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Family Sangha & Beginning Anew: Living the First Eight Mindful Breaths
In Plum Village a practice community is organized as a caring family: every day brothers and sisters eat breakfast and lunch together, walk and sit in meditation as one “river,” and meet in mentor–mentee groups (each big brother or big sister guides five to nine younger siblings for an hour-and-a-half weekly). Hierarchy is loving and supportive—sư cha/mẹ (teacher parents), sư anh/chị (elder siblings)—so that everyone can share difficulties and receive guidance in a circle of true Sangha.
Each week the Sangha practices Beginning Anew in three steps:
- Watering the flowers—expressing gratitude and happiness
- Apologizing for unskillful words or deeds
- Sharing hurts and listening deeply to transform suffering
Families at home are invited to adopt these practices: gather for mindful breathing and smiling via three bell invitations each morning, create a “breathing room” for peaceful pause, eat together, sit once a week to listen and speak with loving speech, and learn deep listening—to restore mutual understanding and joy.
Thay also reviews the first eight exercises of mindful breathing:
• 1–2: Recognize each in-breath and out-breath
• 3–4: Become aware of the body as a whole, allow it to relax and smile to each part
• 5–6: Nourish joy and happiness when suffering is dormant
• 7–8: Notice painful feelings, embrace them with mindfulness to bring relief
These practices build the seed of mindfulness so we can welcome suffering without fear, transform it, and draw on the collective energy of the Sangha to float rather than sink in the river of life.
