Learning to Love and Live
A conversation with the "Mimosa" family of novices on their aspirations to become a monastic, and the joys and pains of life in a monastery.
Blog
Interview with Sister Đào Nghiêm
Sister Đào Nghiêm recounts experiences of learning from Thich Nhat Hanh as a member of his monastic community.
Meeting My Master – an Interview with Sr Giac Nghiem
Sister Giac Nghiêm, is a much loved elder sister in Plum Village. Sister Giac Nghiêm is a French nun, she took her monastic vows at the age of 56 after having been married and working as a physiotherapist. In 1997, she joined the community of Plum Village as a...
Thầy breathes, you breathe
On the 11th of October, 2020, the sangha at Plum Village gathered to celebrate Thay’s continuation day in a spirit of peace and being together as big spiritual family. There were stories recounting beautiful memories with Thay, and how the practices of mindfulness are helping to transform people’s lives...
Bamboo Shoots and Tea
As monastics, being invited to drink tea or spend time with our teacher, (affectionately called Thay) are precious occasions. Two sisters, Sr Thuan Nghiem and Sr Thao Nghiem, share memories of what it was like to drink tea and travel with Thay and how they would like to be...
Thay's Poetry / New Hamlet
We would like to invite you to visit New Hamlet through this video, and enjoy an excerpt of the poem “New Hamlet”. Thay (Thich Nhat Hanh) wrote this poem to the workers of the School of Youth for Social Service during Vietnam War at 1960s. He inspired his students...
Songs , Thay's Poetry / “The Story of a River” – A Music Meditation with Plum Village monastics
The monks and nuns in Plum Village, France recently offered a special evening of music meditation to celebrate the end of the Summer season of online retreats. The music was interspersed with a reading of “The Story of a River”, a text from Thich Nhat Hanh. Please make some...
Thay's Poetry / For Warmth and In My Two Hands
This healing poem “For Warmth” was written by Thich Nhat Hanh during the Vietnam war. He said, this was written after he heard about the bombing of Ben Tre and the comment made by an American military man, “We had to destroy the town in order to save it.”...
Thay's Poetry / Recommendation & Alone Again (poem & song)
This poem was written by Thich Nhat Hanh during the Vietnam war. His life and the lives of his students were at risk on a daily basis. Yet this poem encourages insight, compassion and forgiveness. We also offer a recording of the song based on the poem.
Taking Care of Earth, Nourishing our Love
How to be with the difficulty that comes from Earth changes, to stay strong, and to be a resource for self, family and community.
Who Is The Boss?
The way of the compassionate leader. Concrete practices to heal our relationships, and overcome stress in the business world.
Life is a Poem
A poem by Sr Chan Hoi Nghiem, abbess of Lower Hamlet, Plum Village, about the beauty, depth and interconnectedness available in the present moment.
Preparing to walk the path of simplicity
Read about our aspirants who, on the 25th of October, will receive the ten novice precepts becoming part of the Plum Village monastic community.
Armfuls of Poetry, Drops of Sunshine – a poem of Thich Nhat Hanh
Sunshine rides on space and poetry on sunshine. Poetry gives birth to sunshine, and sunshine to poetry.
Happy Farmers report on their crop of joyful giving
Happy farmers share about their crops from the large organic vegetable harvest to the joy and happiness gained from living and practising in harmony with each other as well as with Mother Earth. They share about how they are able to realize and share with others about the practices...
Froglessness – poem by Thich Nhat Hanh
The first fruition of the practice is the attainment of froglessness.
Walking Meditation – poem by Thich Nhat Hanh
Take my hand. We will walk. We will only walk. We will enjoy our walk without thinking of arriving anywhere.
Stepping into Freedom
On the 14th of December, 2017, nine young men and women will be ordained into the Plum Village Monastic family. For the very first time they will discover the reality of monastic life. As soon as the ordination date was confirmed, the web team gathered with the aspirants at...
Dogwood Tree Family Ordains in Mississippi
The Plum Village monastic community grew by three on October 20th. The Dogwood Tree ordination family consists of Sr. Trang Quang Son (27), Sr. Trang Kim Son (24) and Br. Troi Minh Dung (23). They were ordained during the North America Tour Monastic Retreat in Magnolia Grove Monastery in...
Relax, Let Go
Dear friends, I wrote this poem in veneration of Thich Nhat Hanh, whose inspirational writing and poetry has helped me live more peacefully with mental health issues. I am very new to Buddhism, but I feel a deep connection. I hope this poem conveys the peace and calm within...
Upgrading the Mindfulness Bell
Oct.15th, 2014 Bodh Gaya, India Dear Thầy, Dear Sangha of the Order of Interbeing, I write on behalf of our little magazine, the Mindfulness Bell, one of the communication channels for our Plum Village community throughout the world. At present, I am in India traveling with a beautiful Fourfold...
Becoming Buddha’s Disciple
We invite you to read this beautiful article by Sr Linh Di (Emyo Wang), our newest Australian monastic, who was ordained by Thay at Plum Village this Summer, together with her brothers and sisters in the Oriental Cypress Ordination Family. Dear ones, I will be asked to release personal email,...
A Million Buddhas-to-be
Don’t worry if you feel you can only do one tiny good thing in one small corner of the cosmos. Just be a Buddha body in that one place. This week Thay’s community of followers on Facebook reached ONE MILLION. To celebrate, we invited people to share how they are...
Much Love and Gratitude
Dear friends, The Happy Farm team would like to offer a warm thanks to everyone who supported our fundraising campaign. The campaign was a huge success and we raised a lot more money than we expected. This means we can do some wonderful work to establish the Happy Farm...
No Coming, No Going: Thay’s 2014 Spain Tour concludes
Thay’s first major Spain Tour concluded last Sunday afternoon May 11th, with the powerful collective energy of thousands meditating under Barcelona’s Arc de Triomf, Passeig Lluís Companys. An estimated 5,000 people participated in Sunday’s collective sitting meditation in the bright spring sunshine. Some of them had been waiting at the spot...
I Don’t Run Away Anymore
Thay recently received this beautiful and moving letter from one of his students (a lay man) in Ireland. With permission from the author, Thay asked us to type it up and post it online for the whole community to read. We have transcribed it from the original handwritten letter,...
Interbeing, Service, and Our Little Wars
By: Ray Hemachandra In September I drove to Magnolia Grove Monastery in Batesville, Mississippi, to spend a day at a retreat with Thich Nhat Hanh and Zen Buddhist monks and nuns both from this monastery and mindfulness meditation practice center and from Plum Village in France. In many ways...
And a Mindful New Year
By Jessica Ardis If you had told the sixteen-year old version of myself that I would chose to spend New Year’s Eve sitting in silence with nuns, I would have asked what you were smoking. The nuns I had encountered in twelve years of Catholic school were mostly a...
Plum Village Practice in Vietnam – some background
Ven. Thich Nhat Hanh’s return from exile Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh returned to Vietnam in 2005, after nearly 40 years of exile for having called for an end to the Vietnam War. His return attracted tens of thousands of people to his talks and retreats. His accessible teachings...
Learning to let go
Dear friends of the four fold Sangha, A deep bow to you all from Lower Hamlet, Plum Village. Here we have just started the first week of our Autumn retreat, the golden poplar leaves are floating down in the gusts of wind, rain is finally falling on our summer...