Name: Plum Village
Item: Plum Village
Rating: 5
Author: Indira Luz

The Most Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh (Thây), our spiritual teacher, founded the Unified Buddhist Church (Eglise Bouddhique Unifieé) in France in 1969, during the Vietnam war. Thich Nhat Hanh is a Vietnamese Buddhist monk, a poet, a scholar, and a peace activist. His life long efforts to generate peace and reconciliation moved Martin Luther King, Jr. to nominate him for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1967. He founded the Van Hanh Buddhist University in Saigon and the School for Youths of Social Services in Vietnam. When not travelling the world to teach “The Art of Mindful Living”, he teaches, writes, and gardens in Plum Village, France, a Buddhist monastery for monks and nuns and a mindfulness practice center for lay people.
The Unified Buddhist Church established Sweet Potatoes Community in 1975, Plum Village in 1982, the Dharma Cloud Temple and the Dharma Nectar Temple in 1988, and the Adornment of Loving Kindness Temple in 1995. Thich Nhat Hanh’s sangha (community of practice) in France is usually referred to as the Plum Village Sangha

Today, Plum Village is made up of four major residential hamlets. Upper Hamlet houses approximately 65 monks and laymen, as well as being Thích Nhất Hạnh’s residence. Lower Hamlethouses over 40 nuns and laywomen. Son Ha Temple houses approximately 20 monks and the New Hamlet, 20 minutes away by bus, houses approximately 40 nuns and laywomen.

Thích Nhất Hạnh's approach has been to combine a variety of traditional Zen teachings with insights from other Mahayana Buddhist traditions, methods from Theravada Buddhism, and ideas from Western psychology to offer a modern light on meditation practice. Hanh's presentation of the prajnaparamita in terms of "interbeing" has doctrinal antecedents in the Huayan school of thought,[37] which "is often said to provide a philosophical foundation" for Zen.[38]

Nhất Hạnh has also been a leader in the Engaged Buddhism movement (he coined the term), promoting the individual's active role in creating change. He cites the 13th-century Vietnamese king Trần Nhân Tông with the origination of the concept. Trần Nhân Tông abdicated his throne to become a monk and founded the Vietnamese Buddhist school of the Bamboo Forest tradition.

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Indira Luz

Overall Experience

Smells Like Nirvana: From Grumbling to Bliss at Plum Village
(…) The nuns, with their robes and shaved heads, look like chess pieces. They move slowly, in silence, as if there were felt under their feet. The chessboard is not bad either, we are in the middle of nature and stumble upon Buddha statues that, for once, do not reek of imposture like in decoration stores. The one in the middle of the Lower Hamlet forest seems particularly alive. It feels like the moment we look at it, it resumes its prayer position, but as soon as we turn our backs, it relaxes and goes about its Buddhist business. (…)
Full review:
https://indiraluz.wordpress.com/2024/08/07/smells-like-nirvana-from-grumbling-to-bliss-at-plum-village/
1 year ago
Ida Marie

Overall Experience

The Plum Village community, teaching, and retreats are for you who are looking to build simple tools for a more joyful life. I met them the first time at a Zen Skiiretreat they planned and later at Plum Village in France. Personally, I’m very strict with myself, so meeting their approach does me well.
2 years ago
Peter Gay

Overall Experience

Since Thay got ill and left the centre has become woke.They are also too obsessed with carbon and climate change.There is really debate or questioning.
If you like that stuff then fine but if you do not then it is not the place for you
4 years ago

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