TTT Spirit 3

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Newsletter by and for people of young spirit -practicing the way of love and understandingTTT Spirit #3January 2009

Finding Our True HomeMulti-Sharing: Where Is Your True Home?Open Letter to Young PeopleWhere Is Home?True Self and The Miracle That Is You

ThanhThy’s

Apple JuiceBaobabsBuddha’s Traffic SignsTo Kill or not to KillInterview with

SưCôTônNghiêm

VGiaGióXuânVomKräutersammeln/ About Collecting HerbsThe Birth of The BuddhaOur True HomeTingChimLíuLoDon’t Hurry!Living in The Present MomentThe Art of GivingYouth & ActionSupporting

Montagnard

ChildrenEuropean Buddhist YouthFor A Healthy & Compassionate SocietyThe Cave of The Yellow DogThe Rain Falls on The Just and UnjustVegetarian Vietnamese CookeryVegan Chocolate CakeSelf-Free Day

DHARMAMINDFULNESS TRAININGSCULTURESOCIALNEWS

Lnglòngnghetinggiquêhương Sôngnúitrongrañplthưng VtiquêxưatìmgccũQua ricuhiuticuthương Listen to the voice of your true homewith a calm mind The sea and mountains areextraordinarily beautiful Returning to your home, finding your ancient roots After having crossed the bridge of understanding, you will reach the bridge of love

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SưÔngThíchNhtHnh

– Listen to the voice of

TTT Spirit

with a calm mind…Please follow

Thy’s

advice and takethree wonderful mindful breaths with usto return to your true home. Then with acalm mind, take time to read thewonderful contributions from our brothers and sisters.We wish that you enjoy

TTT Spirit #3

and that you will be inspired to practice!

In gratitude to you all and with much love and affection,

Lun& Hân( your editors)

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PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

CONTENTS

ear Sangha

,

SANGHA ACTION

TTT SpiritJanuary 2009

Editorial

Install a Mindfulness Bell on your computer, which reminds you to go back to your home by going to:

www.mindfulnessdc.org/ mindfulclock.html

Dharma

TTT Spirit

Finding Our True Home

y True Home

My true home is not in Francewhere Plum Village practicecenter is located. My true home is not in theUnited States. Mytrue home cannot bedescribed in terms of geographic location or interms of culture. It is toosimplistic to say I amVietnamese. In termsof nationality andculture, I can see veryclearly a number of national and culturalelements in me -Indonesian, Malaysian,Mongolian, and others.There is no separatenationality calledVietnamese; theVietnamese culture ismade up of other cultu-ralelements. There areelements of Chinese,French, and Indianculture in me. Youcannot take these out of me. If you remove them, I will not be the person who is sitting here. In me there are alsocultural elements from Africa, and beautifulelements of Native American culture in me.For example, in my room I hang a dreamcatcher so I can contemplate my dreams justfor fun.I have a home that no one can take away, andI feel very comfortable in that home. In mytrue home there is no discrimination, nohatred, because I have the desire and thecapacity to embraceeveryone of every race,and I have the aspiration,the dream to love andhelp all peoples and allspecies. I do not feelanyone is my enemy.Even if they are pirates,terrorists, Communists,or anti-Communists, theyare not my enemies. Thatis why I feel verycomfortable.I heard the story of ayoung Japanese manwho went into a café.While he was drinkinghis coffee he heard twoyoung men talking inVietnamese and crying.The young Japaneseman asked them inEnglish: “Why are youcrying?”The Vietnamese men said: “Wecannot go back to our country, our homeland.The government there will not allow us to go back.”The Japanese man got upset and said:“This is not worth crying over. Even thoughyou are in exile and cannot go back to your

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1January 2009