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Healing in Every Breath: Mindfulness and Sangha Building
Meditation has the capacity for nourishing and healing and can be practised in every moment of daily life—whether cooking, watering the garden, driving, riding the subway or walking on a plane. Whenever mindfulness and concentration are present, you are in meditation. By fully living and enjoying each in-breath and out-breath, or each step, you become one with that breath or step. This practice releases you from sorrow about the past and fear of the future, making freedom—and thus self-healing—possible. Even eating lunch becomes a moment of nourishment and healing when you free yourself from worries and focus entirely on:
- the food
- the community of practice
This freedom generated by mindfulness and concentration awakens the body’s and mind’s inherent capacity to heal. Listening to a song, attending a Dharma talk or simply smiling can all be performed mindfully—like a rain that penetrates and nourishes our goodness, joy and compassion.
A supportive environment—or Sangha—is essential for maintaining these practices. Sangha building means creating a healthy environment in families, schools, workplaces and therapeutic communities so that good seeds of health, loving-kindness and joy can manifest in every cell of our body and consciousness. In the Order of Interbeing there are two communities you can join:
• chúng trụ trì (the core community)
• chúng đồng sự (the extended community)
By practising and sharing mindfulness in these environments, we sow seeds that one day sprout into wholesome, healing trees wherever they land.
