Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

The course content will be available for 12 months after the course ends.

You can find the course syllabus here.

The course and its dedicated platform were newly developed in 2023. To deliver a seamless experience, we integrate a variety of external services and software into the course platform. The world of technology changes fast, and we can’t be sure how these external services might evolve. This makes it difficult for us to guarantee lifetime access at this point. However, we can guarantee that the course content and its platform will be available for 12 months after the course has ended.

All live events with monastics are recorded and will be made available within 24 hours after the live session on the platform. You will find it under Latest Updates.

At the moment, the course is available in English only. While we try to make the course accessible to everyone, as a small team we have not yet had the resources to have the content translated. We are aware of the need for different languages and are committed to making translations available in the future.

No, currently we do not have transcripts available for each video.

You can download the audio meditations and deep relaxations. However, for video talks and practices, we do not provide the possibility for audio downloads.

Please support us by not sharing course talks or content in public or at sangha screenings. We wish to keep the course experience and imagery for those joining us within the course and retain the wonder and unique quality of the course experience. This enables us to present each talk in a complete and appropriate context, which is part of what makes the teachings so powerful.

However, we do encourage you to share your own direct personal experience of the course with others, including your sangha— any insights, connections or transformations that have touched you— in order to nourish your Dharma friends and invite them to consider joining this learning journey. (We will be running the course again in the future.) 

Yearlong Access: We know that for many people who are taking the course it is not possible to go through all the course content for each week. Therefore we ensure that all the course content is available for at least a year so that people can go through the videos at their own pace, with plenty of time to revisit certain teachings when they need to. 

Prioritize Live Opportunities to Connect: For those short of time, we’d especially encourage you to join live events and sharing group sessions – neither of which require that you have completed a certain amount of course content. These Live Sessions give you the chance to connect with course teachers and other participants in the learning community, and can be very motivating and supportive for your learning journey. 

Core content: As you go through the course content, you can see that some of the titles on the left hand side of the screen have a small box around them (for example, ‘This Is It’ and ‘Relax Your Mind’ under 1.1. Embodied Climate Action). These are the teachings we consider most essential if you would prefer to go through less course content each week to avoid feeling ‘behind’. 

Follow Your Own Pace: Each person will have their own experience of the course and we hope to accommodate for a wide range of people’s availability and preferred paces. We accept that the pace may not be ideal for some of our participants. We invite you to go through the course with mindfulness allowing yourself to take your time and to be aware of the mind of rushing or the need to consume content. We also invite you to be self-compassionate if you feel disappointed at falling behind.

Please send us an email at zasp@plumvillage.org if you need an invoice and allow us 8-10 business days to create your invoice. 

The intention of this course is to offer a transformative and healing online learning journey, helping people to cultivate insight, compassion, and resilience. This course has been created by much hard and loving work, and to help us sustain the course and the community that is offering it, the refund policy is as follows:

• Within 6 weeks before the course start date – 100% of the full fee may be refunded. An admin fee of €30.00 will be charged.
• Within one week before the course start date – 50% of the full fee may be refunded. An admin fee of €30.00 will be charged.
• Within two weeks after the course start date – financial refunds no longer possible, however you will be able to transfer your place to future courses if you experience personal circumstances which mean you can no longer participate on your originally chosen course dates. 
• Two weeks after the course start date – Refunds or transfers no longer eligible.

You will need to log into the webpage, after which you will receive a magic link in your email which will allow you to access the course platform. Follow the instructions in the email and it will take you to the course platform.

We have implemented the magic link to make sure you are the only user of your account. Once you are logged in, however, you might be able to come back to the course page without needing to log in each time. This depends on the browser you use and how the browser manages your cookies.

You can go to your settings page and fill in a new email address. An email will be sent to your new email address with a confirmation link. Once you click on the link, your new email address will be saved.

You can show or change your location when you edit the location information on your profile. To do so, click on your name on the top-right side of the course platform and click on ‘Edit profile’.

Please make sure that you have downloaded and fully updated the video conferencing software Zoom before the course begins, since all the live events and sharing groups will take place via Zoom. When you open the Zoom link, please make sure that you allow Zoom to enable your microphone. During the events, please keep your microphone muted when you are not speaking. For sharing sessions, we kindly request that you keep your camera on.

During the course, there will be five live events with monastics and four sharing groups. You can find all the live events you are attending here or on the right side of your course home page.

You can find an overview schedule of all the live events and sharing groups you are due to join on the right side of the home page. To access the Zoom link, click on the event/sharing session 10-15 minutes before the start of the event. Additionally, you will receive an email reminder with the Zoom link one hour before the event/sharing session.

The time you will see displayed after you log in on the platform is your local time (i.e. based on your local time zone). For example, if you are in Colombia and you log in from there, you will see the local time in Colombia for your sharing group and for the live events.

In the case that you would travel to a different time zone and log in from there, the change be updated within a day on our platform. So please be aware that if you are traveling across time zones there might be a 24 hour delay in displaying the time for live events and sharing groups.

Yes, it’s possible to reset your time zone manually. You can do so by restarting your browser and removing the cookies for the plumvillage.org website. More instructions can be found here.

At the start of the course, you can see the available sharing groups by clicking Your Group. You can choose a group that fits your schedule. There are also groups based on language (e.g. Spanish-speaking) or affinity (e.g. BIPOC, LGBTQ+). If you cannot find a group that suits you, you can suggest creating a new group.

If the group you joined does not work for you, you can leave the group by clicking on Your Group, and then click on the yellow button ‘Leave Group’. Please keep in mind that you will not be able to join another group after the second sharing session has taken place.

In general, it is not possible to join a sharing group after the second session. We close the registration at this time to protect the trust, stability and dynamic built up over the previous sharing sessions. We understand there might be exceptions based on individual circumstances and are happy to help participants on a case-by-case basis. 

Firstly we suggest that you take a moment to breathe and smile with self compassion to any feelings of discouragement. Please know that you are a valued member of this community and it is not personal that no one joined you.

Next, you may like to message members of your group to ask them if they had trouble attending the last session, and to ask if they will be attending the next session. If there are members of your group who reassure you that they will be able to attend the next session, you can look forward to practicing with them in the future. 

If you do not receive many replies from members of your sharing group you may want to consider changing your sharing group. You are able to do this yourself between the first sharing group session and the second, and you can find instructions on leaving and joining a sharing group in the FAQs. 

After the second group sharing sessions (at the end of Week 3 of the course) we will close the option for you to change your sharing group yourself to allow the sharing groups to protect the trust, stability and dynamic built up over the previous sharing sessions. Thank you for your understanding. 

Enable the ‘Original Sound For Musicians’ button at the top left corner of your Zoom screen and ensure that this feature is on. You can read about how to enable the original sound when inviting the bell on Zoom here.

The Affinity Spaces are community spaces for people with shared experiences and interests. For example, the BIPOC group offers space for those who identify as Black, Indigenous, Person of Color, and the Young People/Wake up group welcomes young practitioners under 35. Some of the Affinity Spaces are created through the suggestion of ZASP participants, and you can find guidelines for suggesting a new Affinity Space here.

You can find guidelines for suggesting a new Affinity Space here.

We encourage you to use these spaces to connect with people with whom you share similar questions and experiences. Once you have joined an affinity group, feel free to introduce yourself and tell a bit about why you are here. You can self-organize online events to meet each other, have tea or meditate together. By being in the group, you are already supporting the collective energy.  

On the Community tab, you can scroll down and find a map that shows people who have indicated their locations (light blue marker). It’s possible to message them directly. You can suggest ‘Create a Regional Space’ for your area that others can join. The regional space will show up as a dark blue marker on the map.

Once you have joined a space from on Community page, you should be able to see a yellow button on the side panel that says ‘Create a new gathering’. When you click on this, you will be asked about the gathering title, time and date. After you submit this, your gathering will appear on the right side of the Community page.

It’s wonderful that you would like to keep in touch with your sharing group! As long as you have access to the course content, you will also have access to the chat functions in your sharing group. During the course, we offer the option to enable self-organized sessions in your sharing group upon request. If you have requested that option, you can continue to organize sessions among yourselves after the course. If you have not requested this option during the course, you can use a personal zoom account to stay in touch and continue your sharing groups. You could also consider moving onto a similar platform that offers online conference calls such as: Google Hangout, Jitzi, and Skype.

You will have access to Zoom for self-organized events in Community and Affinity Spaces. If you have requested for the option for self-organized sessions in your sharing group (see the question above), you will also have access to Zoom links generated in your sharing group.

Yes, you will have access to all chat and message functions as long as you have access to the course content.

As a ZASP alum, you will receive email updates about post-course connections, such as workshops and alum gatherings. If you want to know more about future cohorts, you can also subscribe to the general ZASP newsletter.