Journals, 1962-1966
Thich Nhat Hanh teaches that if we are to sustain ourselves while taking action to relieve suffering in the world, we need to come together in community, close to nature. Plum Village in France was a natural continuation of “Fragrant Palm Leaves” (Phương Bối) a spiritual community he and his friends created in the central highlands of Vietnam in the 1950s. His passionate memoirs of the idealism and freedom of Phương Bối (published in Vietnamese in 1967 with the title “Nẻo Về Của Ý”, and in English in 1969, and again in 1998), have inspired generations of young people to create “communities of resistance” with like-minded friends to be the change we want to see in the world.