“Take my hand. We will walk. We will only walk.
We will enjoy our walk
without thinking of arriving anywhere."
– Thich Nhat Hanh

Mindfulness Community of Milwaukee

Engaged Buddhism Program


Thich Nhat Hahn, our root teacher, believes that Buddhism should encompass our everyday life, the people, and situations around us. To that end, we have created our Engaged Buddhism Program.

Our Vision

Sharing Our Practice &
Deepening Our Own Practice

Engaged Buddhism for our group should involve an aspect of our unique practices and should serve to deepen the practice of our members involved. Since mindfulness is core to our practice an engaged Buddhism project should involve bringing mindfulness to others and help our involved members deepen their own practice of mindfulness.

Our Mission

Mutual Benefits

Both our organization and any organization we engage with should clearly see the mutual benefit of the relationship. The Sangha should be invited to participate in a project in which both organizations feel we can bring a positive aspect to the interchange. Our purpose is not to make ourselves feel better about what we do but to bring positive change to a situation by doing what we do uniquely, with mindfulness and compassion.

Milwaukee Meditation Volunteers

The Milwaukee Meditation Volunteers is a small organization, now officially sponsored by the Mindfulness Community of Milwaukee, which spends an hour and a half on Saturday or Sunday evenings teaching the basics of shamatha meditation to the inmates at the Milwaukee Secure Detention Facility. MSDF is located in that newer high rise building right alongside I-43 just north of the county courthouse, and is mostly populated by folks sent there for just a few weeks or months on account of parole violations. Usually 2 or sometimes 3 of us go in together, about once a month for each of us, and meet with whoever is interested that day.

Training sessions for new volunteers are held about twice a year.
Current volunteers hail largely from the Mindfulness Center and Tender Shoot of Joy, but there are individuals from other lineages as well. For more information contact Susan Jost, susanhjost@gmail.com

Become a Part of Engaged Buddhism

If you or your organization are interested in becoming part of the Mindfulness Community of Milwaukee's Engaged Buddhism effort please contact Jim Barrett at jbarrett10@wi.rr.com. Please put “Engaged Buddhism” in the message subject line.


Comments on "Engaged Buddhism"

  1. Coffee Williams says:

    Engaged Buddhisim
    I am interested in learning more

    1. hines53201 says:

      Feel free to stop in at any of our groups at either of our centers.
      _()_

  2. Derrick says:

    I am interested in becoming a Buddhist because I know it saves so I will be in contact when I have 375 dollars for me and my fiance. Do you take paying installments?

    1. hines53201 says:

      You do not have to take the class or be a Buddhist to attend the Mindfulness Center. If you are familiar with meditation come to any of our groups. If you are not, find our introduction classes on the website. There is a monthly class that is offered on the 3rd Thursday of each month at our south side location. It is donation based or free if you need.

  3. David Van Sweden says:

    I am in need of a sangha and would like to become a part of The Engaged Buddhism program.

    1. hines53201 says:

      Join us. We’re not easy to find but we’re worth the search.

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Mindfulness Community of Milwaukee