Bell

Dear community, we are August 
the 10th in the year 2023,

and we are celebrating, savoring
the last day of our Wake Up retreat,

"Love in Action", here 
in the Upper Hamlet,

in the Still Water meditation hall.

I'm having an interesting 
moment sitting here.

When we first started creating
youth retreats, about 15 years ago,

it was a real challenge to try and
find enough young people

to have a retreat.

And first there was forty, then
the next year there was like 65,

and then I remember 
the year we hit 100,

and we were so excited that
we had 100 registrations!

And we went to report to Thay.
This must have been around 2010.

Thay, there's a hundred 
young people in Europe

that want to learn about mindfulness.

Can you believe it?

And he was like - well done!

And then, we started to 
create the Wake Up movement.

And I said (to Thay) it's a little 
bit overwhelming!

And he said, and he lit up with sparkles,

excellent, it should feel overwhelming!

and then I'm sitting here and I
don't know how many hundreds

of you there are, overwhelming
so I guess Thay's smiling with

a sparkle in his eyes, be careful what
you wish for, because it may come true.

I hope that's going to make it easier,
but hey I think speaking in front of

spiritual friends, and

is both challenging and wonderful,
because on the one hand

I feel I want to share my heart
with you all,

and on the other, I have the
same feeling that we all do.

of whether I can be enough
in this moment.

But I will share from my, my joy
my experience and my practice

and that is my best.
We will see.

We had some little flowers here
thank you, thank you.

Emotional support flowers,
we also have an emotional

support cello, that we might
need to call on.

I was 21 when I first came 
to Plum Village

and I was one of the people
who as soon as there was

a chance to receive the five
mindfulness trainings, I

wanted to do it. And I was
here for three weeks that summer]

]and I was also one of the people
who was like I am going to wait

until the last week.

So I know some have
been here through the summer

and have received the five
mindfulness trainings

this morning, and some of us
are here for the first time

and we also made that commitment
and I have to say, getting on the train

in some form, with the five mindfulness
trainings in my pocket, in some form

in my back pack, my life was different.
It just was!

I felt that I had a path.
I felt that I knew what was important to me.

I felt that what the experience was
I can't fall that far anymore.

It felt like the mindfulness trainings
were a safety net or something.

Like, I'm held in their embrace
that has been my experience.

And although I was sharing
with my dharma sharing famiy

like the path of the five mindfulness
trainings is not exactly

`like a straight highway,

its more like this, and thats
definitely been my experience.

That it has been an adventure,
an experiment, a work in progress

a challenge and also a training,
like really a training.

And as many of us know whatever
kind of training we do, we learn

by making mistakes.

And by trying things out,

and by realizing ... oops, 
that was not in alignment or

I have strayed far off my path
at this point

But it was wonderful and has been wonderful to
feel that they are part of my life

and I don't know if your facilitators
shared with you

but the dharma name we get
with our five mindfulness trainings

is the dharma name for your life.

So even if you become monastcs
your monastic name is not as important

as your five mindfulness trainings name.

because we are kind of born into our
spiritual path with this practice and

with this training.

And so this morning, definitely
more than a hundred of us,

maybe more than a hundred and fifty
possibly closer to two hundred of us

across