After our annual 3-month Winter Retreat, Plum Village monks and nuns have an opportunity to share the teachings and the fruits of our practice. Every week in Plum Village we are welcoming over 150 lay practitioners, and the monastics are also heading out to lead retreats and mindfulness events in Europe and Asia. We have offered a Mindfulness Mountain Ski Retreat in Andorra, two retreats in Israel and the Palestinian territories, and a Wake Up Retreat and a special Educators Training Program at our European Institute of Applied Buddhism in Germany.
Last week eight monastics set out to Italy to offer retreats and public talks, and another four left for Ireland. Last week, Brother Phap Lai offered a Dharma talk for the Northern Ireland Assembly. Three sisters left Plum Village France for Japan where, together with monastics from Plum Village Hong Kong they will be leading retreats, public talks, workshops for businesses and other special events with young people.
This week, six Dutch brothers and sisters set out to the Netherlands for a month-long term, which will include a series of workshops in universities. Another nine monastics left Plum Village for Spain, where they will lead events in Madrid, Valencia, and Catalonia.
In May, four monastics from Plum Village France will go to lead events in Indonesia, as well as nine monastics from Plum Village Hong Kong and Thailand. They will be leading retreats in Jakarta and Medan, Peace Walk and Vesak Celebration. Young people in Asia are invited to join our International Wake Up Retreat in Thai Plum Village. In June, seven monastics will go to Ardeche in France to lead a youth retreat, as part of the growing Dharma Mountain project to establish a residential practice center in the Plum Village tradition in the Cevennes.
International practitioners are warmly invited to register for our events in Japan, Indonesia and Thailand, as all the teachings will also be given in English.
This May, we look forward to hosting an International Business Retreat on the theme “Mindful & Compassionate Leadership”. At the same time the New Hamlet will be hosting the second Mindful Cooking Retreat, where we can learn how to cook vegan cuisine mindfully, joyfully, and creatively. In July, we will have a full four weeks of our International Summer Family Retreat, which is already nearly fully booked.
In August, the Upper Hamlet will be hosting Wake Up Earth Retreat, building on the success of last year’s retreat, for over 450 young people. The New Hamlet will be hosting Mindful Health & Wellness Retreat, while a large group of Plum Village monks and nuns will be in Germany leading German and Dutch retreats at our European Institute of Applied Buddhism.
Join the conversation