Meditation Practice Schedule
All are welcome to our sangha gatherings! You are invited to join the gatherings 15 minutes early to begin settling in and to create our sangha cradle before the start time. And know that you are welcome to silently join and/or leave our practice at any time.
IN-PERSON OUTDOOR WALKING MEDITATION (DURING WARM WEATHER MONTHS): first Saturday of the month from 10-11:30am, weather permitting, at the Main Street Nature Park in Weaverville and other locations TBA. The location may change from time-to-time with notification. A monthly reminder will be sent via the all-sangha email, but we will no longer be emailing cancellations due to weather by this email. To receive walking meditation news and timely updates, you are invited to join a special Google group. To join, click on https://groups.google.com/g/mmsoutdoors.
IN-PERSON SANGHA PRACTICE: second and fourth Wednesday of the month from 7-8:30pm at the Asheville Friends Meeting place. Each practice evening will include reading from a selected Plum Village book.
VIRTUAL SANGHA PRACTICE: first and third Tuesday of the month from 7-8:30pm on Zoom. To receive the link to all our Zoom meetings, please send an email to: mountainmindfulness@gmail.com with the word "Zoom" in the subject line. The focus of the first Tuesday practice will be the Heart Sutra, including both chanting and Dharma study from Thay’s book, The Other Shore (see below for more information). The third Tuesday practice will be a recitation of The Five Mindfulness Trainings.
Heart Sutra Chant and Study Practice: the Heart Sutra is one of the most important sutras in Mahayana Buddhism. A sutra is a basic teaching derived from the historical Buddha or one of his major disciples. The Heart Sutra is a teaching based on an insight of Avalokiteshvara, the Bodhisattva of Great Compassion.
In our Plum Village tradition, we practice with a version of the Heart Sutra called The Insight that Brings Us to the Other Shore. This version is a profound and beautiful English translation of the Heart Sutra which Thay completed in 2014. For more information about this translation:
A link to the text of The Insight that Brings Us to the Other Shore: https://plumvillage.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/2014-Thich-Nhat-Hanh-New-Heart-Sutra-letter-cc.pdf
A link to Thay’s explanation of why he made this translation: https://plumvillage.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Thich-Nhat-Hanh-Commentary-on-new-Heart-Sutra-translation.pdf
Our practice will include chanting The Insight that Brings Us to the Other Shore along with a recording of the chant, silent meditation, dharma study of the Heart Sutra following the commentaries in Thay’s book, The Other Shore (2017), and dharma sharing.
Please join us in exploring this deep teaching and practice. All are welcome. No experience with chanting necessary.
CONTACT US! Contact us through email or by calling Bob at 207-313-0794. If you would like to be emailed updates and event announcements once or twice monthly, sign up for our newsletter.
