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Bell

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

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

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"Love in Action", here [br]in the Upper Hamlet,

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in the Still Water meditation hall.

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I'm having an interesting [br]moment sitting here.

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

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

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to have a retreat.

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

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and then I remember [br]the year we hit 100,

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and we were so excited that[br]we had 100 registrations!

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

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Thay, there's a hundred [br]young people in Europe

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that want to learn about mindfulness.

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Can you believe it?

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And he was like - well done!

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

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

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And he said, and he lit up with sparkles,

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excellent, it should feel overwhelming!

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

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

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

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

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spiritual friends, and

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is both challenging and wonderful,[br]because on the one hand

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I feel I want to share my heart[br]with you all,

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

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of whether I can be enough[br]in this moment.

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But I will share from my, my joy[br]my experience and my practice

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and that is my best.[br]We will see.

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We had some little flowers here[br]thank you, thank you.

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Emotional support flowers,[br]we also have an emotional

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support cello, that we might[br]need to call on.

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I was 21 when I first came [br]to Plum Village

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and I was one of the people[br]who as soon as there was

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a chance to receive the five[br]mindfulness trainings, I

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

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

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until the last week.

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So I know some have[br]been here through the summer

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and have received the five[br]mindfulness trainings

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

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

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in some form, with the five mindfulness[br]trainings in my pocket, in some form

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

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

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

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

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

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And although I was sharing[br]with my dharma sharing famiy

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like the path of the five mindfulness[br]trainings is not exactly

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`like a straight highway,

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

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

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a challenge and also a training,[br]like really a training.

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

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by making mistakes.

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And by trying things out,

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

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I have strayed far off my path[br]at this point

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

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

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but the dharma name we get[br]with our five mindfulness trainings

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is the dharma name for your life.

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

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as your five mindfulness trainings name.

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because we are kind of born into our[br]spiritual path with this practice

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and with this training.

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

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

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across the different hamlets.

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made apassionate, wholehearted[br]commitment to take the insight

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and practises of the five mindfulness[br]trainings

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into our lives

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and so when we get on the train [br]tomorrow, car or however we'r getting

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home.

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these mindfulness trainings[br]will be with

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and even if we didn't make a formal[br]commitment to receive them

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please take the piece of paper[br]with you.

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They can penetrate our life[br]because in a way they

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encapsulate everything we[br]have been experiencing

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together in this retreat.

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And,

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these trainings are, I guess, the [br]kind of Plum Village blueprint for

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changing the world.

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They are nothing less than [br]our full vision for the kind of

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loving action that can transform[br]society and the future.

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Someone asked me in the[br]earth retreat earlier in this year

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I find the Plum Village teachings[br]on the earth and climate so

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fascinating, but do you have[br]some kind of manifesto?

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or something.

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I said yeh - we have the[br]five mindfulness trainings.

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And the person was like, no I[br]didn't meet that.

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And I was like, oh I mean that.

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Because they are applied, they live[br]they are kind of mult-dimensional.

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Each one of them is about bringing[br]the energy of awakening and love

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directly into the heart of our daily [br]lives, our relationship and our society.

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And so, as we take the practice[br]home, maybe you go home and

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somebody comes up to you and[br]says, how was your retreat?

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And you say ... brilliant, great[br]wonderful.

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I'm going to practice meditation[br]every day.

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And we may have a tendency to[br]think that

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the most easily applicable thing[br]we can take from this retreat

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is ten minutes sitting every day.

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And we may think, that's going to[br]be my aspiration, my intention

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my volition, I'm going to put [br]it all into that.

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and that is good,

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but I feel we can be more ambitious[br]then that, and I say that because

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if we only do 10 minutes of sitting[br]meditation a day, and then the

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rest of our life is the same,

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the transformation will not be very radical.

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But what we can see in each one of[br]these amazingly challenging

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and inspiring trainings in the[br]five mindfulness trainings is

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that they're about far more [br]than sitting meditation.

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In fact, as a relatively active person,

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when I left Plum Village I, found[br]it really hard to do sitting meditation

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I think it was very rare that I made time.

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was able to make time to do sitting[br]meditation in my daily life.

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But, my life was utterly transformed.

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by the five mindfulness trainings.

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One thing I learned, I used to[br]sit on public transport and

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be present for the people[br]around me, and present for

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my feelings.

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And honestly, I think I got[br]more kind of shift in my

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perspective and way of living[br]in the way I sat on buses in

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central london then I would[br]have done by sitting on my cushion.

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because I lived like many of us [br]a very

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active and hyperstimulated life.

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I was juggling a job in journalism and[br]a masters degree.