On the Lunar New Year Day, Plum Village community in France gathered in Upper Hamlet to express our gratitude to Thầy and all our ancestral teachers.
Dear Respected Thầy, dear Noble Sangha,
Today we your students, monastic and lay, have gathered on the first day of the Lunar New Year to celebrate our togetherness and to express our gratitude to you and all our ancestral teachers. We are happy that you are being embraced by the fourfold community there in Plum Village Thailand. As we breathe mindfully, we also know that you are here with us as well. What else can we say to you that we haven’t already said? You have compassionately transmitted everything to us – your heart, your steps and most important, your path of practice. What more can we ask of our Teacher?
We your spiritual children have truly arrived and are truly at home in this precious moment. We are blessed to belong to such a diverse and rich spiritual family, coming from so many countries, cultures, and backgrounds. Through your wisdom and compassion, we have tasted the happiness and peace of the dharma and have been embraced by the love and guidance of the Sangha. We have a Path. We have a Community. We know how to value this moment – therefore the future is possible.
Thank you, Thầy, for keeping the fire alive and transmitting it through generations. We are determined to practice to keep this Bodhi-heart – this mind of love, of awakening – alive in ourselves so as to be worthy of your trust. The ancient Sangha forest continues to thrive – each season, new, fresh leaves sprout to provide cool shade and protection for all those in need. People, everywhere – young and old, from all walks of life – have found shelter in this sacred forest, have found their True Home, and have found the way of practice.
On this occasion of the Lunar New Year of the Dog, we wholeheartedly vow to follow Thầy’s footsteps, to continue building the Sangha as he did, and to live our life as he did: courageously, deeply and with compassion.
In gratitude, we humbly touch the Earth before Thầy and all our Ancestral Teachers.
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