COVID-19 Alert! Weekly meetings will be held online via Zoom until further notice. Register in advance for this meeting:
You are invited to join the Heartland Community of Mindful Living (HCML) for evenings of mindfulness Mondays* from 7:00 – 9:00 pm at Unity Temple on the Plaza’s Temple Buddhist Center, 707 W 47th Street, Kansas City, MO in Myrtle Fillmore Chapel. Our gatherings are open to the public. A love offering is invited, but not required. Parking is available in the 47th Street garage west of the Temple.
All are welcome, including those who can only stay for the meditation period ending at 7:45 pm.
Evening programs vary from week to week:
First Monday: The Five Mindfulness Trainings Recitation Ceremony. All are welcome to enjoy this ritual affirming our practice of mindfulness.
Second Monday: Dharma talk: a video or audio presentation by Thích Nhât Hanh on even numbered months or a talk by our Dharma teacher aspirant Bethany Klug on odd number months.
Third Monday: An evening of sitting, walking and guided meditation.
Fourth Monday:A reading from one of Thích Nhât Hanh’s many publications.
Fifth Monday: Watch our announcements for details.
*We will not meet on: New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King Day, Independence Day, Memorial Day, Labor Day and Christmas Day.
The HCML brought mindfulness practice in the Plum Village Tradition of Thích Nhât Hanh to Kansas City in 1997, making it one of the longest standing meditation communities in the area. Our founder Bethany Klug spent ten days in Plum Village in the summer of 1996. She says “It was the first time I experienced people intending to be happy.” Profoundly moved by this experience, upon her return she began offering monthly presentations sharing Plum Village Practice at Unity Temple on the Plaza’s American Buddhist Center. In September 1997, HCML formed and has met weekly ever since. We have offered days of mindfulness, residential and non-residential mindfulness retreats nearly every year. We played a key role in the founding of the Honey Locust Sangha in Omaha, NE, Deep Listening Sangha in Lawrence, KS and Peaceful Heart Sangha in Topeka, KS. We are delighted to ally with our nearby Sanghas to form the Plum Village Sanghas of the Central Plains, continuing the Plum Village Tradition of Thích Nhât Hanh in our region.
HCML founder and Order of Interbeing member Bethany Klug serves as Practicekeeper.
Members of our caretaking council provide spiritual leadership and govern the Sangha by consensus, as established in our bylaws.
Some resources on consensus that guide us can be found on the Practice Resources page.
Here are some things we hear about HCML
“A teacher can be important, and also the teachings, but friends are the most essential element to the practice. It is difficult if not impossible to practice without the Sangha” – Thích Nhât Hanh