Plum Village Hamlets Celebrating 30 Years of Meditation, Happiness, Harmony & Healing (Video)

Sights & sounds from hamlets during the 21 day retreat, June 2012, the 30th year of Plum Village. Most Venerable Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh offered wise guidance on applying mindfulness into daily life during this "The science of the Buddha" retreat. Available in HD quality setting below.

Periods of meditation, study and contemplation were sometimes challenging, but as this short video demonstrates,the community of mindful living supported each other in harmony to create joy, lightness and transformation.

Special thanks for the music of the monastic and lay community, Joe Reilly and Paul Tingen. Photographs of Paul Davis are also featured.

Summer joy continues with the "Plum Village "Only Sanitizing" Flash Med Song"

We Live Love Mindfully (Video)

Fresh impression of the art of mindful living taught by Thich Nhat Hanh and practiced by friends in Plum Village, France.

This clip is a preview of the 40 minute movie, "Mindful Living Every Day". Available, along with an additional 40 minutes of guided meditations and "Each of My Steps is a Prayer", on DVD (NTSC & PAL) . 

Look for it at Parallax Press

http://www.parallax.org/cgi-bin/shopper.cgi?preadd=action&key=VIDEMLED

Deer Park & Plum Village with English and Spanish soundtracks.

This is the Greatest Happiness (Video)

Adopted from the Plum Village Chanting Book, Sutra on Happiness or Mahamangala Sutta, Sutta Nipata from the Pali teachings.

Sincerely recited by Sister Manon.

The Ego’s Workshop

By Pamela J. Wells

Ego is the imaginary ideas, notions and beliefs we have about ourselves. The mind churns out separation, pain and suffering through notions and beliefs. Attachments to them—judging, labeling oneself and others, fault-finding and comparing oneself to another is the ego at work in its imaginary workshop.
The egoic mind will find anything to argue with another person about. Peace does not come from the mind. It comes from pure awareness, which does not have the chattering mind running and analyzing things. Looking for fault in others, criticizing, and attempts at making another person wrong—fault finding—comes from the ego. You even see this in spiritual circles, fault finding or right fighters, who are coming from a place of an egoic state of consciousness. 
When you argue with another person, it doesn’t matter who started the argument. You are playing the egoic game when you engage in the argument. The person who is living from an egoic state of consciousness cannot even see what they are doing. They cannot see themselves, because they are focused outward—externally—trying to fill themselves up, trying to fill that emptiness, that feeling of not being good enough up, by stroking their ego. 
Never argue with delusional people, otherwise you will get sucked into the vortex of delusion.
People who live from an egoic state of consciousness have an egoic desire to criticize others and prove that they are right, which is all just imagination—notions. That feeling of being right gives them a superficial high. It is like egoic crack. It never fills them up. It is a temporary high, so they have to keep repeating their destructive and self-sabotaging behavior. Criticism separates people. It pushes people away. It does not come from the spirit. It is not the spiritual way.
When we live our lives from spirit—from pure awareness—we do not label, judge, or criticize others. Peace, awareness, love and joy does not fight, does not look to start a fight and does not become defensive. This is the job of the ego.
When someone is projecting a negative energy, a negative remark, even if it is in verbal self-defense, they are allowing their ego to take the driver’s seat. It is not about being right or wrong. That is ego land. A person will never experience their natural peace and joy if they are constantly projecting negativity and non-acceptance outward. We have to accept ourselves 100%. No one is superior nor inferior to another—to other life forms. 
Your True Self is Spirit—Pure Awareness—Uncontaminated By the Dualistic Mind.

Copyright © 2012 Pamela J. Wells. All Rights Reserved

Image licensed under Bigstockphoto.com

Taoism: Returning To Your True Nature

Taoist Master, Yun Xiang Tseng, a child prodigy from the ancient mountains of Wudang, PRC., speaks on Returning to your true nature and the mysteries of Tao. 

WuDangTao

If You Focus On The Finger, You Will Miss The Moon

By Pamela J. Wells

However you realize your true Self, your true nature is irrelevant. There is no wrong way, right way to realize Self. The ego likes to attach itself to words, ideas, right, wrong, etc. Teachers and teachings are just fingers pointing at the moon. If someone (enlightened being, anyone) points you to your true Self, your true nature, pure awareness, pure consciousness, which is egoless, it doesn’t matter who the person is. It could be a “guru”, a child, a homeless person. Thich Nhat Hanh quoting the Buddha, "My teachings are a finger pointing to the moon. Do not get caught in thinking that the finger is the moon. It is because of the finger that you can see the moon." The ego likes to say what is the wrong way what is the right way. It is all the imagination. Words and concepts are not truth. At best, they can point to truth, but they are not truth. Language is limited. If you get too caught up in spiritual terminology, right/wrong, then you are still playing on the monkey bars of the mind.

Copyright © 2012 Pamela J. Wells. All Rights Reserved

Image licensed under Bigstockphoto.com

Feel free to add a comment, if there is anything that you would like to add or any experiences that you would care to share.

New URL Address for "Selfless Being Blog"

Please Update Your Bookmarks!

This page, that you are on now, is the New URL Address for the Selfless Being Blog. Unfortunately, I had to change the blog address due to some web hosting issues.

http://blog.selflessbeing.com/ 

Judgment Vs. Love & Acceptance

By Pamela J. Wells

When one judges another, they are judging what they see, a body, the way in which the person appears on the outside, to them—based upon their biases, faulty and false perceptions, their assumptions. They associate and attach certain labels with and to that person. They do not see the essence, the spirit, of the person, which cannot be seen with the eyes. 
Judgment comes from notions about people, about the world, about beliefs over this or that—from one’s perspective; and, in many instances, their perspective is tainted by other people’s perspectives, the perspective of a group of people, or what is considered the norm perspective of a society—the delusional perspective—that starts out, from it base, its foundation, unstable, faulty and, many times, completely false.  
When they hear someone say or see someone do something that goes against what they believe and think, or is what they perceive to be wrong, they get a superficial high from judging them, calling them names, attaching labels to them, gossiping about them—when they fail to remember or to know that their judgments are based upon their own faulty and false perceptions, notions and beliefs, not the other person. 
The essence of a person cannot be labeled. The superficial, delusional high from judgment temporarily takes that person’s mind off of their own problems, guilt, pain and suffering. Judgment does not fill them up; although they think it does. They are attempting to fill their ego up, which is not real. It is just notions. It is a futile attempt to fill the emptiness and feelings of lack and insecurity that they have inside due to their identification with the ego and wanting to feel valuable and worthy based upon some notion of what valuable and worthy is—looks like. 
Delusion is believing that some are superior and others are inferior, some are more valuable and others are not so valuable. When one views themselves as being inferior or faulty in some way, they are quick to judge others. Instead of going within and identifying their faulty and false perceptions and notions about themselves and others—and releasing them—they are turned outward, externally, judging and lashing out at others.
When someone makes a not-so-good choice in life—to judge them, call them names, attach labels to them, attempting to belittle them with one’s judgment—that kind of behavior says more about that person than the one that they are judging. Nobody is perfect, we all make good and not-so-good choices throughout our lifetime. It is delusional to think that one person never makes not-so-good choices and are therefore some imaginary superior being to everyone else. This delusional way of perceiving oneself and the world comes from seeing everyone as separate, instead of seeing everyone as being a part of the same life force that enables us to exist. It comes from the egoic state of consciousness, which is not even real. It is only as real as one believes in their notions about themselves and the world around them. Spirit, essence, awareness, love—does not judge anyone. Judgment comes from the dualistic mind and all of its notions. The more you judge, the more you push others away from you. The more you become isolated. 
The more you love, the more you openly embrace and accept others, unconditionally, the more you accept yourself—the more at peace you are inside, the more joyful you are, the more peaceful your relationships are, the more magnetic you are, the more you attract people to you, who enjoy being around, who enjoy your presence.
Copyright © 2012 Pamela J. Wells. All Rights Reserved Image licensed under Bigstockphoto.com
Feel free to add a comment, if there is anything that you would like to add or any experiences that you would care to share.

The Ego Is An Illusion

The ego is an illusion, but the problem herein lies, when we believe that we are the ego. 

~ Pamela J. Wells ~