Practicing the Six Harmonies is a deep practice to ensure a long life in the Sangha and continue on the path of transformation with our spiritual friends, even when facing difficulties in communication. If we are still unable to deeply connect with another person through the heart, maybe because of unresolved conflict, we can still practice to offer simple material gifts or a smile, to open the path of transformation wider. It is also important to learn to express our needs and thoughts...

Are you aware of your body in daily life? Do you take time to pause and relax between activities? How do you start your day? Do you take a moment to touch a feeling of gratitude and joy for being alive? Let’s explore these and many more questions as we are gently guided by one of the eldest disciples of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh – Sr. Tu Nghiem (Sr. Elleni). As a practitioner, we need to know how to nourish our body and mind with beauty through what we consume with our senses. We need to be...

What do you truly want for your life? Knowing this becomes a source of energy on our path. When we see our path clearly, we are no longer afraid. Mindfulness is the energy of awareness that enables us to apply the practice in our daily life. This allows us to live our life in a way that is in line with our aspirations. We need to train ourselves to let go of our thinking and come back to our body and our breath. Words for reflections from Sr. Tuệ Nghiêm: 1. What are your aspirations? What...

Br. Minh Hy invites us to connect to great ancestral teachers who played a very important role in Thầy’s journey of renewing Buddhism. Inspired by their example, we can improve and refine our own practice, with faith and perseverance. We can make their practice come to life as we apply it to our current times, as Thầy has done throughout his life. Indeed, the ancient Buddhist wisdom on the mind and the way out of suffering is timeless: the challenges of our society have their roots in...

Sister Thuận Nghiêm (Sister Harmony) takes us along her life-long journey of transforming her way of thinking and speaking with the practice. She shares many true stories about the importance of checking our perceptions and speaking more humbly and lovingly. The impact of our speech is immediate and wide. The quality of our relationships and of our inner peace depend a great deal on our way of speaking. This is also true of peace in the world. “We can start a war with words.” Speaking, as...

“Do not abandon your aspiration too early!” Through her own experience of fearlessness, hope, compassion, anger, and despair during the war in Vietnam, Sr. Chan Khong shares how she transformed unwholesome seeds through mindfulness practices in our Plum Village tradition. Touching on difficult topics such as suicide, alcoholism and self judgements, Sr. Chan Khong showers us with practice songs and stories that touch the seeds of hope and transformation. Like a loving grandmother, she...

“Mindfulness of breathing is the great vehicle used by buddhas to save beings who are drifting.” – Master Khương Tăng Hội Meditation Master Khương Tăng Hội, the first patriarch of Zen in Vietnam, was a great source of inspiration for our teacher Thầy to practice and develop Engaged Buddhism. In this talk by Sr. Hội Nghiêm (English translation by Sr. Lăng Nghiêm) on the master’s Memorial Day, we learn how mindful breathing helps us to take care of our body and mind, to gradually let go of all...

Is Plum Village “engaged” enough today? Is our daily practice of mindfulness an appropriate answer to the problems our world is facing? If we look deeply at current issues such as war, injustice, or the climate crisis, we can understand their connection with our ways of thinking, speaking and acting. In this panel, Br. Pháp Hữu, Br. Pháp Linh, and Sr. Hiến Nghiêm share their insights on Applied and Engaged Buddhism, drawing on our teacher’s life as a peace activist and a community builder....

Nourishing ourselves with positive elements gives us the strength to heal from suffering. Without nourishment, we cannot heal. The more we are aware of suffering, the more important it is to dwell peacefully, happily, and with compassion in the present moment. The present moment becomes a refuge preventing us from drowning in collective suffering. It gives us faith to move on and take action from a place of love. Coming back to the present moment is already engaged Buddhsim. It is a...

Every moment can be a moment of applied mindfulness that helps us to understand ourselves better. In this first talk of the 2022 Rains Retreat, Sr. Chan Duc (“Sister True Virtue”) reminds us of the preciousness of having the opportunity to practice together for three months. As human beings, we have a deep tendency to believe in a separate self and to strive in order to protect ourselves. Our non-stop thinking comes from this instinct of self-preservation. It stops us from being in touch...

To be a soulmate, we must truly understand ourselves. Who am I? Why do I do the things I do and feel the ways I feel? How do I calm my mind and body and be at ease in different situations? In this rare talk for teenagers (and the “forever teens at heart”), Sister Đẳng Nghiêm (“Sister D”) shows young people how to take care of their body and mind amidst the rapid changes of adolescence. “Remember – Actions become habits. Habits become personalities. Personalities become destiny.” 2022...

In this kind and gentle talk, Sister Dang Nghiem relates her own journey of healing, and describes the path of true love as the process of becoming “our own soulmate”. She shares that we can begin by befriending our own breath and our own body. From this foundation, we are able to befriend our feelings and thoughts as well, and offer friendship and compassion to others. Sister Dang Nghiem shares that as true love ripens in us, we learn to be careful about what we consume, with all our...

In this orientation from the Wake Up Humanity retreat, Brother Phap Huu, long-term attendant of zen master Thich Nhat Hanh (Thay), takes us on a journey as he relates stories of our teacher’s life and practice, and the genesis of the Plum Village Dharma Doors. We accompany Thay in his challenges, discoveries, and breakthroughs. We witness Thay returning again and again to the heart of the practice, as well as adapting and innovating its form, and we see how this brought him through many...

A rich sharing from long-time Plum Village practitioners who lived in Plum Village during each era from the 1980s to the present day. For photographs of each era, see the slideshow of Plum Village across the years.

In this final talk of our June retreat “40 Years of Plum Village: Now We Have a Path, We Have Nothing More to Fear”, Sister Lang Nghiem invites us to train ourselves to recognize the present moment as a maturation of all our actions, including the experiences we received from our ancestors. Indeed, store consciousness has the capacity to store all our actions of body, speech and mind as seeds. These seeds manifest in our life when conditions are sufficient, even if it takes many years....

In this fifth talk of our June retreat “40 Years of Plum Village: Now We Have a Path, We Have Nothing More to Fear”, elder brother Pháp Ứng offers a heartfelt talk rich with poetry, music, and a video to share with us about the third Dharma Seal of PV: the “times” (past, present, and future) and the “truths” (conventional and ultimate; and the Four Noble Truths) inter-are. He shares that it is possible to realize this truth through the practice of the first two Plum Village Dharma Seals, “I...

In this fourth Dharma talk of our 40 Years Retreat, “Now We Have a Path: We Have Nothing More to Fear”, Brother Phap Linh shares how we can recognize trauma in ourselves and those around us, as well as how we can care for it and help it to heal. He describes David Treleaven’s five principles of Trauma Sensitive Mindfulness, and relates these principles to our practice in the Plum Village community. He suggests, for example, that communal practices such as Dharma sharing, sharing mindful...

Have you ever felt a sense of deep belonging to a group with a shared aspiration and way of living? Did you feel safe enough to entrust yourself in that group and flow together in the same direction? How can we “go as a river” in a way that brings happiness and helps realize our dream to serve? This talk in our 40 Years of Plum Village Retreat, “Now We Have a Path; We Have Nothing More to Fear”, is offered by our elder sister Định Nghiêm, who spent more than six years alongside of...

Br. Phap Huu offers his experiences and insights on practicing “I have arrived, I am home”, the First Seal of Plum Village practice. He shares poignant moments by Thay’s side for us to have a taste of Thay’s great wisdom and love. Arriving in our body and mind in order to recognize, embrace and accept what is going on inside and around us is the essence of the Buddha’s teaching. As we experience the practice first hand, we develop confidence in our own ability to arrive in the present...

Do you feel you have found a path that helps you to live with freedom, and without fear? How can we learn to see such a path clearly in every moment, and develop a confidence in it that is unshakeable? In this retreat we celebrate 40 Years of Plum Village, with the theme “Now We Have a Path: We Have Nothing More to Fear”. In this first talk of the retreat, respected elder Sister Chan Duc tells us that faith in our path is a kind of power, if this faith is not only belief but a deep...

The word Bodhisattva means “awakened being”. In the text Invoking the Bodhisatva’s Names, written by Thich Nhat Hanh, 5 Bodhisattvas are mentioned who represent qualities we can all uncover in ourselves.  In this talk, Sister Tu Nghiem offers us an explanation of this text. You can find the text here. The Plum Village Chanting Book is available here.

This talk, the first in our Rains Retreat, was offered by Brother Phap Huu from the New Hamlet of Plum Village, France.

Brother Phap Huu introduces the 2021 Rains Retreat: Gems of the Plum Village Tradition.

What are we made of? What do we transmit to the future, and to the world? How do we connect to our ancestors, understand them, and see how we continue them? How can we practice, so that our practice is an “offering of the heart”? Sister Đào Nghiêm offers this is rich and personal Dharma talk in memory of her father, for the anniversary of his passing. She shares how we can understand our ancestors, and what they have transmitted to us. This understanding will help us to accept what we...

What *is* meditation, or mindfulness? Can it be used as a panic room? What is its purpose? What do we need to know to practice it safely and successfully? In this sincere and tender dharma talk from December 2020, Br. Phap Linh (“Brother Spirit”) shares that the practice of meditation has to do with how we relate to the real suffering we face every day in ourselves and in the world. He describes honestly some of the challenges and questions we may face along that path, and emphasizes the...