Present Moment Wonderful Moment: Mindfulness Verses for Daily Living

Last month I attended a women's retreat. At the retreat center, they had these little cards up all over the building with these great little meditations on daily living. All day, the meditations prompted me to pause and reflect as I washed my hands or looked in the mirror or took a step outside the front door. I loved the feeling of calm they facilitated.

My friend and I asked the women in charge of the retreat center where the cards were from, and they said they were Thich Nhat Hanh meditations, but the cards were out of print. Through the magic of the internet, I found out the meditations were from Present Moment Wonderful Moment and managed to find two sets of the cards and a copy of the book. I gifted one set of the cards to my show more friend and kept the other set intending to put them up around my house. But when my eight-year-old daughter saw the book, she independently suggested that we make pretty, hand-written cards to put up around the house. So we did.

One afternoon, we used a paper cutter and some pretty card stock my daughter got as a gift a couple of years ago and made eight cards, four for her and four for me, to put up around the house. We each have the Waking Up meditation by our beds, and I have the Ending Your Day one by my bed, as well. She has the Opening the Window on her bedroom window, the blinds of which she opens every morning first thing so she can look outside and read her meditation. We also have the Washing Your Hands, Looking in the Mirror, and Brushing Your Teeth meditations on our bathroom mirrors. We are enjoying them so much, we plan to make more. (See my blog for a photo of two of the cards we made.)

This is a gem of a book, and I love how it's brought these little moments of mindfulness to our days. I don't know if it's directly attributable to the book, but since we put up the meditations, my daughter has been joining me for a short sitting meditation every morning. It's such a lovely way to start our day! (And our cat Owen must think so, too. Every morning he climbs into my daughter's lap and offers her a purring meditation.)

The only thing missing from this book is a meditation for when my kids are squabbling over something that seems incredibly tiny to me. show less

An inspiring handbook of mindful verses with commentaries by Thich Nhat Hanh. Reciting these poetic yet practical verses can help us slow down and enjoy each moment of our lives.

Present Moment Wonderful Moment is an inspiring handbook of gathas, or 'mindfulness verses,' with commentaries by Thich Nhat Hanh. Reciting these poetic yet practical verses can help us slow down and enjoy each moment of our lives.

Thich Nhat Hanh is a Vietnamese Buddhist monk. His lifelong efforts to generate peace and reconciliation moved Martin Luthr King, Jr. to nominate him for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1967. Since 1982, he has traveled bi-annually to North America to lecture and lead retreats on mindful living. He lives in southern France, where he teaches, writes, and gardens. He is the author of Being Peace, The Sun My Heart, and many other books.

'Thich Nhat Hanh is a person whose very presence brings peace wherever he is. His show more writing is simple and clear...for everyone.'-Fellowship Magazine

Contents

Verses for starting the day
1. Waking up
2. Taking the first step of the day
3. Opening the window
4. Looking in the mirror
5. Using the toilet
6. Turning on the water
7. Wasing your hands
8. Brushing your teeth
9. Bathing
10. Looking at your hand
11. Washing your feet
12. Getting dressed
Verses for meditation
13. Inviting the bell to sound
14. Hearing the bell
15. Entering the meditation room
16. Sitting down
17. Lighting a candle
18. Offerning incense
19. Praising buddha
20. Finding a stable sitting position
21. Adjusting meditation posture
22. Opening the sutra
23. Closing the sutra
24. Following the breath
25. Hugging meditation
26. Greeting someone
27. Cleaning the meditation room
28. Sweeping
29. Cleaning the bathroom
Verses for eating mindfully
30. Looking at your empty plate
31. Serving food
32. Contemplating your food
33. Beginning to eat
34. Finishing your meal
35. Washing the dishes
36. Drinking tea
Verses for other daily activities
37. Wallking medit6ation
38. Gardening
39. Planting trees or other plants
40. Watering the garden
41. Cutting a flower
42. Arranging flowers
43. Washing vegetables
44. Throwing out the garbage
45. Smiling at your anger
46. Using the telephone
48. Driving the car
49. Turning on the light show less

Short verses to be recited as aids to mindfulness in everyday life. Some are traditional, others composed or adapted by Thich Nhat Hanh.Includes 49 verses with commentaries. Ilustrated by the contemporary Buddhist artist Mayumi Oda.

Everyone must read...!!!

From the Publisher:

Developed during a summer retreat in Plum Village, Thich Nhat Hanh's meditation center in France, these poetic verses were collected to help children and adults practice mindfulness. The result is a handbook of practical, yet down-to-earth verses. These gathas, or mindfulness verses, poetic verse designed to use ordinary daily activities such as washing the dishes, driving the car, or standing in line, as an opportunity to return to a state of mindfulness.

Reciting these poetic, yet practical verses can help us to slow down and enjoy each moment of our lives.

When we focus our mind on a gatha, we return to ourselves and become more aware of each action. When the gatha ends, we continue our activity with heightened show more awareness. As exercises in both mediation and poetry, gathas are very much in keeping with the Zen tradition. When you memorize a gatha, it will come to you quite naturally, for example, when you turn on the water or drink a cup of tea. show less

-wisdom filled -breathe in -breathe out