About LAMC
Our Weekly Practice Information

The Lansing Area Mindfulness Community practices without a dharma teacher. As a community of practitioners, we support each other in living mindfully in attunement with the Eightfold Path and the Five Mindfulness Trainings. We study and learn together and laugh as much as possible. So in our case "the sangha is the teacher."

We welcome you to join us on Wednesdays, 7 - 9 pm, at Van Hanh Temple, 3015 S. Washington (near Dunlap, just south of Ingham Regional Medical Center) in Lansing.

You can enter through the back patio, which is accessible from the parking lot. The door to the temple is to your left; the other leads to the nun's house.

We have 15 minutes of walking meditation, followed by 30 minutes of sitting meditation, then share readings and experiences about the practice during dharma discussion.  

The door is open!
 
Experiencing Mindfulness Print E-mail
Written by Brad Miller   
Monday, 09 March 2009 10:08

In September 2008, I was introduced to a mindfulness practice brought to the West by Vietnamese Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh. At a three-day Zen retreat at Song of the Morning in Vanderbilt, sponsored by the Port Huron Mindfulness Community, I experienced a life-changing weekend of silence, mindfulness, discussions and relaxation. Before that, my only understanding of Buddhism had come from Fellowship School of Ministry classes and from books (some written by Thich Nhat Hanh).
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An Explanation of LAMC for Non-Buddhists Print E-mail
Written by Robert Mosher   
Thursday, 12 March 2009 07:24

We meet together to learn how to use meditation to calm our inner thoughts and actions. We learn from each other how to live calmly in a world of stress, selfishness, and worry. Learning to help ourselves, frees us to better use our own religious and non-religious beliefs in helping others.

We read small sections from the writings of Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese Buddhist Monk. He focuses on controlling your breath to help control runaway thoughts and actions. Thich Nhat Hanh encourages people to become deeper in their own faith, as do we.

Buddha himself did not claim to be divine or supernatural. Buddhism is made up of many non-Buddhist elements, thoughts, teachings, and practices. Our meditation group, or Sangha in Buddhist terms, is made up of Buddhist, Christian, Jewish, and non-believers. We do not all practice the same, anyone who joins us is free to and encouraged to practices within the teachings of their faith.

We meet in a beautiful Vietnamese Buddhist Temple, there are many statues, bells, and drums. For us, these statues are just reminders of the earthly people and the ideas they represent.

If you join us in meditation, we ask that you only do those things you are comfortable with. Please question us on what you do not understand or things that may upset you.

In General:
Christians
Muslims
Jewish
Yoga
Hindu
Atheist
Heavy Metal

The different author's and contributors of written works by others, do not claim to be experts in anything. Nor do we claim any special knowledge or authority. The above comes from our personal experience, practice, and the heart.