Showing posts with label walking meditation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label walking meditation. Show all posts

Friday, May 8, 2026

Wild Food Foraging Ethnobotanical Walk (5/9)



FORAGING WALK — WILD FOOD OUTING
Guide to Wild Foods Useful Plants
Hosted by prolific plant author Christopher Nyerges, nature guide, and founder of School of Self-Reliance: The Wild Food and Self-Reliance Discovery Meetup Group (with 4.9 out of 5.0 stars with 143 reviews) is leading a nature walk:
  • Wild Food Ethnobotanical Walk
  • Saturday, May 9, 2026 10:00 am
  • $65 (seniors and students $45)
To attend and for exact directions, register HERE. Join us for an outing in Los Angeles where we explore the edible, medicinal, and other useful qualities of many of the native plants found in the environment with many introduced (invasive) plants.
Foraging California (Foraging Series)
Both natives and non-native plants will be seen. This is a leisurely walk in the woods. All will also get a chance to taste some of the plants. We will introduce a few basics of systematic plant identification and ways to start a record of various species.

We’ll bring up an important point: Many of the wild plants we see — especially the non-natives — can easily be cultivated in our own yards for ease of harvesting.

There are also local native plant nurseries where we can obtain native plants — such as toyon berries, ceonothus, oak trees, mulefat (Baccharis salicifolia), elder, and so on — to grow them at home, where we can provide the ideal situation for them.

Wear comfortable footwear and bring water and a bowl for eating. This class can serve as credit towards the the School of Self-Reliance Ethnobotany Certificate. Directions sent upon registration.

Wednesday, February 11, 2026

Bhikkhu Bodhi greets Peace Walk monks


Who is Bhikkhu Bodhi?

Social and Communal Harmony
Born Jeffrey Block (Dec. 10, 1944), now known as Bhikkhu Bodhi [a], is an American Theravada Buddhist scholar-monk, a major inspiration for Wisdom Quarterly: American Buddhist Journal, educated in California, ordained in Sri Lanka, and now teaching in New York and New Jersey.
  • Long ago at BPS, Bhikkhu Bodhi authorized our Dharma editor to promote his mail order Buddhist course called The Buddha's Teaching: As It Is, a ten-cassette set he recorded in the basement of the Washington Buddhist Vihara with glossary and notes. To reach a wider audience, we took it online with millions of views, our dhamma-dana.
He is a prolific Pali canon translator, author, and Buddhist commentator, long ago appointed the second president of BPS.lk (the Buddhist Publication Society) [2]. He is the current president of BAUS.org (the Buddhist Association of America), and the founder of the Buddhist charity Buddhist Global Relief [3].

 
Early life
Whaddya mean ya wanna leave Jud'ism to JuBu?
Block was born in Brooklyn, NY, in 1944 to Jewish parents. He grew up in Borough Park, where he attended elementary school P.S. 160 [4] and graduated from New Utrecht High School [5]. He then worked as a door-to-door salesman selling paintbrushes [6].

In 1966, he obtained a B.A. in philosophy from Brooklyn College, where he first encountered Buddhism in books at the bookstore [6]. In 1972, he obtained a doctoral degree (PhD) in philosophy from Claremont Graduate University [7, 8] in Southern California before deciding to move to Asia to ordain as a monk. More


Tuesday, February 10, 2026

Peace Walk ends: Buddhist monks reach DC

Aloka: So we turn around and start to walk back now? There are so many people I want to see.
TODAY'S LIVESTREAM





Venerable Buddhist monks touch hearts during Walk for Peace in Virginia en route to DC
(ABC 7 News - WJLA) Feb. 6, 2026: “If you’re not at peace, where are we?" said Caroline County resident Sue Iszczenko while she and her daughter Kayla waited for the venerable Buddhist monks to walk past them on their route from Texas to Washington, D.C., promoting inner and world peace.


Hi, I'm Aloka the Peace Dog
In a time defined by [Trump] turmoil, with a nation fractured, hundreds came from far and wide, gathering roadside in rural Caroline County to witness 20 Buddhist monks [and a dog named Aloka] journey a portion of 2,300 arduous miles – from Texas to D.C. – advocating for harmony in a world gone haywire. More: wjla.com/news/local/venerable...


So sweet — when Buddhist monks walking for peace make everyone smile
(AmeriScope) Feb. 5, 2026: Some moments don’t need to be explained. We see them — and we smile spontaneously. This video captures one of those moments. It is so sweet in its simplicity that Americans naturally slow down and feel lighter, even if for just a moment.

 
Nothing here is planned. Nothing is performed. The sweetness comes from small, human interactions — the kind that happen when kind people are present and open. A smile appears unexpectedly. Gestures are genuine. Someone pauses, not because they have to but because they want to.

These moments change the world little by little because inner peace expresses as world peace. They change the moment. As part of the Walk for Peace, scenes like this appear along the road — not loud or dramatic, just quietly heartwarming. People notice without trying. They react without thinking. And suddenly, the space is warmer.


Aloka the Peace Dog is the big star walking
This movement isn’t about distance, destination, or purpose. It’s about feeling. It’s about how sweetness shows up when no one is trying to impress or persuade.
  • What is the way to such "sweetness"? The Buddha taught four sublime meditations called the Four Supreme Abidings:
  1. loving-kindness (metta)
  2. compassion (compassion)
  3. joy in the joy of others (mudita)
  4. unbiased looking on (upekkha)
It happens when people are simply themselves. In a world that often feels rushed and heavy, moments like this land differently. They do not demand attention. They invite a smile. Sometimes that’s enough. This is a reminder that kindness doesn’t always look serious. Sometimes, it just looks sweet.

What was the last small moment that made you smile without expecting it? #PeaceWalk #AlokaDog #Texas #WashingtonDC #SweetMoments #EverydayJoy #LittleThingsMatter #FeelGoodVideo #WarmMoments #LifeAsItIs
  • Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Sayalay Aloka (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Thursday, February 5, 2026

Zoom: Poet Mandy Kahn's Peace Class


WHAT HAPPENED?
The meditative music was soothing and immediately set a calming and peaceful tone. Mandy held a mudra of welcome, honoring Zoom participants. She not only spoke of peace but embodied it with a guided meditation/visualization. The format is ever-evolving. It's free. It's weekly. And space is open to come and investigate next Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026, at 6:00 pm.

Peace Class
What's peace? Passaddhi (serene inner peace)
Friends in Peace, during this time of war, we are inspired by Aloka and the Buddhist Monks' Peace Walk. How can we bring that inner peace into our hearts, minds, and expression?

Peace activist Mandy Kahn's Peace Class (from the Philosophical Research Society in Hollywood, LA) resumes tonight for 2026.

Mandy and Seven found peace in Los Angeles.
Feel free to share link with friends. All are welcome at Peace Class (prs.org).

To join us, simply click on this Zoom link at the start time: Wednesday, 6:00 pm (PT). 
What is "peace" and who cares?
What goddess could make peace?
Peace (passaddhi) is one of the Seven Factors of Enlightenment (one component of the larger Seven Requisites of Enlightenment) the historical Buddha pointed out as the Path-of-Practice (that brings one to calm and insight) to Awaken.

So it holds a very honored place in the Dharma and in American life, at least in the Sixties (because of the Peace Movement and the Hippies) and earlier due to the influence of the timeless Quakers, Transcendentalists, Christian Gnostics, and Catholic monastics, particularly the Franciscans and Carmelites.

I like chanting the Buddha's actual words
In a language spoken by the Buddha (Pali), "peace" (passaddhi) is a noun (Sanskrit prasrabhi, Tibetan ཤིན་ཏུ་སྦྱང་བ་, shin tu sbyang ba) variously translated as "serenity," "calmness," "tranquility," "repose" [1]. The verb is passambhati ([rest], calm, quiet) [2].

In Buddhism, peace refers to tranquility of body, speech, and mind (thoughts and consciousness) on the path to enlightenment. As part of the seven mental factors to be cultivated, peace is preceded by rapture (pīti, bliss, joy, supersensual pleasure) and precedes stillness (samādhi, focus, concentration). More
Inner Peace, World Peace
Publisher, Inner Peace, World Peace: Essays on Buddhism and Nonviolence
Mandy Kahn hosts monthly poetry readings in Manly P. Hall's Library of World Religions (PRS)
.
Inner Peace, World Peace
What can one person do to foster world peace? How does one person's state of mind [heart] affect the state of the world? How can the ideal of nonviolence be manifested in daily life?

Buddhists have been exploring questions like these for 25 centuries, and they are still timely today. Inner Peace, World Peace is the first work in any Western language to examine the Buddhist approach to nonviolence.

Warriors for Peace? Buddhist Peace Walk
Well-known Buddhist scholars, a noted authority on nonviolent struggle, a prominent Thai Theravada Buddhist activist, and other leaders in their fields collaborate to show the contemporary relevance of the Buddhist tradition.

The authors also discuss a new international movement known as "Socially Engaged Buddhism."
Holy Doors: Poems by Mandy Kahn
I love the way Mandy Kahn makes poetry that elevates the ordinary to the sublime (DBM).
 
Holy Doors (Hat & Beard Press)
Mandy Kahn’s third collection of poems is a lyrical, luminous, and highly spiritual journey that explores:
It is also a record of what life is like as our spiritual nature begins to live more fully within the body. Each of Kahn’s poems begins with earnest inquiry and ends with an ecstatic moment of communion with the part of the self that is connected to all things. Holy Doors: Poems by Mandy Kahn

Sunday, February 1, 2026

Peace Walk in freezing cold: Global warming?


(Walk for Peace) Ajahn never sleeps lying down in as a dhutanga practice

Freezing snowstorms could be climate chaos.
Is "global warming" real? Who dares to say that it is not? The mainstream media shoves that message down our throat whether we like it or not. University researchers are enticed to find those results and punished when they find anything else. And no one seems to be counting the artificial manipulation of the weather with chemtrails, H.A.A.R.P., and other secret means. Humans are warming it, but it is a concerted effort to warm it and say in an alarmist way that that warming is galloping out of control now. We ignore our eyes. We ourselves do not review the data. When the meteorologist who founded the Weather Channel (weather.com) looked at the data, he did NOT find much of a rise. And he asked his colleagues about. There has been about a 1 degree rise in our lifetimes. Where are all the other headlines coming from and why? They will make us believe and demand that they intervene. We will not only give up our rights, we will demand they be taken away. There may be a mini ice age on the way, but we'll never hear about that above the din of alarmism and artificial youth movements kickstarted to promote an agenda. Natural global warming being brought on by consumer activity? Unlikely. Being brought on by corporate officials and their masters? Obviously.

(AmeriScope) Love travels quietly across the country and into Virginia



Stray dog karma

Peace Walk: Don't cry at funerals. Practice


Why does bad happen to the good?



Will you practice wise reflection?