Mindfulness

Overview

How in our busy daily life can we have the opportunity to stop running and come back to the present moment? God is always present. It is we who have wandered off somewhere forgetting to be there for God.

Sister Annabel Laity, an English-born Buddhist nun in the lineage of Thich Nhat Hanh, offers this unique introduction to the principles and practice of mindfulness for a western, Christian audience by showing parallels between Zen and the teachings of Jesus. Mindfulness, after all, is the ability to dwell in the present moment, the only moment when life is possible. . . . Because we are aware of what is happening in the present moment, we can live in the present moment, free from regrets about the past or worries about the future.

First, Sister Annabel applies these lessons to daily life, learning to breathe, to walk, eat mindfully, and how we can bring this mindfulness to the experience of work, activism, suffering, death, and love. In the second part she outlines principles of double-belonging, showing how it is possible to be at home in more than one spiritual practice.

In 1988 Sister Annabel Laity became the first Westerner to be ordained as a monastic disciple in Thich Nhat Hanhs Vietnamese Zen lineage. She was given the Dharma name Chan Duc, which means True Virtue. Now a much-loved senior Dharma teacher in the Plum Village community, Sister Annabel teaches and leads retreats worldwide. She is the author of True Virtue: The Journey of an English Buddhist Nun (Parallax Press).