Sunday, 10th May, 8pm AEST
Recitation of the 14 Mindfulness Trainings

Dear family

​You are welcome to join Judy, Rose and Adam, for the recitation of the 14 Mindfulness Trainings.

​If you would ever like to read two of the Trainings during the ceremony please contact us at: compassionateoceansangha@gmail.com
You don't have to be a member of the Order of Interbeing to read the Trainings.

 

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE FOURTEEN MINDFULNESS TRAININGS:
The Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings are a modern distillation of the traditional Bodhisattva precepts of Mahayana Buddhism, and were created by Thich Nhat Hanh in Saigon in 1966.

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Monastics and lay friends who have made a vow in a formal ceremony, to receive, study and observe these fourteen trainings are known as “Members of the Order of Interbeing”. The Order of Interbeing, through the Plum Village lineage of Thich Nhat Hanh, belongs to the Linji (Rinzai) tradition of Zen Buddhism.

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THE FOURTEEN MINDFULNESS TRAININGS:
The Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings are the very essence of the Order of Interbeing. They are the torch lighting our path, the boat carrying us, the teacher guiding us. They allow us to touch the nature of interbeing in everything that is, and to see that our happiness is not separate from the happiness of others. Interbeing is not a theory; it is a reality that can be directly experienced by each of us at any moment in our daily lives. The Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings help us cultivate concentration and insight which free us from fear and the illusion of a separate self.

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Our theme for May 2026 is:
The Insight that Brings Us to the Other Shore

Understanding the Sutra: verse 3, part 2
Listen Shariputra
All Phenomena bear the mark of Emptiness
Their true nature is the nature of
no Birth, no Death
no Being, no Nonbeing
no Defilement, no Purity
no Increasing, no decreasing

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Thay reminds us that we don’t have to die to become dust. We are already dust. We contain the whole cosmos.

We can be arrogant when we think that we understand a speck of dust, just as we think we understand a human being. When we can see the no increasing, no decreasing nature of reality you will have no more fear, no more complexes (p67).

​He gives us the old proverb:
Be humble, you are made of dust
Be noble, you are made of stars.