In March 2018, we held our first Happy Teachers retreat in Ireland. About 35 people arrived at Creagh Castle, Co. Cork to practice together for four days. Some were seasoned practitioners and others were experiencing the practice for the very first time. Br Phap Lai, with the support of Br. Dai Dung and Br. Duc Han, opened a space of such kindness and authenticity. It was very easy to come home to ourselves.

  To reach the Morris Educational Campus from downtown Manhattan, it’s an hour-long subway trip and then a twenty-minute walk through the ethnically mixed streets of the South Bronx. The pink Dunkin’ Donuts logo greets you as you exit the Intervale Avenue stop and Puerto Rican specialty shops color the rest of the way with […]

This practice is inspired by Thich Nhat Hanh and the Plum Village Community’s teachings on getting in touch with our breath. Through her personal practice and five years with the children’s sangha in Dublin, Orlaith O’Sullivan narrates this variation called ‘Starfish’.

Fall in love, stay in love, and it will decide everything.  This was a prayer that I kept close to my heart during a time of discernment.   I knew my prayer was answered with an opportunity to join a mindfulness retreat with the Plum Village monastics.   Listening to Thich Nhat Hanh talking about the […]

My name is Javi and I work in a Secondary school in the Basque Country, near Bilbao. I have been teaching for over twenty years and I have no doubt encountered a decent amount of the same challenges anybody in such a position may come across. I have made so many mistakes during this process that I would need a whole book to briefly describe them, but as I just have the space of an article I would like to share with you a bit of the good stuff I have experienced as a teacher in the light of the Plum Village practice.

I have been practicing meditation in the tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh for quite some years and I am especially grateful to my sangha in Berlin-Zehlendorf. Without my sangha it would have been so much more difficult to follow the path to inner freedom and peace. Being continually reminded by dear friends keeps my practice […]

One of the Plum Village practice centers is located in the eastern outskirts of Paris and called Maison de l’Inspir (meaning ‘Inspiration House’).  It offers a quiet place to practice sitting meditation, attend talks, calmly walk the banks of the Marne River, enjoy a lovingly-prepared meal and relax with the community.  For the past four […]