Mountain Solid, Water Reflecting Sangha

10/15/2026

10/03/2026

When we come home to the present moment, we become aware of our body, and all of our tension is released.
When we come home to the present moment, we become aware of our body, and all of our tension is released.

Everyone can practice
paying attention to their breath, perhaps repeating these words,
“Breathing in, I am aware of my body.
Breathing out, I release the tension in my body.”

You don't need to be a Buddhist to practice this. You can sit in whatever position you feel comfortable, and practice releasing the tension and tightness in your body.
One or two minutes of practice can already make a big difference.

~Thich Nhat Hanh

10/02/2026

Maybe, as you read these words,
you are somewhere in the United States,
Canada,
or somewhere far away from me.

You have a different body.
A different job.
A different family.
Different interests, memories, and life experiences.

On the surface,
we may seem like two completely separate people.

But are we really separate?

Thich Nhat Hanh once offered a beautiful example.

When we look deeply into a sheet of paper,
we can see a cloud,
a tree,
rain, sunlight, earth,
and countless other conditions
that came together to make it possible.

The paper did not create itself.

And neither did we.

You did not create yourself.

You were shaped by your parents,
your family,
society,
the food you eat,
the air you breathe,
nature,
your culture,
the people you have met,
and countless conditions
you may never have noticed.

So when we look deeply,
the boundary between “me” and “you”
may not be as solid as we imagine.

Your fear
is not entirely foreign to me.

Your loneliness
is not something only you have ever known.

Anxiety, loss, hope, love…

They may come with different stories,
but they are all deeply human experiences.

We may differ in our language,
our skin color,
our homeland,
our work,
and the stories of our lives.

But when we look deeply,

we have never truly lived alone.

Perhaps awakening is not about becoming someone else.

Perhaps it is simply seeing that
there has never been a “me” completely separate from the rest of life.

09/30/2026

"Be yourself...

Life is precious just as it is: all the elements of your happiness are already present...

There is no need to rush, strive, search, or struggle; one simply needs to be....

To be—simply to be—in the present moment is the deepest of meditation practices....

Most people cannot believe that merely walking—as if one had nowhere to go—is enough; ..

they think that competing and striving to achieve a goal is normal and necessary...

Try practicing purposelessness for just five minutes, and you will see how happy you are in those five minutes."

✨

*The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching*