5 mindfulness trainings

14 mindfulness trainings

Beginning anew

Bells of mindfulness

Body as practice

Breathing

Dharma discussion

Eating together

Gathas

Going home

Happiness meeting

Hugging meditation

Kitchen

Lazy day

Listening to Dharma talk

Living together

Noble silence

Resting

Sangha body

Sangha building

Second body practice

Shinning light

Sitting meditation

Solitude

Taking care of anger

Taking refuge

Tea meditation

To bow or not to bow

Touching the Earth

Traveling

Waking up in the morning

Walking meditation

Working meditation

On your arrival you might hear a bell sound and suddenly people around you have stopped still, stopped talking, and stopped moving. It might be the telephone ringing or the clock chiming, or the monastery bell sounding. These are our bells of mindfulness. When we hear the sound of the bell we relax our body and become aware of our breathing. We do that naturally, with enjoyment, and without solemnity or being stiffed.

When we hear one of these mindfulness bells ring, we stop all of our conversations and whatever we are doing and bring our awareness to our breathing. The ringing bell has called out to us:

Listen, listen,
this wonderful sound brings me back to
my true home.

By stopping to breathe and restore our calm and our peace, we become free, our work becomes more enjoyable and the friend in front of us becomes more real. Back home we can use the ringing of our telephone, the local church bells, the cry of a baby, or even the sound of fire engines and ambulances as our bells of mindfulness. With just three conscious breaths we can release the tensions in our body and mind and return to a cool and clear state of being.