Articles

We write to share a happiness that next year 2018, Plum Village will be hosting our bi-annual 21 Day Retreat once again from June 1st to June 22nd. It is a retreat focused for experienced Buddhist practitioners, especially from our Order of Interbeing community, but is also open to...

Sister Chân Mai Nghiêm Mother, hear our call, Here we stand. No matter where we stand, We are your children. And we stand for the Truth of our Oneness. Drawing by Sister Chân Hài Nghiêm May we stand in the steadiness of your Love To protect you, Mother, On...

Br. Chân Trời Phạm Hạnh I still remember vividly my community as a young boy. We had to go up the stairs and into a big hall with stained glass windows. It was full of older and younger brothers and sisters, or uncles and aunts, as we called them...

Br. Chân Trời Nguyện Lực “The mind can go in a thousand directions, but on this beautiful path, I walk in peace. With each step, a gentle breeze blows. 
With each step, a flower blooms.”  Alms round is a beautiful practice that I like very much. Of all Plum...

Br. Chân Trời Đức An Dear respected Thay, dear sisters & brothers, dear friends, My name is Chan Troi Duc An. I am a baby novice monk in the Plum Tree family. We ordained on December 14th in France, and some on the 15th in Thailand. I was born...

“Every morning in winter when I wake up, I put on some warm clothes and go out to take a walk around the Upper Hamlet. It is usually still dark outside, and I walk gently, in touch with the nature all around me, the sky, the moon, and the...

Thầy has arrived in Thailand. That in itself brought quite a shock for countless people. What needed to be done was realized quickly. I could feel each brother and sister’s heart in anticipation of seeing Thầy. Hearing that Thầy would come, Venerable Giác Viên, currently receiving treatment in Vietnam,...

We have many funny stories during the time of attending Thầy. Once, while aiding Thầy to walk, after a few steps he pointed to his feet. My brother and I were dumbfounded to see that we had put the right shoe on Thầy’s left foot and vice versa.

“What event in this year was the most meaningful for me?” If you had asked me this question, without hesitation I would have replied that it was the opportunity to attend Thầy. In this process I have found myself and I have also found you.

Plum Village community celebrated Vesak on 7th May in the New Hamlet, with over 400 monks, nuns, and lay friends, including the French sangha, and the members of the Order of Interbeing in France. Vesak commemorates the birth, enlightenment, and passing away (parinirvana) of Shakyamuni Buddha. In the morning,...

Ordained in 2002 aged 14, brother Phap Huu became vice abbot of Plum Village’s Upper Hamlet in 2008 and abbot in 2011. Throughout much of his monastic life he has served as Thay’s attendant whenever Thay travels. I spoke with Br. Phap Huu after he returned from SXSW film...

Sr. Chân Hội Nghiêm     A few years ago, our former Abbess of the Dharma Nectar Temple, Lower Hamlet wished to rest and to find someone to continue her work. She asked me, but I did not accept. Anything but to shoulder this responsibility. I did not want...

Sr. Chân Diệu Nghiêm (Sr. Jina) I would like to share an experience I’ve had in a Winter Retreat that has inspired me until today. This was in the early times of Plum Village, maybe in Winter 1991. Thay used to teach in the dining hall in the Lower...

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 late March 2017, two senior Dharma teachers, Sr. Bi Nghiem from the EIAB, and Sr. Dao Nghiem from Plum Village, travelled to Israel to support two retreats: one three days retreat in Ramallah near Jerusalem, in the North of Palestine, in the Occupied Territory, and another five days...

Over 700 retreatants from all over France, as well as Switzerland, Belgium, Quebec, joined the Plum Village community for our annual Francophone Retreat from April 10-17. During this Easter week we enjoyed a full week of mindfulness practice, deep sharings, meditations, teachings and relaxation, all in French. The whole community...

“It is much easier to practice to generate joy and happiness in the spring time”, shared Sister Thuan Khanh in her Spring Retreat Dharma Talk a few weeks ago. It is true: the beauty of the flowers and the warmth of the sunshine touch our hearts and gladden our...

Last month, seven Plum Village monastics supported the launch of the world premiere of “Walk With Me“, the new documentary on Thich Nhat Hanh’s community, at SXSW film festival in Austin, Texas. From 11-15th March, they held a series of mindfulness and meditation sessions for festival-goers, including mindful walking, sunset meditation, and a...

As Plum Village enters the fourth week of our three month Winter Retreat, the days are getting shorter, the air fresher, and the energy of peace, stability, harmony, and togetherness deepening day by day. Elder Dharma Teachers have been offering inspiring talks, exploring the Noble Eightfold Path on the...

On the morning of Tuesday 15th November, Thich Nhat Hanh joined the fourfold community of Plum Village for a very special opening of our annual 90-day Winter Retreat. After missing two years of Winter Retreat in a row, the sangha is delighted that Thay’s health is now strong enough for...

Dear Beloved Community, On 25th September, our Deer Park Monastery in California held a memorial service to remember and celebrate the life of our dearly beloved Brother Phap De (“Young Brother”), who passed away peacefully on August 4, 2016, at the age of 81. Brother Phap De had been...

What is The Happy Farm – Lower Hamlet? The Happy Farm Lower Hamlet is a small organic vegetable farm located on the sister’s ground in Plum village. It brings together farming and the mindfulness practice of Plum Village. In 2012 the first Happy Farm was founded in Upper Hamlet....

What is The Happy Farm? The Happy Farm is a small organic vegetable farm located within the Upper Hamlet of Plum Village. We have around 1 acre of land in cultivation, comprising 50 beds which are 35m long and 1.2m wide. In addition we have a large polytunnel with...