Lansing Area Mindfulness Community

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Lansing Area Mindfulness Community

WEEKLY PRACTICE:
Wednesdays, 7 - 9 pm. Van Hanh Temple ~ Currently in Person and on Zoom.
3015 S MLK We became the Lansing Area Mindfulness Community.

The Lansing Area Mindfulness Community is a sangha of lay practitioners of diverse backgrounds who study the Dharma and practice meditation in the Zen Buddhist tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh. All are welcome!

**Due to allergic reactions and sensitivities to fragrance, Sangha "offers" but no longer burns incense as part our opening meditation. However, incense continues to be used in the Temple at other times, so the fragrance still remains. Please keep this in mind if you plan to attend.**

WEEKLY PRACTICE: www.lamc.info/weeklypractice
FOR NEWCOMERS: www.lamc.info/2015/11/17/for-newcomers-an-explanation-of-our-practice/
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WEBSITE: www.lamc.info
EMAIL: info@lamc.info

MAILING LIST: lamc.info/mailing-list/
As of October 2017, LAMC is in the process of restructuring our mailing list as our former platform (Wiggio) has been disabled. To be added to the REGIONAL mailing list + receive special event announcements, please send an email with "Subscribe to Regional List" in the subject line to: info@lamc.info.

{updated 2 October 2017}
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A BRIEF HISTORY OF LANSING AREA MINDFULNESS COMMUNITY
~ prepared by Carolyn White - "True Land of Purity" ~

When you take the Five Mindfulness Trainings (5 Precepts) with the Vietnamese Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh, he asks you not to practice alone but to find a community (a sangha) of like-minded people to support you in your meditation. In 1997 I took the trainings and began looking for people to practice with me. Since I wasn't adept at sitting meditation, I looked for someone who was. I looked for two years and others joined me in that search, until finally six of us looked at each other and realized we were a sangha, although most of us were new to the practice of mindfulness. In 1999 we began weekly sitting and walking meditation at the Bishop Road Mindfulness Center belonging to the Vietnamese-American Buddhist Association of Lansing (V.A.B.A.L.). The caretaker lived in the house; the temple was in the garage, which could be very cold. So, unlike most Buddhist groups, we practiced walking meditation first so we could warm up before we sat for thirty minutes on the concrete floor. We loved our temple and the Vietnamese community that supported us, even though their Buddhist practice differed from ours. On the first Saturday of every November we brought dharma teacher Jack Lawlor, of Lakeside Buddha Sangha (www.lakesidebuddha.org/) in Illinois, to lead us in a full Day of Mindfulness. When, in 2004, the Vietnamese community moved to South Washington Avenue, we did, too. We practice well. Every Wednesday from 7-9 PM we do sitting and walking meditation and hold a dharma discussion, finding skillful ways to incorporate mindfulness into our daily lives. We read not only the works of our root teacher, Thich Nhat Hanh, but other great masters: The Dalai Lama, Pema Chodron, Ayya Khema, Lama
Zopa, Ajahn Chah, Ajahn Brahm, Tara Brach, Eckhart Tolle, and so many more. We study the sutras. And we listen deeply to each other to be more compassionate and fully awake for our lives. Sangha thrives beyond the weekly practice in the temple, supporting its dharma sisters and brothers, in celebration and sorrow, through times of great change. Come and join us!

03/16/2026

7-9 PM, 18 MAR 2026

Meditation & Discussion of the Three Refuges. The Dharma, The Sangha, and The Buddha.

03/09/2026

7-9 PM, 11MAR 2025
3015 S MLK BLD, Lansing MI

Good morning, everyone!

This Wednesday evening we'll read and discuss the Metta sutta and some versions of loving-kindness ("metta") chants for meditation practice.

Here is TNH's translation of the Metta sutta:

Discourse on Love | Plum Village

If you scroll down, you'll find another translation, one of my favorites (there are a few dozen translations out there).

I will bring some hard copies with me on Wed too so we can read together. I look forward to our discussion!

Warmly,

Elizabeth

Karaniya Metta Sutta: The Buddha's Words on Loving-Kindness

This is what should be done
By one who is skilled in goodness,
And who knows the path of peace:
Let them be able and upright,
Straightforward and gentle in speech,
Humble and not conceited,
Contented and easily satisfied,
Unburdened with duties and frugal in their ways.
Peaceful and calm and wise and skillful,
Not proud or demanding in nature.
Let them not do the slightest thing
That the wise would later reprove.

Wishing: In gladness and in safety,
May all beings be at ease.
Whatever living beings there may be;
Whether they are weak or strong, omitting none,
The great or the mighty, medium, short or small,
The seen and the unseen,
Those living near and far away,
Those born and to-be-born —
May all beings be at ease!
Let none deceive another,
Or despise any being in any state.
Let none through anger or ill-will
Wish harm upon another.

Even as a mother protects with her life
Her child, her only child,
So with a boundless heart
Should one cherish all living beings;
Radiating kindness over the entire world:
Spreading upwards to the skies,
And downwards to the depths;
Outwards and unbounded,
Freed from hatred and ill-will.
Whether standing or walking, seated or lying down
Free from drowsiness,
One should sustain this recollection.
This is said to be the sublime abiding.

By not holding to fixed views,
The pure-hearted one, having clarity of vision,
Being freed from all sense desires,
Is not born again into this world.

translated from the Pali by
The Amaravati Sangha, Thai Forest Monastery, Britain

03/03/2026

Meditation & Poetry Reading

7-9 PM Wednesday 04FEB2026

Poetry readings

03/01/2026

Today the service was a prayer for peace, then we turned around and prayed for the deceased.

02/26/2026

Some places our food can come from

02/18/2026

https://plumvillage.org/articles/solid-as-a-mountain-parallel-verses-for-the-year-of-the-horse

Plum Village offers these parallel verses to mark Tết, the Lunar New Year 2026.

02/17/2026

We practice in the tradition of Tich Nhat Hanh and Plum Village. They provide many resources for free.

A global community of mindfulness practice centers and monasteries offering retreats and teachings on engaged Buddhism and the art of mindful living.

02/16/2026

7-9 PM Wednesday 18 FEB 2026
3015 S MLK DR, Lansing, MI

Asking the Bells to sound .

02/15/2026

Luner New Year’s Eve is Monday night. Making Moon Cakes for the celebration!

02/06/2026

Dear Friends:

This next Wednesday, we will be reading together and sharing observations on the foundational practice which leads to the perfection of Mindfulness: The Anapanasatti Sutra (The Sutra on the Full Awareness of Breathing).

This Sutra (teaching of the Buddha) assists us in harmonizing our breathing with the Four Establishments of Mindfulness - body, feelings, mind and the objects of mind.

Further, when these Four Establishments of Mindfulness are attained, according to the Buddha, we attain the Seven Factors of Awakening: Mindfulness, Investigating Dharmas, Energy, Joy, Ease, Concentration, and Letting Go.

Please join us on Wednesday, February 11, to read through this practice and share observations.

Source: https://plumvillage.org/library/sutras/discourse-on-the-full-awareness-of-breathing

*I will have copies of this for those who attend in-person. Zoomers please access the link above.

In the dharma, Susan

I heard these words of the Buddha one time when he was staying in Savatthi in the Eastern Park, with many well-known and accomplished disciples, including Sariputta, Mahamoggallana, Mahakassapa…

Address

3015 S. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard
Lansing, MI
48910

Opening Hours

7pm - 9pm

Website

http://www.lamc.info/

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