEAK PEAK at Sister D's second book, coming out in April.



If you'd like to join me as a co-host please reply to this message or send me an email at jason@parallax.org. You'll receive complimentary copies of both of Sister D's books as well as other gifts :)

Stay tuned for the exact date of the show and additional details!

Alexa wrote: "Thank you, Jason! I'm incredibly happy to see you back, and I'm really looking forward to reading the guide! Can't wait to see what's next for Reading Peace, I'm eager to begin reading along with e..."

Good to be back Alexa! Missed our little group greatly and your always insightful comments.

I had a pile of responsibilities over the winter as I've been given more and more projects at Parallax.

March is going to be a big month for the club!

After a LONG delay, I've finally completed the Reader's Guide to Sister D's heartfelt memoir, "Healing"! I apologize again for the delay.

The complete guide can be downloaded as PDF on our blog at:

http://www.parallax.org/blog/complete...

Thanks to everyone for your patience and your love for this book.

After a LONG delay, I've finally completed the Reader's Guide to Sister D's heartfelt memoir, "Healing"! I apologize again for the delay.

The complete guide can be downloaded as PDF on our blog at:

http://www.parallax.org/blog/complete...

Thanks to everyone for your patience and your love for this book.

Reflections for Ch. 6-8

1) On a piece of paper, write down one thing you’d like to change about yourself. Draw a smiley face next to what you wrote down. Fold it and put it into your pocket, purse, or wallet.

Look at this note each time you feel overwhelmed or discouraged.

Setting down your intention and smiling at your suffering is already transforming you into your best self.

2) Try practicing the first step of Beginning Anew with somebody you’ve had a conflict: flower watering (showing appreciation for the other person). It can be a co-worker, parent, partner, or friend. Generally it’s best to take turns, alternating between parties.

Showing appreciation for someone else (and not just flattering them) waters positive seeds in yourself and others.

Food for Thought

“Pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional.” p.66

“One does not need to be an old guru, a wise person, or a corpse in order to taste liberation.” p. 67

“‘This is, because that is. This is not, because that is not,’ the Buddha taught. All the conditions have come together in such a way that we are where we are, and we are what we are. To hold on to feelings of regret is to lose the present moment.” p. 69

“As I begin to look at my mind with more awareness and compassion, I realize how much of my suffering was unnecessary. I thought I suffered more than others. I thought nobody could understand me. I expected my loved ones to be with and that, and I was disappointed… My thoughts, actions, and speech were sometimes unkind, which further watered the seeds of loneliness, jealousy, and anger in me. I had never thought of myself in these terms, but I realized I am not above any of these things.” p.71

“Each day I take stable steps for [my partner]. I take stable steps for my brother, for my friends, and for the incarcerated youth. I walk with the awareness that my loved ones step with me into stability and freedom.” p. 82

“When we transform, we stop that cycle of abuse. We stop that cycle of violence. We stop that cycle of suffering. We transform for our mothers and for the generations before them and after them.” p. 83


Reflections for Ch. 9-12

1) Throughout the book, Sister D shares many of the letters she wrote to various people throughout her life: to Thich Nhat Hanh, incarcerated youths, her friends and loved ones, her troubled younger brother, etc.

Write a letter to somebody you care about, either via e-mail or the ancient technology of pen and paper. The letter doesn’t require set reason for writing; write from the heart.

If you’d like, please share your letters on our book club’s discussion boards.


2) Sister D ends the book on a hopeful note. She writes, “My inner eyes tell me that I no longer need to hide myself in shame or to show myself in pride. I have never been alone. My face is the face of my sisters, of my partners, of my mother, of my grandmother, of leaves, of mountains, of memories, and of awakened moments.”

Please try to surround yourself with a sangha — a supportive community of like-minded individuals. The book club is one way to do this, but continue to cultivate a sangha around you, wherever you are.

It can be a sangha of two, or of hundreds. Check out this directory of various sanghas that meet throughout the world. (http://www.iamhome.org)

You are never alone.

Food for Thought

Two years ago, when Devin and his mother first came to Deer Park, he was incapable of sitting or standing still. In the meditation hall, he constantly shifted his body and ran in and out. When the Sangha did walking meditation, he could only hold his mother’s hand or a monk’s hand for a few seconds, then he would run past the leader of the group, turn around and run back to the end, and run to the front of the group again. Devin also often had problems with other children.
During that period, his mother and father were having many difficulties and they were about to get a divorce. Devin’s mother told me that once she had a serious fight with her husband, and afterwards she lay on her bed, face down and sobbing. Devin came into her room and tried to console her, but she could not look up. He left her room, and when he returned, he’d brought a small bell. He invited the bell and said, “Breathe, Mommy. Please breathe!”
She was so surprised that she sat up and burst out crying. “He’s so young, and here he is, trying to take care of me!” she told me. Many times when she seemed tense or lost, Devin reminded her, “Mommy, calm down. Breathe!”
— p.g. 127

“My inner eyes tell me that I no longer need to hide myself in shame or to show myself in pride. I have never been alone. My face is the face of my sisters, of my partners, of my mother, of my grandmother, of leaves, of mountains, of memories, and of awakened moments.” p.g. 141.

Wow, welcome to all our new friends!

The club has grown by 400 members since December, which is amazing. Welcome aboard.

Sending a smile to you all,

Jason at Parallax

Dear RP friends,

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season. I just came back from a retreat at Deer Park Monastery near San Diego, California, and had the chance to speak with many of our fellow readers and practitioners. It was an inspiring and lovely way to end 2014 and bring in the new year!

I have a number of exciting things to report for the book club in 2015.

First off, we are at an astounding 900 members! Woohoo!!

And the biggest news for now:

There has long been a demand for a live, online book club meeting where we can assemble and discuss our club picks in a supportive and fun environment and really come together as an online sangha -- a community that reads and practices together.

And so, I am pleased to announce that starting in February, we will have our first foray into a live book club show featuring a club favorite, Sister Dang Nghiem's memoir, "Healing."

A show featuring just myself would be too boring, however, and so I am inviting 2-3 participants from the book club to join me in February in discussing this touching, life-changing book.

We will use Google Hangouts to videoconference for the show, which will then be streamed live to YouTube for book club members to watch online wherever they are.

We wouldn't ask for volunteers to join me as co-hosts for free, of course. All co-hosts will receive advance copies of Sister D's second book coming out in April 2015, "Mindfulness as Medicine" which is a kind of spiritual successor to her first book, "Healing," as thanks for your time.

If you'd be interested in joining me as a co-host for the February show on "Healing", please e-mail me at jason@parallax.org with a few sentences explaining what you like about the book, or how the book has touched you.

Thank you all for your patience and I am looking forward to reading with you all this year!

Jason

Hi all!

Thank you for your kind messages and happy new year!

I'm back from the retreat and will be starting things up again with gusto for the new year.

Please take a look at the new announcement about plans for the book club in 2015!

Hi Everyone,

Yes, we will be continuing with Being Peace, and taking a bit of a breather to start the new year.

We have a number of big projects planned for the book club -- including interactive video discussions of our picks which I'll be posting about within the next few minutes!

Dear Reading Peace members,

As a non-profit publisher founded and inspired by Thich Nhat Hanh, we're always interested in getting our books into your hands!

This post will continue to be updated with new book giveaways as they become available.

Unfortunately, we are only able to giveaway print copies of books via Goodreads according to the terms of service and only to readers within the U.S. due to high international shipping costs.


Be Free Where You Are by Thich Nhat Hanh (DIGITAL COPY, AVAILABLE TO INTERNATIONAL READERS):

Sign up as a new subscriber to Parallax Press's newsletter and get a free digital copy of this book directly in your inbox!

http://www.parallax.org/newsletter-si...

Welcome all!

I updated the announcement with the 25% off code in case more people don't already have a copy of this classic book.

The code is BPEACE - use it on Parallax.org throughout the month of December for "Being Peace"!

Dear Friends!

We'll be reading the classic Thich Nhat Hanh text, Being Peace, for the month of December.

Due to the Thanksgiving holiday in the US and delay in our wrapping up of "Healing", we will start reading and posting guides for "Being Peace" starting on the 2nd week of December to give people more time in-between books.

Our book club members always get 25% off our club picks. Use the code: BPEACE on Parallax.org.

http://www.parallax.org

Thanks!

Here's the reader's guide for Chapters 3-5 for Healing by Sister Dang Nghiem.

As always, the guide is also available:
http://www.parallax.org/blog/healing-...



Remember that our Reading Peace book club members get 25% off on our monthly picks for the duration of the month, so order your copy of Healing with the code PEACE2.

Reflections
1) While Sister D was in medical school, she had the opportunity to help various kinds of people — incarcerated youth from diverse backgrounds as well as people with terminal illnesses such as Mr. Lamphere.

Interestingly, Sister D notes throughout Chapter 3 how she learned more from them than the other way around.

Notice how each person’s life she touched also transformed her own in some way.Whose lives have you touched and how have they transformed you?

2) Learning to deal with grief is a major part of being alive. In Sister D’s case, for example, it sparked her transformation from medical student to nun, thus in a roundabout way fulfilling her grandmother’s wish that she become a nun to liberate all beings.

Loss —from death or through some other means— is an end, but also a continuation.

3) Chapter 5 is about Sister D’s transition to monastic life at Plum Village Monastery in France. She wanted to begin anew, but this is easier said than done. As she wrote, she was constantly reminded of her multiple past traumas and “now I had to face my own mind.”

Think about a time you wanted a fresh start for yourself. Did it ever happen? Why or why not?


Food for Thought

“My life is the life of all beings, immersed in the sea of suffering. Because of ignorance, we cause suffering for each other and for ourselves.” p. 33

“When the doctors opened his abdomen, they saw that the cancer had spread to all the adjacent organs. There was nothing they could do except to sew him back up immediately. That night I came to visit him at his hospital bed. ‘It’s funny!’ he said. ‘Now I feel more at ease even though I know I will die.’ I just sat quietly and let him talk. ‘Isn’t it strange?’ he said. ‘I have been in pain all day long, and I haven’t felt any pain at all since you came to see me. I wish I had become someone like you. Instead, I became a bitter and cynical person.’ It was two o’clock in the morning. The other patient in his room was already sleeping. All was quiet. The lights were off, and there was only some faint light coming from the hallway. In that half dark and half light, Mr. Lamphere and I quietly held each other’s hands, with beaming smiles.” p. 39

“Some time in my first or second year of medical school, I found a book by the Zen monk Thich Nhat Hanh. I never finished the book, but I particularly liked a story he told about a man who was in a mental hospital because he believed he was a kernel of corn. Every time he saw a chicken, he would run for his life.

A doctor came to talk to the man and told him, ‘You are a human being. You shouldn’t be afraid of chickens.’ The man began to understand. The doctor told him to repeat to himself five hundred times a day that he was a human being and not a kernel of corn. After a month, the doctor came back to check on him. The nurses reported that this man had been practicing very diligently. He would stay in his room and every day he would repeat his mantra, ‘I am a human being.’ He was making great progress. So the doctor said, ‘I will release you. Walk with me to the office.’

They walked to the office to do the paperwork. On the way to the office, the man saw some chickens—this was a mental hospital in Vietnam, where there are chickens roaming around—and he ran for his life. When the doctor caught up with the patient, he asked, ‘Why did you run away?’ And the man said, ‘Well, I know I’m not a kernel of corn. But does the chicken know that?'” p.46-7

“I vow to bring awareness
into my dreams tonight,
to dispel all fear,
see desires as empty,
and find ways with mindfulness and
to know what is true and what is unreal.” p. 61

“Outwardly, perhaps the two worlds in which you and I live in seem dramatically different. I am in a monastery, and you are in a state prison. Upon deeper looking, perhaps we are going through experiences that are more similar than we’ve realized. It’s the minimal, simple living style that we both have… I’ve begun to come back to myself, to listen more deeply, and to understand what is really there.” p. 62

“When I missed the physical body of my partner, I meditated on its parts, tossed by the waves, torn, dispersed, and deteriorated. When memories of our lives together became acute and intense, I breathed.

I breathed through each wave of yearning, of regret, of guilt, of what-could-havebeen. Every time I asked him, ‘Where are you?’ A quiet voice immediately responded, ‘I am here. I have never left you.’ I did not only lose a partner.

I lost my childhood all over again. I lost my soul mate. I lost the accepting father and the gentle mother that he was to me. I lost the dream of a ‘normal life,’ which I had tried so hard to achieve.

Now I had to face my own mind.” p. 63

You're very welcome all :) Enjoy!

Just Released:

Official Announcement

Re: Thay’s health situation

Plum Village, 15 November, 2014

To all Plum Village Practice Centers,
To all Practice Centers and Sanghas World Wide,
To our Dear Beloved Friends,

Thầy is now in a hospital with a highly reputable neurologist monitoring his progress. He is in the right place with the best possible care and attention. New tests have been done. Doctors report that Thầy is showing good progress in terms of remaining stable and not having major changes in his condition during this critical part of his recovery. The area of hemorrhage has not grown and his vital signs are normal.

In the early morning, Saturday, November 15, Thầy opened his eyes for the first time since his cerebral hemorrhage, to look at his attendants for a brief moment. He was very conscious and attentive to what was happening around him, lifting his left hand to touch the attendant next to him. Since then, he has also opened his eyes several times and his gestures of communication are clearer, nodding or shaking his head to respond. Thầy has been able to rest and sleep peacefully for several hours each day. The doctors are cautiously optimistic and remind us that Thầy’s condition is still in a critical stage and conditions can change at any moment.

Winter Retreat Opens
The Fourfold Sangha of Plum Village gathered this morning in the Still Water Meditation Hall of the Upper Hamlet to formally open the Winter Retreat and to participate in the “Face To Face and Request for Refuge Ceremony”. We know that it has always nourished our Teacher to see all his students, lay and monastic, gather to practice and take refuge in each other for 90 days. At least in Upper Hamlet this year, we have broken a record high with 60 lay friends taking refuge, 52 Bhikkhus and 18 Novices. We will share this wonderful news and spiritual food to nourish Thầy. All our monasteries around the globe will also host the three month retreat as usual, to deepen our practice and nourish our community and our brotherhood and sisterhood.

Collective Support
We are aware and grateful for the love and practice that people are offering from all around the world to support Thầy’s recovery. Sanghas and groups of practitioners are gathering to send their peaceful energy to our Teacher. He is clearly receiving this energy. Each of our mindful breaths and mindful steps is nourishing Thầy. Please continue to enjoy the blue sky for Thầy, the fresh morning air and the small pathways in nature for Thầy. Especially, please enjoy each other, your loved ones, and our togetherness for Thầy.

If possible, you can dedicate a day to eat vegetarian as a way to generate compassion to send to Thầy. You can reconcile with your loved ones, or to let go of your resentment of someone and write them a love letter. And in the same Winter Retreat spirit being practiced at our monasteries, you can participate in your local Sangha more, support the collective energy of mindfulness, consume less and reduce your time online.

With trust and love,

The Monks and Nuns of Plum Village

Source: plumvillage.org

Dear Sangha,

As you may have heard, Thich Nhat Hanh has been hospitalized after suffering a brain hemorrhage. Obviously this news has affected our activity this week at Parallax Press, which was of course founded by Thay in 1986.

As a result, the 2nd reader's guide for "Healing" has been delayed and it will be available this Sunday.

To help spread some positivity during this very difficult week at Parallax and around the world at the news of Thay's illness, we've decided to give away free digital copies of Thich Nhat Hanh's "Be Free Where You Are," which is based on a talk he gave at the Maryland Correctional Institution in 1999.

You can get your free digital copy by subscribing to our newsletter below:

http://www.parallax.org/blog/free-ebo...

Unfortunately, Goodreads doesn't permit giveaways of e-books and so this is the best way for us to freely distribute this treasured book to all of our fans around the world.

Until next time,

Jason at Parallax

Great suggestion Elaine. I myself have been reading that book as well as "No Death, No Fear" to comfort my suffering over the news.