After our annual 3-month Winter Retreat, Plum Village monks and nuns have an opportunity to spread the Dharma around the world. This year, we will have Winter Retreat earlier than usual, starting on September 14th . The monastics are heading out to lead retreats and mindfulness events in Europe, The USA, and Asia. We have offered retreats in Andorra, the Netherlands, Ireland, Germany, and France.
“The Path of Happiness, Hiking Retreat” in the USA has just started. Our aspiration is to create a mobile monastery and practice center, while connecting deeply to the healing energy of nature through our mindful steps. There will be a retreat in Sweden with the theme “Peace is Every Step”. Our Swedish monk, Brother Phap Ho will lead the retreat, along with the other monks and nuns from Plum Village. Thirteen monastics from Plum Village France, Hong Kong, and Thailand will go to lead the annual teaching tour to Japan. There will be a family retreat at the foot of Mount Fuji. There will also be screenings of Walk With Me in Tokyo, Kyoto, and Fukuoka, Mindfulness Hub in the heart of Tokyo, Day of Mindfulness for business people, educators, and healthcare professionals, Wake Up events and a three-day monastic retreat with Japanese monastics.
Two nuns will go to the Netherlands to lead the “Original Fear & Original Desire” Retreat. Some monastics and Wake Up practitioners will go to Palestine and Israel for “True Freedom, True Home Tour”, in order to create the right conditions for peace, joy and healing activities. Especially for the young, that feel isolated and often in despair. They will be there for 3 weeks offering a 5 Day Retreat, Days of Mindfulness, and informal visits to local groups. In Plum Village, we look forward to host Francophone and Italian Retreat.
In May, some monastics from Plum Village France will go to lead events in Indonesia, as well as some monastics from Plum Village Hong Kong and Thailand. They will be leading “Walk With Me Retreat” in West Java and Vesak Celebration in Jakarta. International practitioners are warmly invited to register for our events in Japan and Indonesia, as all the teachings will also be given in English.
The Upper Hamlet and Happy Farm are delighted to announce the first date for our twice annual “Happy Farm Experience Week”. These special weeks will offer you a unique experience combining a week retreat in Upper Hamlet with our community and a special hands on experience of helping us on our organic farm.
In June, some 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. We look forward to host our biennial 21 Day Retreat 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 the general public. In July, we will have a full four weeks of our International Summer Family Retreat.
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. At the same time, a large group of Plum Village monks and nuns will be in Germany leading German and Dutch retreats, and Day of Mindfulness in Vietnamese and English with translation into German at our European Institute of Applied Buddhism.
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