In honor of Martin Luther King Day...

Last week, Martin Luther King's nomination of Thich Nhat Hanh came up; here is the letter Mr. King sent: http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/45a/025.html

As a sign of the times, there is now a Facebook campaign for Thich Nhat Hanh to receive the prize.

In this week's discussion, Matthieu Ricard came up. Here is a Speaking of Faith interview that might be of interest: http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/programs/2009/ricard/

This week, photonic emissions, interbeing and the transcendentalists, and the relationship with Vedic traditions and Buddhism came up. Always interesting!

Beginning Thich Nhat Hanh's text on the Heart Sutra

Happy new year!

We had a good turnout and discussion of the first pages of Thich Nhat Hanh's commentary on the Heart Sutra, immediately delving into the concept of "inter-being" and the distinction between understanding and wisdom or knowledge.

As always, auxiliary materials are referenced during our discussions and I thought I'd list them here:

Why Has Bodhi-Dharma Left for the West? (Korean film, Dharmaga tongjoguro kan kkadalgun, 1989), also on Netflix.

Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life With the Heart of a Buddha, by Tara Brach.

and

My Stroke of Insight, Jill Bolte Taylor 19 min. video on TED: a brain scientist experiences her own massive stroke.


Finally, courtesy of Sandra and The New Yorker: