WEBVTT 00:00:00.130 --> 00:00:03.070 Hello everybody 00:00:03.070 --> 00:00:10.280 Thank you so much for being here on what I hope is a very lazy day or as lazy as possible 00:00:10.280 --> 00:00:12.690 day for us. 00:00:12.690 --> 00:00:21.070 We're very happy to be able to share with you as a community a little bit chat - show style 00:00:21.070 --> 00:00:24.300 00:00:24.300 --> 00:00:31.190 for what we hope will be a relaxed and enjoyable session really touching the spirit of community 00:00:31.190 --> 00:00:40.600 and many of our collective memories with our teacher. 00:00:40.600 --> 00:00:46.780 We are aware that many of us have arrived in plum village at all sorts of different 00:00:46.780 --> 00:00:55.780 times and today we will be hearing from some of us who arrived in the early 1980s, in the 00:00:55.780 --> 00:01:02.379 1990s. And we also want to look forward to some of 00:01:02.379 --> 00:01:10.060 the life spirit of the sangha currently active and looking forward maybe to the next decade 00:01:10.060 --> 00:01:17.580 or two as a beloved community. So we hope that by hearing voices from different 00:01:17.580 --> 00:01:23.180 sangha members we will really see the river that Sister Dinh Nghiem was talking about 00:01:23.180 --> 00:01:34.430 in her Dharma talk yesterday and we will also get a sense of the spirit of community. 00:01:34.430 --> 00:01:42.320 I think Plum Village has always been made of whoever is here and i think Thay's teachings 00:01:42.320 --> 00:01:49.210 have also been made from whoever is here. Thay didn't create his teachings in a vacuum 00:01:49.210 --> 00:01:57.860 but in relationship with his community and Thay's teachings have also evolved over time 00:01:57.860 --> 00:02:05.899 and Plum Village has evolved the atmosphere has evolved. So today we will try to hear 00:02:05.899 --> 00:02:12.040 a little bit what some of those earlier chapters of plum village might have been like and to 00:02:12.040 --> 00:02:14.489 see that evolution. 00:02:14.489 --> 00:02:24.849 And I brought with me a very very big bag of Thay's books and this is not even a quarter 00:02:24.849 --> 00:02:32.160 of them. But I hope from time to time to show you a book so you can start to see a bit how 00:02:32.160 --> 00:02:39.890 Thay's teachings evolved over time and how his insights and experiences in community 00:02:39.890 --> 00:02:45.640 and largely here in Plum Village shaped his teachings and what he was writing about at 00:02:45.640 --> 00:02:55.100 the time. 00:02:55.100 --> 00:03:00.420 We have a wonderful truck. We have a chance to contemplate the compost that becomes the flowers 00:03:00.420 --> 00:03:05.270 00:03:05.270 --> 00:03:14.000 In Sister Dinh Nghiem's talk she mentioned the teachings of master Tang Hoi and she was 00:03:14.000 --> 00:03:19.920 saying that when Thay was in Paris he had a chance to do research in the library there 00:03:19.920 --> 00:03:26.390 to discover the first zen teacher who came from Vietnam and brought zen buddhism to China 00:03:26.390 --> 00:03:30.409 so I just wanted to give one advertisement for this book if you are interested in the 00:03:30.409 --> 00:03:37.620 roots of our tradition, it's really wonderful to understand how deep our roots go. Book 00:03:37.620 --> 00:03:44.629 number one. I think I'm going to need a big pile. 00:03:44.629 --> 00:03:57.600 The title is Master Tang Hoi - first zen teacher in Vietnam and China. 00:03:57.600 --> 00:04:03.480 And for those of you who haven't read about Thay's years of activism and engagement in 00:04:03.480 --> 00:04:08.569 the 1960s when Sister Dinh was sharing about how much Thay did in such a short period of 00:04:08.569 --> 00:04:15.879 time a lot of that is recorded in Thay's journals Fragrant Palm Leaves. For many of us I think 00:04:15.879 --> 00:04:23.330 it's our favorite book by Thay, very personal so you can discover more in this book, including 00:04:23.330 --> 00:04:30.180 some very powerful experiences and moments of awakening 00:04:30.180 --> 00:04:34.100 when Thay was in the U.S. in the early 1960s. 00:04:34.100 --> 00:04:42.420 Okay final one. Sister Dinh Nghiem also mentioned: "Zen Keys", "Zen Keys". 00:04:42.420 --> 00:04:45.660 And in French, "Cles pour le Zen". 00:04:45.660 --> 00:04:53.110 Which was actually the first book published by Thay here in the west. 00:04:53.110 --> 00:04:58.430 And it was published first in French and then in English and it's very interesting because 00:04:58.430 --> 00:05:04.610 Thay was trying to express how his kind of zen, the zen from our tradition in Vietnam 00:05:04.610 --> 00:05:10.850 was different from other flavors of Zen from Japan or other countries. So this is a very 00:05:10.850 --> 00:05:19.280 early attempt of Thay to describe the practices he was seeking to develop and offer in here in the West. 00:05:19.280 --> 00:05:23.150 00:05:23.150 --> 00:05:32.819 So, that's it for the books for now. 00:05:32.819 --> 00:05:39.139 I would like to invite our bell master Sister TrueSound, Sister Khuong Am, to invite three sounds of the bell 00:05:39.139 --> 00:05:58.490 and then we will welcome our first guests to the sofa who arrived here in 1983. 00:05:58.490 --> 00:06:13.360 [Bell] 00:06:13.360 --> 00:06:28.229 [Bell] 00:06:28.229 --> 00:06:43.099 [Bell] 00:06:43.099 --> 00:07:13.530 We'd like to invite Jean-Pierre and Co Linh Tue to come up and sit on the wonderful rustic sofa. 00:07:13.530 --> 00:07:23.610 00:07:23.610 --> 00:07:31.220 Before we start to hear some different stories 00:07:31.220 --> 00:07:36.220 maybe Jean-Pierre and Co Linh Tue, would you like to lead us in one of the first songs 00:07:36.220 --> 00:07:51.550 that you remember singing here in the sangha when you arrived? 00:07:51.550 --> 00:08:03.069 Dear sister. During that era, there were only poems because for a while, it was a haven for refugees. 00:08:03.069 --> 00:08:14.580 Thay taught in Vietnamese to the refugees. So there were only childhood poems. 00:08:14.580 --> 00:08:26.099 So actually, at that time there weren't any Plum Village songs yet. He taught in Vietnamese to the children. 00:08:26.099 --> 00:08:27.099 okay 00:08:27.099 --> 00:08:44.900 So we will listen to a song. 00:08:44.900 --> 00:09:22.300 We will sing together? But I don't know full songs ... just the start [singing in Vietnamese] ... I don't remember anymore 00:09:22.300 --> 00:09:41.000 [Singing in Vietnamese] 00:09:41.000 --> 00:09:59.700 [Singing in Vietnamese] 00:09:59.700 --> 00:10:18.400 [Singing in Vietnamese] ... That's enough 00:10:18.400 --> 00:10:27.300 Very nice very nice. So in Plum Village since the very beginning there was music and at 00:10:27.300 --> 00:10:32.899 first songs from Vietnam would be sung around Plum Village because actually 00:10:32.899 --> 00:10:40.570 at the beginning Plum Village was really a community in exile not only Thay in exile 00:10:40.570 --> 00:10:50.820 but also sister Chan Khong other monastics who had fled Vietnam and also other refugees 00:10:50.820 --> 00:11:01.180 so many people who found themselves exiled and ended up here in France started visiting 00:11:01.180 --> 00:11:08.270 Thay at the center outside Paris and then when that as Sister Dinh Nghiem explained yesterday 00:11:08.270 --> 00:11:14.529 when that center became too small then they found the land here in the southwest of France 00:11:14.529 --> 00:11:19.709 where the land was much more affordable. 00:11:19.709 --> 00:11:27.050 And in the summers Thay was offering not just a place of spiritual refuge but also a place 00:11:27.050 --> 00:11:35.100 of cultural refuge where the children could learn Vietnamese and how to write, speak and 00:11:35.100 --> 00:11:40.860 sing in Vietnamese. Where everyone could enjoy Vietnamese food and really have a sense of home away from home. 00:11:40.860 --> 00:11:49.220 So maybe we can enjoy one sound of the bell and we try to 00:11:49.220 --> 00:12:01.500 settle so we can continue. We're sorry that the announcement wasn't made. Our apologies 00:12:01.500 --> 00:12:05.470 [Bell] 00:12:34.455 --> 00:12:37.333 So, dear Jean-Pierre, perhaps we will start with you. 00:12:38.269 --> 00:12:43.213 Can you say a little about how you landed in this part 00:12:43.255 --> 00:12:46.257 in the Southwest of France into a community in exile? 00:12:47.269 --> 00:12:48.269 It wasn't really that common. 00:12:48.269 --> 00:12:50.261 And what did you find when you arrived? 00:12:50.269 --> 00:12:55.224 That went very well. 00:12:55.265 --> 00:13:02.272 I knew about Plum Village thanks to the Vietnamese community. 00:13:02.313 --> 00:13:13.240 With young people my age, students in Lyon. 00:13:13.269 --> 00:13:21.205 Perhaps 5, 6 years before I arrived here 00:13:23.248 --> 00:13:31.269 I found myself taking part in cultural festivals 00:13:32.256 --> 00:13:37.261 with only "boat people". There you go. 00:13:39.262 --> 00:13:49.521 It wasn't a big deal. I was the only one with a car. So it was very practical for transporting things, 00:13:49.560 --> 00:13:52.130 clothes, people ... 00:13:52.130 --> 00:13:53.483 in the welcoming centers. 00:13:55.527 --> 00:13:59.500 And one day a friend said to me: 00:13:59.500 --> 00:14:02.408 "Jean-Pierre, would you like to meet a Vietnamese Zen master?" 00:14:04.410 --> 00:14:09.539 I said, "Yes, great! I am very interested!" 00:14:09.581 --> 00:14:16.629 And I had the idea that I would find a relatively old man, 00:14:16.629 --> 00:14:23.593 with a white beard, and hair like what you find in Chinese films. 00:14:28.639 --> 00:14:38.231 I came here from Cantal, which is about 180km from here. 00:14:39.023 --> 00:14:45.029 And I found Loubes Bernac and Meyrac. 00:14:45.029 --> 00:14:50.116 The roads were tiny, even smaller than now. 00:14:54.060 --> 00:15:06.000 When I arrived, I first found a couple who lived in that first house there. 00:15:06.000 --> 00:15:08.508 So I met the man. 00:15:08.508 --> 00:15:12.511 He said to me, "But no. Plum Village is actually just there." 00:15:12.511 --> 00:15:18.475 But it wasn't Plum Village yet. It wasn't called that yet. 00:15:18.516 --> 00:15:22.970 He told me, "It's there. The Vietnamese people. They're somewhere at the back there." 00:15:22.970 --> 00:15:30.485 I came upon the building which is now the small meditation hall. 00:15:30.527 --> 00:15:38.701 I saw a Vietnamese lady who came out to meet me. 00:15:39.285 --> 00:15:50.002 When I said, "I am Jean-Pierre". She said, "Oh, you are Jean-Pierre, who welcomes the boat people!" 00:15:50.002 --> 00:15:57.009 I was very surprised, because I just arrived like that. 00:15:57.009 --> 00:16:06.920 No phone call, just an address, not telling anyone. 00:16:06.920 --> 00:16:13.064 I didn't know it, but the person who greeted me was Sister Chan Khong 00:16:14.065 --> 00:16:19.070 She wasn't a nun yet, but it was already her name as a member of the Order of Inter-being 00:16:19.070 --> 00:16:23.448 So that's how it all started. 00:16:23.448 --> 00:16:42.423 In the evening, I arrived in the afternoon, in the evening she said to me "Jean-Pierre, for the practice, you observe the others and imitate them." 00:16:42.480 --> 00:16:47.011 It was very simple. And everything was in Vietnamese 00:16:48.012 --> 00:16:55.100 There were no earphones, or microphone, or even someone to translate directly in my ear. 00:16:55.100 --> 00:17:03.870 Yes, I got used to that being in the Vietnamese community for 5, 6 years. No one translates. 00:17:03.870 --> 00:17:10.839 I tried to understand by observing the movements. But no one translated for me. 00:17:10.839 --> 00:17:17.329 But that suited me well, because I could sit somewhere, stay quietly. 00:17:17.329 --> 00:17:23.850 Someone would offer me a drink, something to eat. Everything went very well. 00:17:23.850 --> 00:17:34.469 Thank you Jean-Pierre. Wonderful. And Co Linh Tue, how was it for you when you arrived here? 00:17:34.469 --> 00:17:38.790 The same year, but perhaps a different approach? 00:17:38.790 --> 00:17:53.236 I met Jean-Pierre the same year. I was a student in a preparatory course to become a nurse. 00:17:53.236 --> 00:17:56.405 I boarded in a small room with a pastor. 00:17:56.405 --> 00:18:01.410 Between school and my room, 00:18:01.410 --> 00:18:06.100 there was a small pagoda, 00:18:06.100 --> 00:18:11.126 or more of an apartment. The venerable Nhu Tuan was there with Sister Trung Chinh. 00:18:11.126 --> 00:18:22.030 I went there every day to have dinner, because the pastor didn't want me to cook in the room. 00:18:22.030 --> 00:18:24.847 And to recite a sutra with them. 00:18:24.847 --> 00:18:29.434 One day Ven. Nhu Tuan said to me, "Do you want to come first in your class?" 00:18:29.434 --> 00:18:34.147 I said, "Of course!" "Then come with me", and she brought me here. 00:18:34.147 --> 00:18:41.653 I was amazed! I was born in Saigon, a cosmopolitan. I didn't know about the country side. 00:18:41.653 --> 00:18:49.327 Then I left Saigon when I was 14 and went to Lausanne, which is also quite a large city. 00:18:49.327 --> 00:18:53.580 So it was the first time I discover the country side. I loved it! 00:18:53.580 --> 00:19:01.629 I discovered the fields, sunflowers, the crowing of roosters... 00:19:01.629 --> 00:19:05.966 And rice soup with peas. I haven't eaten that before! 00:19:05.966 --> 00:19:14.320 And especially Thay. When I passed him, it was as if an electric current passed through me. 00:19:14.320 --> 00:19:25.900 He wasn't dressed as he did after receiving monastic students. He was just in jeans and a traditional short robe. 00:19:25.900 --> 00:19:28.152 Just to check we have this in translation - what was Thay wearing? 00:19:30.154 --> 00:19:35.284 When I passed him, he was coming from the Grange and I was near the bamboos. 00:19:36.285 --> 00:19:42.874 There were just a few bamboos. Lots of mud. There weren't trees and flowers then like now. 00:19:42.874 --> 00:19:55.301 Thay walked slowly, with jeans and his boots, and just a short robe - what monastics wear on the inside. 00:19:55.301 --> 00:19:59.390 I saw and I thought - oh, it's him, it's him. 00:19:59.390 --> 00:20:11.607 Then I came back 2, 3 times a year. It became my spiritual family. I came to see Thay, for the community, and for being in the country side. 00:20:11.610 --> 00:20:17.905 Pretty soon you started to live here, from which year? 00:20:17.905 --> 00:20:28.747 Afterwards, I came to live here with Thay for 3 years. 00:20:28.747 --> 00:20:34.270 From 1986 to 1989. 00:20:34.270 --> 00:20:40.716 Then one more time from 1996 to 1999. 00:20:40.716 --> 00:20:46.513 Then the last time in 2013 Thay asked me to become a monastic. 00:20:46.513 --> 00:20:56.981 He insisted, "Oh I am getting old. You have to taste the monastic life." 00:20:57.020 --> 00:20:58.023 Well. I obeyed. 00:20:58.023 --> 00:21:02.106 A good student. Thank you 00:21:02.106 --> 00:21:07.450 During that era, there was a lot of simplicity and not much money. 00:21:07.450 --> 00:21:16.104 The buildings were very simple and apparently there wasn't even heating. Is that true? 00:21:16.104 --> 00:21:29.342 For me, I don't know. I only came in Summer. No, there was no heating. Just the wood oven in the kitchen, that was it. 00:21:29.370 --> 00:21:33.012 Winter was freezing. 00:21:33.012 --> 00:21:39.362 There weren't even rooms. 00:21:39.362 --> 00:21:49.933 The rooms were just, well, down there there's a building. 00:21:49.933 --> 00:21:54.386 It's an ancient building for drying tobacco. 00:21:54.386 --> 00:22:03.039 Just a few separation walls, four bricks and a plank for a bed. 00:22:03.039 --> 00:22:10.170 There were no windows or necessarily doors. That was all. 00:22:13.173 --> 00:22:22.505 To imagine the Village at the start, you look at all that's here now, and you take out everything. 00:22:22.505 --> 00:22:24.588 You take out everything. 00:22:24.588 --> 00:22:28.281 And you keep only the places with stones. 00:22:28.281 --> 00:22:37.319 You can still see the stones and you keep only those places.And whatever is inside, you also take them all out. 00:22:37.319 --> 00:22:47.168 So my question is - what continued to draw you here if it was so simple and so humble here? 00:22:47.168 --> 00:22:52.165 The food. 00:22:56.127 --> 00:23:02.403 For me, it's more about "here". 00:23:06.539 --> 00:23:14.268 It's very simple for me - what brought me back here was the Vietnamese community 00:23:18.271 --> 00:23:24.777 Actually the meditation would not have brought me back here. 00:23:24.777 --> 00:23:32.826 The morning after I arrived, Thay came to see me. 00:23:32.826 --> 00:23:42.343 There were a few moments. Thay came to see me. We weren't not introduced to each other yet. He came up behind me, 00:23:42.343 --> 00:23:47.130 He put his hand on my back and pushed me towards the children. 00:23:47.130 --> 00:23:51.228 And he said to me, "Jean Pierre, learn to sing the songs in Vietnamese with the children." 00:23:51.228 --> 00:23:57.598 Like Linh Tue said, "I obeyed". 00:23:57.598 --> 00:24:08.843 The last day I was here, he asked me to sit down with him in front of the plum trees. The trees were already there by the road. 00:24:08.843 --> 00:24:13.104 He asked me, "What do you think about my village?" 00:24:13.104 --> 00:24:21.128 I said, "I think the people here need it. 00:24:21.128 --> 00:24:23.415 And you will have many people." 00:24:23.415 --> 00:24:29.263 So what made me come back was that. 00:24:29.263 --> 00:24:36.104 As Linh Tue said, Thay did not look like a monk. 00:24:36.104 --> 00:24:47.789 He wore trousers like everyone else, with boots, and a traditional Vietnamese (monastic) short robe. 00:24:47.789 --> 00:24:58.130 That was it. I did not encounter a monk. I encountered a man with a great deal of humanity. 00:24:58.130 --> 00:25:02.129 I don't know how to say it better. 00:25:02.129 --> 00:25:09.570 I felt it a very deeply. And of course he is Vietnamese, and that meant a lot to me. 00:25:09.570 --> 00:25:15.406 There you go. That was a motor for me - the Vietnamese community. 00:25:15.406 --> 00:25:20.891 That was my motor. As for meditation, it was a lot more difficult. 00:25:20.891 --> 00:25:24.512 The first week, my back ached. 00:25:24.512 --> 00:25:28.396 Just five minutes and I felt it was already an hour. 00:25:28.396 --> 00:25:30.355 So it wasn't great at all. 00:25:30.355 --> 00:25:38.099 I observed, yes I observed. But I told myself - impossible, I cannot do that! 00:25:38.099 --> 00:25:45.025 So it wasn't something that would have made me come back. 00:25:45.025 --> 00:25:57.203 Thank you. The pull of the Vietnamese community, the richness, the friendship, the gentleness, the creativity... 00:25:57.203 --> 00:26:06.909 Co Linh Tue, can you tell us a little what a typical day looked like back then? Was the schedule like how it is now? 00:26:06.909 --> 00:26:09.582 Not at all. 00:26:14.551 --> 00:26:19.648 Thay did not want to lose the Vietnamese culture. 00:26:19.648 --> 00:26:26.580 There were just Thay, and Sister Chan Khong who was still a lay person. 00:26:26.580 --> 00:26:29.931 We called her "Aunty Number 9". 00:26:29.931 --> 00:26:33.360 Thay and Aunty #9 did everything. 00:26:33.360 --> 00:26:42.638 The two of them did 200 turns an hour. Thay taught us how to meditate. He was there for the morning sitting. 00:26:42.638 --> 00:26:50.751 He held the stick of a meditation observer and gave us a smack if we fell sleepy. Like in the Japanese tradition. 00:26:50.751 --> 00:26:54.562 Let's wait and make sure the translator understood that bit. 00:26:54.562 --> 00:26:58.802 The Zen stick, for sitting meditation. 00:26:58.802 --> 00:27:07.807 Then we had breakfast. I'm afraid to say, it wasn't an abundant breakfast like we have now. 00:27:07.807 --> 00:27:15.076 We had broken dried bread that Sister Chan Khong asked for at L'Eclerc (supermarket). Out of date. 00:27:15.076 --> 00:27:25.309 It wasn't because Thay was poor. But they always, always thought of others. 00:27:25.309 --> 00:27:30.830 They sent money to help the writers, 00:27:30.830 --> 00:27:37.537 the elite of Vietnam, because for him the writers were the treasures of Vietnamese culture. 00:27:37.537 --> 00:27:44.380 Every month we prepared small packets to send to Vietnam. 00:27:44.380 --> 00:27:51.197 There was medicine inside so the families could sell them. 00:27:51.197 --> 00:27:54.046 To raise the children. 00:27:54.046 --> 00:27:58.909 Because in general the head of family was imprisoned by the Communist. 00:27:58.909 --> 00:28:04.432 So Thay wanted to help, anonymously. They didn't know who was behind it all. 00:28:04.432 --> 00:28:11.685 Actually I was still young and so hungry. One day I said, "Thay, I am too hungry." 00:28:11.685 --> 00:28:16.383 Because there wasn't enough to eat, right? 00:28:16.383 --> 00:28:20.563 We lived very very modestly. 00:28:20.563 --> 00:28:29.034 There was just one toilet in 1983. Only one shower that went with it. To take a shower one had to get up at 4 in the morning. 00:28:29.034 --> 00:28:37.638 But we were very happy to be by Thay's side. 00:28:37.638 --> 00:28:44.517 We were filled with happiness, with serenity, with peace. His presence captivated us. His personality. 00:28:44.517 --> 00:28:53.185 So that comes back to what you asked before - what was the motivation, the motor that brought us back here. 00:28:53.185 --> 00:29:05.953 Thank you. As Linh Tue had shared, Thay and Sr. Chan Khong said it wasn't possible to save everyone in Vietnam. 00:29:05.953 --> 00:29:20.903 They chose to focus their energy on the cultural personnels like the writers, philosophers, artists, the intellectuals... 00:29:20.903 --> 00:29:29.261 Thanks to these small medical packets; because it wasn't possible to directly send money; 00:29:29.261 --> 00:29:38.072 but the medicine was "hidden money" because they could sell it for money and buy food for their family. 00:29:38.072 --> 00:29:44.069 That sustained the people who were truly the treasure of Vietnamese culture. 00:29:44.069 --> 00:29:56.674 It was a part of all the activities of the so called social engagement for Vietnam of that time, the small packets of medicine. 00:29:56.674 --> 00:30:06.603 Yes the exile of boat people was very present at the time. There were many deaths on the South China Sea. 00:30:06.603 --> 00:30:12.385 Thay and Sister Chan Khong rented boats to save those people. 00:30:12.385 --> 00:30:20.138 They couldn't continue that work and had to come to France. They purchased Thenac in 1982. 00:30:20.138 --> 00:30:27.683 They continued their work in the spirit of saving the Vietnamese culture. 00:30:27.683 --> 00:30:40.189 The days unfolded a little like now. In joy, in gaity. 00:30:40.189 --> 00:30:45.274 Thay wanted us to practice in joy, not in suffering. 00:30:45.274 --> 00:30:50.783 Even if there was a great deal of suffering in our depth, 00:30:50.783 --> 00:30:57.184 because with the arrival of the Communists, many families including mine were broken. 00:30:57.184 --> 00:31:06.993 A lot of loss. Thay and Sister Chan Khong, "Aunty #9", did everything. 00:31:06.993 --> 00:31:15.358 Thay guided the walking meditation, tea meditation, Dharma sharing... 00:31:15.358 --> 00:31:18.166 Sister Chan Khong did everything 00:31:18.166 --> 00:31:21.912 the transport, cooking, shopping 00:31:21.912 --> 00:31:24.760 and even took care of the sick. 00:31:24.760 --> 00:31:32.254 When I caught a cold, I said, "Aunty #9, I think I'm sick." She said, "Oh, I will do the spooning massage for you." 00:31:32.254 --> 00:31:36.623 She took out the oil and a spoon and did spooning massage for me. 00:31:36.623 --> 00:31:40.221 She did everything! Spoon massage. 00:31:40.221 --> 00:31:55.913 Her and Thay did everything. It was only in 1988 that Sr. Chan Khong, then Sr. Chan Duc and Sr. Chan Vi. It was also a surprise for us. 00:31:55.913 --> 00:32:05.332 Three of us stayed back. Thay brought them to India. Before leaving they were lay and on returning they were in robes! 00:32:05.332 --> 00:32:15.424 Only from that moment on that Thay started to wear the long robe and receive monastic disciples. 00:32:15.424 --> 00:32:31.990 We have Shantum here and we will hear from him about the 1988 trip, when Thay started to have monastic disciples. 00:32:31.990 --> 00:32:38.123 It's such a shame because we don't have 5 hours to be together. 00:32:38.123 --> 00:32:45.021 And we will see a few glimpses into several periods of Plum Village history. 00:32:45.021 --> 00:32:51.240 To prepare the appetite ... I don't know how to say it in French ... 00:32:51.240 --> 00:32:56.989 To have a sense of appetite, for how we can have more conversations. 00:32:56.989 --> 00:33:01.893 Just to close this chapter 00:33:01.893 --> 00:33:12.252 Jean-Pierre, what was it that brought the greatest happiness to Thay? What was his greatest dream at that time, at the start? 00:33:21.010 --> 00:33:26.389 Hard to say. 00:33:26.389 --> 00:33:32.682 If I look back... 00:33:32.682 --> 00:33:35.970 If I look at Thay and I see him clearly, 00:33:35.970 --> 00:33:43.328 I see that his dream was only for peace to exist. 00:33:43.328 --> 00:33:46.499 Deeply 00:33:46.499 --> 00:33:50.829 And that peace could exist in each of us. 00:33:50.829 --> 00:33:53.047 That's very clear. 00:33:53.047 --> 00:33:57.884 That's what he has transmitted to us. 00:33:57.884 --> 00:34:03.134 Linh Tue had said that the days passed in joy. 00:34:03.134 --> 00:34:07.407 In songs. 00:34:07.407 --> 00:34:14.145 Even though the songs of bygone days are not the same as today, but that's nothing. 00:34:14.145 --> 00:34:31.278 Me, I am French. The French went to Vietnam and for sure didn't do only great things. But Thay received me as a child. 00:34:31.278 --> 00:34:36.082 He told me, "Sit down with the children." 00:34:36.082 --> 00:34:44.168 Today, I understand that it wasn't to learn to sing, but to learn peace. 00:34:44.168 --> 00:34:47.724 That's what I learned. 00:34:47.724 --> 00:34:57.803 Thank you so much. Thank you Jean-Pierre and Co Linh Tue. Can we offer flowers for our elder brother and sister in the community. 00:34:57.803 --> 00:35:02.608 Thank you so much. 00:35:02.608 --> 00:35:10.543 And I would like to invite Françoise and Shantum to come up to our "hot seat" or our "cool seat" 00:35:10.543 --> 00:35:15.969 for the next chapter, a little bit later in the 1980s. 00:35:15.969 --> 00:35:28.557 And maybe we can enjoy a sound of the bell 00:35:28.557 --> 00:35:48.326 [Bell] 00:36:01.317 --> 00:36:06.989 Thank you for being here. Maybe I will start with Françoise. 00:36:07.020 --> 00:36:13.650 In English if I may. So you came a few years on. 00:36:13.650 --> 00:36:18.170 What brought you here to Plum Village 00:36:18.170 --> 00:36:21.380 and what did you find when you got here? 00:36:21.380 --> 00:36:28.300 Ok. I'd moved in 79 to the Netherlands 00:36:28.300 --> 00:36:31.302 And I worked for the International Fellowship of Reconciliation 00:36:31.302 --> 00:36:36.315 And the general secretary at that time was Jim Forrest. 00:36:36.315 --> 00:36:45.366 From Jim I learnt about Thay because Jim was the one who had spent a lot of time with Thay 00:36:45.366 --> 00:36:54.167 in the 60s when Thay did all those tours in the United States to talk about the war in Vietnam 00:36:54.167 --> 00:36:57.036 the "American war" as it was known then, 00:36:57.036 --> 00:37:06.064 and the need for peace, saying - Vietnamese people did not want the war to continue, they want peace. 00:37:06.064 --> 00:37:12.210 It's not a question of Communism or Capitalism. They want peace. 00:37:12.210 --> 00:37:20.129 Jim, he passed away 10 days before Thay, that's interesting, 00:37:20.129 --> 00:37:27.391 he wrote a little book called "Eyes of Compassion", about all this period, which is very nice. 00:37:27.391 --> 00:37:32.591 I remember he came here in 82 actually, Jim, 00:37:32.591 --> 00:37:39.646 when he came back he said, or maybe in 83, 00:37:39.646 --> 00:37:47.097 he said, "I've just been to Plum Village where Thay is living. I think you should go. You might enjoy it." 00:37:47.097 --> 00:37:54.686 In 84 we had a council meeting, which is an international meeting. 00:37:54.686 --> 00:38:00.188 It was in the community of the Arc, which is not very far from here. 00:38:00.188 --> 00:38:12.182 We decided we needed a car to bring material. And I said, oh maybe we can make a little detour by Plum Village and... check what it is 00:38:12.182 --> 00:38:13.526 and so we did for three days. 00:38:13.526 --> 00:38:18.835 I was sold, basically. 00:38:18.835 --> 00:38:27.117 Jim had already given me a version of the 14 Mindfulness Trainings, the "Precept" at that time. 00:38:27.117 --> 00:38:31.963 Which began with "Do not" in all of them 00:38:31.963 --> 00:38:42.861 But, you know, having been brought up Catholic, it was not special or specific or ... 00:38:52.950 --> 00:39:00.240 spend time because the buddha used to go up there to watch the sun yeah it's mentioned 00:39:00.240 --> 00:39:06.830 that the buddha loved the sunset there also mahakashapa the first zen master was transmitted 00:39:06.830 --> 00:39:14.190 the awakening by the flower sermon but for thai he just even the last time he came he 00:39:14.190 --> 00:39:20.030 just spent the whole day in a hammock spending the enjoying himself so i think vulture peak 00:39:20.030 --> 00:39:27.200 has become a symbol of our our community in fact after his illness i think when we had 00:39:27.200 --> 00:39:33.480 our first gathering it is called the bulger peak gathering so when the transmission took 00:39:33.480 --> 00:39:39.680 place for me it was just i was just organizing but i think that moment of seeing the uh the 00:39:39.680 --> 00:39:45.050 hair being shaved of chiang kong of and you know uh stan annabelle and than men and then 00:39:45.050 --> 00:39:50.230 a few people taking the five of 14 trainings on interest it was very moving because for 00:39:50.230 --> 00:39:55.890 me it was like i could it was a very moving ceremony for everyone it was tears and it 00:39:55.890 --> 00:40:02.490 was but it was for me also it's just like that memory is very very strong so each time 00:40:02.490 --> 00:40:08.069 the monastics and others come and when thai came again and again every time everyone got 00:40:08.069 --> 00:40:11.780 reshaved and mrs gina being reordained in a way on the belcher peak and it's become 00:40:11.780 --> 00:40:18.339 a tradition of plum village and when we talk about plum village you know 40 years of plum 00:40:18.339 --> 00:40:23.339 village i don't see plum village only here for me this is my spiritual home but i see 00:40:23.339 --> 00:40:33.750 plum village on balcha peak and you know in the bay area and you know it's it's another 00:40:33.750 --> 00:40:37.430 dimension of plum village and so yeah i think 00:40:37.430 --> 00:40:42.970 to start the the monastic tradition for thai was very important but i think for us as lay 00:40:42.970 --> 00:40:48.650 people he gave so much he really i think put a lot of energy into us as lay people hoping 00:40:48.650 --> 00:41:00.510 that we would come up to whatever whatever that was and in the beginning you know there 00:41:00.510 --> 00:41:11.550 was very strong uh sort of energy of lay people but as the monastics started after this first 00:41:11.550 --> 00:41:18.520 monastic ordination and then more then slowly slowly that tradition became stronger and 00:41:18.520 --> 00:41:23.089 that was what thai word thai was a monastic he knew that the best and he was experimenting 00:41:23.089 --> 00:41:32.390 in the west with a lay thing which is culturally very different for him anyway so we we used 00:41:32.390 --> 00:41:40.080 to come and go you know so i think i think that moment of the monastic order starting 00:41:40.080 --> 00:41:45.890 on plum on vulture peak is very important for our history because when i see this 300 00:41:45.890 --> 00:41:56.210 years from now i see that's i i for me it's clear it's a fourfold sangha that's the charter 00:41:56.210 --> 00:42:03.540 of the tipian that's the revolution of thai is the fourfold sangha i mean the buddha said 00:42:03.540 --> 00:42:14.359 it too but it's not just high but it's very much so i think he's always encouraged us 00:42:14.359 --> 00:42:15.569 in that way 00:42:15.569 --> 00:42:22.130 yeah i'm sorry i don't know whether that's one answer but it's not the yeah it's just 00:42:22.130 --> 00:42:27.920 when you watch the sunset you know you're watching the sunset like the buddha watched 00:42:27.920 --> 00:42:34.690 and thai watched and you sit there for me it's always in the footsteps of thai it's 00:42:34.690 --> 00:42:39.829 i call it for such a buddha but i can see thai everywhere when i go on pilgrimage you 00:42:39.829 --> 00:42:49.610 know where he sat and i work out where buddha would have sat but i know where thai's at 00:42:49.610 --> 00:42:54.390 and where thai's you know had his which rock he sat under and how you know it's so he's 00:42:54.390 --> 00:43:00.890 imprinted in india and he's a child in india you should see some photographs actually i 00:43:00.890 --> 00:43:08.680 brought a photograph of him in india it's in your dining room that one which is with 00:43:08.680 --> 00:43:17.940 the mic with a broken mic i think he's like he was like a little child like meeting his 00:43:17.940 --> 00:43:26.790 teacher and his eyes would light up in each place he was like so i think here he was a 00:43:26.790 --> 00:43:31.030 bit of a sage you know after a while everyone saw him but there was even when he came last 00:43:31.030 --> 00:43:36.849 time he was like a young boy meeting his own teacher yeah thank you shantim and i would 00:43:36.849 --> 00:43:42.274 always say he was so proud of the book old pathway clouds because he felt he was able 00:43:42.274 --> 00:43:46.540 to give give back the buddha his humanity and so um through thai studies through his 00:43:46.540 --> 00:43:52.000 time researching in the libraries and through tai's own practice and being in community 00:43:52.000 --> 00:44:02.210 it became so important for him that the buddha is not a god but is really a human being and 00:44:02.210 --> 00:44:09.010 i think what all our speakers have shared so far is thai's own humanity and tai's own 00:44:09.010 --> 00:44:14.790 humility and joy that really came through thank you dear francoise and shantum we have 00:44:14.790 --> 00:44:22.329 i have to be a little bit vigilant with the time so these are just taster uh words uh 00:44:22.329 --> 00:44:29.500 thank you for sharing your hearts and your experience with us so we would like to offer 00:44:29.500 --> 00:44:34.480 you our flowers of gratitude and the conversations can continue as the retreat continues thank 00:44:34.480 --> 00:44:35.520 you so much 00:44:35.520 --> 00:44:43.190 thank you thank you [Music] so from this period of tai we have books like the sun my heart 00:44:43.190 --> 00:44:47.780 which is a very deep book and also the favorite of many of the monastics if you haven't read 00:44:47.780 --> 00:44:49.950 this one this is a wonderful book 00:44:49.950 --> 00:44:57.250 and then we have uh being peace and really the theme of peace in thai's writings so we 00:44:57.250 --> 00:45:05.809 would like to invite our next uh ones to come up first of all we will start with sister 00:45:05.809 --> 00:45:12.910 gina and steffy and then we would like to invite sister benim and bettina to join you 00:45:12.910 --> 00:45:14.839 so dears a ghost in muay 00:45:14.839 --> 00:45:23.309 so around the time that uh uh sister gina was coming and steffy was coming in the very 00:45:23.309 --> 00:45:29.550 early 1990s as we as we were here tai was really beginning to teach about the sutra 00:45:29.550 --> 00:45:32.760 on the full awareness of breathing so his first commentary on this is called breathe 00:45:32.760 --> 00:45:40.710 you are alive and it went on towards the end of the 1990s tai then offered a 21-day retreat 00:45:40.710 --> 00:45:45.910 on the 16 exercises of mindful breathing in vermont in the us and that book is called 00:45:45.910 --> 00:45:53.800 the path of emancipation so you get a sense of the sorry oh sorry this was in florida 00:45:53.800 --> 00:46:02.960 so uh you get it in key west so you get a sense of the uh the ripening of ty's teachings 00:46:02.960 --> 00:46:09.730 about breathing but maybe we would like to hear a little bit how sister gina appeared 00:46:09.730 --> 00:46:15.300 in plum village how did this happen and sister gina was already a monastic at this time in 00:46:15.300 --> 00:46:19.960 the japanese soto tradition so dearsoco how how did you get here 00:46:19.960 --> 00:46:25.839 part of the way on foot not by choice though 00:46:25.839 --> 00:46:40.010 um so i want yeah and which year was it yeah thank you 19 the first 21 day retreat in june 00:46:40.010 --> 00:46:41.010 uh 00:46:41.010 --> 00:46:47.020 1990 1990 yeah so yes um so i was already ordained in the japanese tradition and after 00:46:47.020 --> 00:46:58.270 three years in a japanese temple sotto school in japan and i had a great need to study the 00:46:58.270 --> 00:47:04.470 dharma more because my japanese was not enough not good enough to follow all the teachings 00:47:04.470 --> 00:47:11.460 that were given of course in japanese so i came to the west and somewhere in one of i 00:47:11.460 --> 00:47:18.150 visited certain centers and in one of the centers i found a magazine called the mindfulness 00:47:18.150 --> 00:47:19.520 bell number one 00:47:19.520 --> 00:47:28.200 yes and i opened it read it and i thought that's where i want to go and in it it was 00:47:28.200 --> 00:47:38.309 the announcements in a three-week retreat what was it what is psychology i think buddhist 00:47:38.309 --> 00:47:59.480 psychology in this place called plum village merak france so i registered and um i knew 00:47:59.480 --> 00:48:12.809 emme so i looked up and somehow i figured out i can't remember how that it was near 00:48:12.809 --> 00:48:21.200 eme which is not very far from here so that okay i'll just go to email and then i'll go 00:48:21.200 --> 00:48:30.309 to this place called mirak so i fly in bordeaux take a train you know end up in mma and then 00:48:30.309 --> 00:48:35.620 um realized there was no way there was no transportation direction mirak so i looked 00:48:35.620 --> 00:48:44.539 in the telephone book and i looked for plumbers from finnish property in oakland village so 00:48:44.539 --> 00:48:54.720 and then i looked at every entry and i then i found um buddhist initiation something something 00:48:54.720 --> 00:49:00.480 something so the unified buddhist church or something in french and i thought well i'll 00:49:00.480 --> 00:49:07.200 try that one there can't be many buddhist centers it it may just be that one so i called 00:49:07.200 --> 00:49:10.579 and um a friendly lady lady's voice let's put it that way answer the phone answered 00:49:10.579 --> 00:49:20.589 and i said well you know i'm on my way to plum village and i am in emme and how do i 00:49:20.589 --> 00:49:35.550 get to where you are and she said well you're not supposed to be there we only go to century 00:49:35.550 --> 00:49:40.099 i don't know where central is so she said sorry we have no car available so i said don't 00:49:40.099 --> 00:49:49.320 worry i'll walk and then she said well as soon as a car comes back we sent you away 00:49:49.320 --> 00:49:56.730 i said oh compassion [Laughter] and it was a very hot day i had a backpack not too big 00:49:56.730 --> 00:50:04.820 and i was started to walk and sometimes i get migraine when i haven't had enough to 00:50:04.820 --> 00:50:11.290 drink and it's very hot and i developed a migraine as i walked and every time i put 00:50:11.290 --> 00:50:21.160 my foot down it went in my head so i walked very carefully i mean you know the way i put 00:50:21.160 --> 00:50:31.980 my foot on the earth and i walked in and then a certain point i came to a tree and i thought 00:50:31.980 --> 00:50:40.290 i have to sit down it was very hot and i sat down and then a little beaten up uh cream 00:50:40.290 --> 00:50:47.510 renoka french car arrived and uh somebody opened windows and said you must be centered 00:50:47.510 --> 00:51:00.180 sister gina i thought oh saved [Laughter] so they turned around and then drove me to 00:51:00.180 --> 00:51:13.480 the lower hamlet here i was welcomed by an western sister and then we walked to um two 00:51:13.480 --> 00:51:20.119 roomers going to stay or something and she said i have to follow my breathing when i'm 00:51:20.119 --> 00:51:25.859 walking and i thought does she have a migraine too [Laughter] it was just the annabelle who 00:51:25.859 --> 00:51:28.160 welcomed me so 00:51:28.160 --> 00:51:36.330 a very very diligent um [Music] and very kind sister as i got to know her i mean i i am 00:51:36.330 --> 00:51:47.070 how did i say this i perceived her as a very kind and and diligent sister and i thought 00:51:47.070 --> 00:51:49.480 oh she's going to be a role model for me um yes so that was my arrival here and then towards 00:51:49.480 --> 00:51:57.730 the end of the 21-day retreat could you share a little bit about that retreat was it can 00:51:57.730 --> 00:52:04.599 you rem what was thai teaching was and how did tai seem when you met him because this 00:52:04.599 --> 00:52:11.730 would have been the first time you met him in person yes um so i was very impressed i 00:52:11.730 --> 00:52:15.619 wondered whether this teacher was touching the earth at all it seemed to be floating 00:52:15.619 --> 00:52:17.829 just above the earth and and 00:52:17.829 --> 00:52:20.480 what really struck me was that tyra's speaking [Music] 00:52:20.480 --> 00:52:24.460 using a very simple language for a very deep teaching 00:52:24.460 --> 00:52:32.520 and i realized i understand the words and i need to be careful not to think because 00:52:32.520 --> 00:52:36.180 i understand the words i have realized it and that there is a life of practice and looking 00:52:36.180 --> 00:52:44.020 deeply and things behind those words so that was my my my um first impression and a lot 00:52:44.020 --> 00:52:49.846 of gratefulness you know for a teacher like thai able to to teach in that way and this 00:52:49.846 --> 00:52:54.730 would have been one of thai's first retreats in english as well yes of course that i wasn't 00:52:54.730 --> 00:52:59.940 aware of [Laughter] here in plum village yes uh it was the first uh retreat in english 00:52:59.940 --> 00:53:55.690 and the first 21 day retreat um and many many people who've been here before many from different 00:53:55.690 --> 00:54:04.760 traditions also the japanese sotho tradition rinzai many many different traditions came 00:54:04.760 --> 00:54:08.859 together here to study with thai that also made me look ah because i only knew the subtle 00:54:08.859 --> 00:54:15.099 tradition and only the japanese from japanese so i thought well this teacher offers something 00:54:15.099 --> 00:54:22.440 obviously that many people are looking for and i don't mean to say all than to step over 00:54:22.440 --> 00:54:29.420 to to to the privileged tradition but to deepen or understand their own tradition they were 00:54:29.420 --> 00:54:38.600 in better yeah and so what struck you about the atmosphere that you found here then in 00:54:38.600 --> 00:54:45.470 1990 what what was i mean obviously we've heard the buildings were very very simple 00:54:45.470 --> 00:54:53.430 does not look like a japanese zen temple and what else struck you about that atmosphere 00:54:53.430 --> 00:54:57.230 here and what was different but also still zen yes 00:54:57.230 --> 00:55:01.720 it was the most diverse group i'd encounter on retweets 00:55:01.720 --> 00:55:09.240 and the atmosphere was one of i would not have called it at that time but sister and 00:55:09.240 --> 00:55:14.940 brotherhood a family you know yeah although from very different uh traditions uh different 00:55:14.940 --> 00:55:20.460 nationalities that never been to a retreat with so many different nationalities although 00:55:20.460 --> 00:55:26.220 the americans were i think very well represented shantam was there i thought oh india is here 00:55:26.220 --> 00:55:30.750 too is that oh india is here too yes i was very very impressed by um the diversity because 00:55:30.750 --> 00:55:38.039 i had not seen that before anywhere else yeah and so you left after the 21 day retreat no 00:55:38.039 --> 00:55:45.319 in fact i never left [Laughter] um i i had lived my life um moving from country to country 00:55:45.319 --> 00:55:52.490 i lived in 11 countries out of my own choice not because of jobs and things like that so 00:55:52.490 --> 00:56:01.460 towards the end of the 30 the three-week retreat uh one of the um sisters who lived there approached 00:56:01.460 --> 00:56:05.660 me and said it i said we should invite you to stay indefinitely i thought that's that 00:56:05.660 --> 00:56:07.280 word is not in my dictionary 00:56:07.280 --> 00:56:12.180 but we'll see so that was in 1990 i'm getting me close to indefinitely 00:56:12.180 --> 00:56:15.700 i'm still here quite close i'm still here and that is because um 00:56:15.700 --> 00:56:21.790 it is always new in some way or another or maybe i have learned through thai's teaching 00:56:21.790 --> 00:56:28.181 to look at all that is always new is never the same it's the impermanence maybe and the 00:56:28.181 --> 00:56:34.869 non-self i think those that teaching really um yeah spoke to me and speaks to me and is 00:56:34.869 --> 00:56:40.580 really expressed in the sangha that continues to evolve depending who is here and how the 00:56:40.580 --> 00:56:44.150 atmosphere is changed by the people that are here and so i think at the beginning of your 00:56:44.150 --> 00:56:46.950 era there were then the summer retreats that were more international with international 00:56:46.950 --> 00:56:53.369 guests coming to the upper hamlet yes right and the vietnamese guests were in the lower 00:56:53.369 --> 00:57:03.300 hamlet here really and so i think that was one of the few times when nuns were living 00:57:03.300 --> 00:57:04.520 in the upper hammond and then so hosting a very international diverse community uh up 00:57:04.520 --> 00:57:08.329 in the upper hamlet so then the two rivers we start to get the sense of different rivers 00:57:08.329 --> 00:57:11.220 coming into the community and that international river may be growing every summer 00:57:11.220 --> 00:57:12.220 yes 00:57:12.220 --> 00:57:15.020 and it has grown a lot that river and also 00:57:15.020 --> 00:57:21.480 when when you all arrived i think i said and i saw all of you i thought ty is so happy 00:57:21.480 --> 00:57:26.500 because um i don't think there's one person who can continue thai but as a sangha we can 00:57:26.500 --> 00:57:32.710 continue thai and and i also see the sangha is the most precious gift that thai has offered 00:57:32.710 --> 00:57:39.619 us yeah i'm very grateful so thai is very happy as always very happy to see all of you 00:57:39.619 --> 00:57:40.619 here 00:57:40.619 --> 00:57:46.809 thank you dears ago so we have steffi here sitting next to you and steffy you arrived 00:57:46.809 --> 00:57:53.789 at a similar time and would you like to share what kind of community you found in which 00:57:53.789 --> 00:57:55.109 year you came 00:57:55.109 --> 00:58:01.060 yes it's i just can relate to the to the sangha because margaret and i we arrived in the first 00:58:01.060 --> 00:58:12.030 time in september 93 and we just came here for one week and it was in september and tai 00:58:12.030 --> 00:58:17.740 was on a long tour in america so thai was not even here and what we encountered was 00:58:17.740 --> 00:58:29.500 a beautiful sangha and even sister gina was not here because he was in america um and 00:58:29.500 --> 00:58:33.320 i remember the the moment we arrived um helga from germany she was sitting in front of the 00:58:33.320 --> 00:58:38.260 person building where she was living together with her husband carl and she was very friendly 00:58:38.260 --> 00:58:45.850 and she received us very openly and and it was a small sangha and i remember as well 00:58:45.850 --> 00:58:52.120 when we we did uh we got an introduction for walking meditation by sister ellini she now 00:58:52.120 --> 00:59:00.319 lives in new hamlet and we were with the three of us just sister ellie margaret and i and 00:59:00.319 --> 00:59:05.650 she was teaching us how to do walking meditation and we walked through the forest and then 00:59:05.650 --> 00:59:08.859 in the middle of the forest we stopped there and we sang the song being an island unto 00:59:08.859 --> 00:59:12.740 myself and then i fall in love um completely with plum village after the first dharma sharing 00:59:12.740 --> 00:59:21.390 i think what really really touched my heart was that we bow to each other that was really 00:59:21.390 --> 00:59:26.220 a completely new experience to sit in a group and that someone really was deeply listening 00:59:26.220 --> 00:59:42.920 to me and margaret and i by the time we lived in a community in holland and we had a quite 00:59:42.920 --> 00:59:50.450 a challenging community life there and not so well listening to each other and we came 00:59:50.450 --> 00:59:58.670 to plum village be because we read an article in a dutch newspaper and the title was the 00:59:58.670 --> 01:00:03.510 village of peace in france and we thought oh that sounds good we really need peace so 01:00:03.510 --> 01:00:12.780 and then after this one week we decided this is a good place we want to stay here longer 01:00:12.780 --> 01:00:19.940 we want to be a permanent resident of plum village and so we organized our lives and 01:00:19.940 --> 01:00:24.380 we came back in the following year march 94 and we stayed on then for two years being 01:00:24.380 --> 01:00:33.030 part of the of the resident community of plum village and so at this time thai the community 01:00:33.030 --> 01:00:41.740 was very small just maybe a couple of dozen guests and a couple of dozen monastics and 01:00:41.740 --> 01:00:49.869 i think you were sharing earlier that everyone could fit in the small red candle hall for 01:00:49.869 --> 01:00:56.340 dharma talks or for meditations and so on and would you like to share a little bit how 01:00:56.340 --> 01:01:01.380 tai was teaching you at that time and something i would love to hear about what happened one 01:01:01.380 --> 01:01:05.470 day when you went to the upper hamlet for a day of mindfulness and something unexpected 01:01:05.470 --> 01:01:09.640 unfolded oh yes something very unexpected unfolded it was at the end of the winter retreat 01:01:09.640 --> 01:01:16.670 and i think it was a winter retreat 90 at the end of 1994-95 01:01:16.670 --> 01:01:22.580 and entirette asked us during the winter retreat very often please write letters i would like 01:01:22.580 --> 01:01:29.450 to know how the practice is going i need your feedback i need your feedback from my talks 01:01:29.450 --> 01:01:35.760 and he asked us several times and then quite at the end of the winter retreat we came up 01:01:35.760 --> 01:01:47.590 to the upper hamlet and the torque would take in the small transformation hole so not in 01:01:47.590 --> 01:01:54.960 the big hole so you can imagine that big was the winter retreat so we all fit it in in 01:01:54.960 --> 01:01:59.750 the transformation hall and then we entered the hall and it was a completely different 01:01:59.750 --> 01:02:09.500 setup all no cushions only tables with shares like in a school and i no it was it was an 01:02:09.500 --> 01:02:10.820 upper hand at margaret 01:02:10.820 --> 01:02:13.550 you would like to come sit next to me 01:02:13.550 --> 01:02:18.690 okay it was an upper hamlet and he was already in the room and on each table there was a 01:02:18.690 --> 01:02:26.400 stack of paper with a plum village mark on it very official you know and i was looking 01:02:26.400 --> 01:02:27.579 very seriously and he said so examination today 01:02:27.579 --> 01:02:32.099 and and then we all sat at the table it's a little bit um said okay there's a final 01:02:32.099 --> 01:02:35.559 examination after the winter retreat you have to sit down and then you write this examination 01:02:35.559 --> 01:02:39.010 take out your pencil it was really like a very very serious teacher and then we sat 01:02:39.010 --> 01:02:46.220 down and he wrote 10 questions on the white board the first was how is your sitting meditation 01:02:46.220 --> 01:02:52.410 how is your walking meditation how is your eating meditation how do you practice with 01:02:52.410 --> 01:02:58.320 strong emotions have you practiced uh beginning a new are you in harmony with the sangha so 01:02:58.320 --> 01:03:01.960 ten questions and we said oh you really could feel a very dense uh energy and then all in 01:03:01.960 --> 01:03:05.640 a sudden he turned around and with this really big smile he smiled at us and he said so uh 01:03:05.640 --> 01:03:08.820 you haven't wrote me a letter i have not received enough letters so this is now my way i need 01:03:08.820 --> 01:03:13.520 some feedback because my teachings depend very much on what you are sharing with me 01:03:13.520 --> 01:03:22.710 and so let's enjoy writing this letter to me and then he smiled and all in a sudden 01:03:22.710 --> 01:03:30.599 this energy of of being very serious with just one smile and one sentence he dissolved 01:03:30.599 --> 01:03:36.619 it and yeah you just could see that ty had a lot of fun uh by himself to have uh put 01:03:36.619 --> 01:03:43.250 us first in this place and then giving us this relaxation and and you did all have to 01:03:43.250 --> 01:03:50.829 do then sit there and actually do it yes we did it all and then and it took two hours 01:03:50.829 --> 01:03:57.349 or even three hours to answer all these questions and then and then in the next dumber talks 01:03:57.349 --> 01:04:01.869 he kind of gave us a feedback on what we had written and i know one friend she had written 01:04:01.869 --> 01:04:07.589 on the question how was your eating meditation she wrote my eating meditation is good and 01:04:07.589 --> 01:04:12.500 then i said in the summer talk okay listen this is not enough you can write that that 01:04:12.500 --> 01:04:17.070 the food is good and delicious but only writing my eating meditation is good that's not enough 01:04:17.070 --> 01:04:23.529 reflection [Laughter] so this is so wonderful because we really get the sense of a teacher 01:04:23.529 --> 01:04:29.319 really wanting to develop the practices and the way to train his students and so you're 01:04:29.319 --> 01:04:36.369 part of the kind of laboratory of teachings and practices as tai was developing all of 01:04:36.369 --> 01:04:42.020 the dharma doors that he was in the 1990s the particular way of walking meditation here 01:04:42.020 --> 01:04:48.869 in plum village the particular way of offering guided meditation which is one of the things 01:04:48.869 --> 01:04:55.630 that tai has really offered the west and didn't exist in the west before thai started to create 01:04:55.630 --> 01:04:59.130 these ways to combine key phrases with the breathing and of course a relaxed way of eating 01:04:59.130 --> 01:05:05.569 meditation that's not as rigid as in many buddhist traditions and so on so and i think 01:05:05.569 --> 01:05:09.890 tai was at this point also very excited in all the communication practices around deep 01:05:09.890 --> 01:05:16.069 listening loving speech beginning anew and also the peace treaty so i would like to invite 01:05:16.069 --> 01:05:21.230 bettina and sister binyum also if sister binyum you're still here wonderful to come up we 01:05:21.230 --> 01:05:26.950 can have maybe could someone help bring one more chair would be wonderful can we squeeze 01:05:26.950 --> 01:05:35.340 three in the sofa can we be cozy in the sofa bettina do you think you can fit in very intimate 01:05:35.340 --> 01:05:37.260 sisterhood you can manage okay wonderful 01:05:37.260 --> 01:05:44.130 you get the sense of the sisterhood spirit from the 1990s in lower hamlet 01:05:44.130 --> 01:05:52.069 so uh sister binyam would you like to share a bit about your arrival here to lower hamlet 01:05:52.069 --> 01:05:56.039 and what community did you find in which year 01:05:56.039 --> 01:06:03.480 well i first arrived in 1993 as a lee person in upper hamlet in summer retreat and was 01:06:03.480 --> 01:06:10.040 very very beautiful experience i fell in love with i fell in love with blood village right 01:06:10.040 --> 01:06:16.260 away i had met tai already in germany on a retreat that spring and i fell in love with 01:06:16.260 --> 01:06:23.230 it there already but then with the community here again yeah i just already when i met 01:06:23.230 --> 01:06:29.240 tai just from i don't know five day retreat i think it was i felt i want to be a nun and 01:06:29.240 --> 01:06:34.890 i can't be what isn't done you don't even know what a nun is you don't you can't say 01:06:34.890 --> 01:06:42.430 that but it was in me and i came here now wow the free the freedom the peace peace as 01:06:42.430 --> 01:06:53.390 freedom not freedom doing crazy things but the peace here and also sought away from civilization 01:06:53.390 --> 01:06:58.819 in a good way sort of not the stress and you have to like this and you have to do this 01:06:58.819 --> 01:07:03.200 but to live from the inside was very very very important to me 01:07:03.200 --> 01:07:12.230 i didn't become a nun right away because i didn't trust myself with this inner voice 01:07:12.230 --> 01:07:20.520 for a while but i came back regularly to plum village and to thai at that time came to germany 01:07:20.520 --> 01:07:24.529 every year so i came to retreat with thai and this deepened my practice my life for 01:07:24.529 --> 01:07:29.290 thai for plum village i had my own little sangha at home and at some point i knew yes 01:07:29.290 --> 01:07:50.720 i really want and i can trust that i want to be a nun and was in mulhat too with my 01:07:50.720 --> 01:07:54.460 mother who was old and sick i decided to stay with her and let go of that dream for the 01:07:54.460 --> 01:08:00.880 moment but it really developed or became stronger that i really trusted it well while i was 01:08:00.880 --> 01:08:07.650 with my mother four was a wish between but then it was yes that's what i want to after 01:08:07.650 --> 01:08:14.200 my mother died i came to plum village in december 96 and there we had just bought or blameless 01:08:14.200 --> 01:08:21.120 had just bought the new hamlet i've been used to the upper hamlet and the west hamlet and 01:08:21.120 --> 01:08:27.640 i almost stayed in the west hamill but everything was in the upper hamlet under linden tree 01:08:27.640 --> 01:08:37.270 and then i was in the new helmet that year was the first year of the new hamlet and no 01:08:37.270 --> 01:08:44.460 lay friends were allowed that time because the nuns should first nuns before when the 01:08:44.460 --> 01:08:49.600 lower hamlet should sort of find their their uh fight together again in this new place 01:08:49.600 --> 01:09:03.220 and well there were lots of things to do also i have one one not just the winter between 01:09:03.220 --> 01:09:15.140 sort of one year nearly a few months they're in the new hamlet just being on their own 01:09:15.140 --> 01:09:16.350 to to 01:09:16.350 --> 01:09:23.470 to become the new hamlet sangha and that was very good for me i could really be with the 01:09:23.470 --> 01:09:33.600 nuns right away otherwise i would have been with the lay friends and some where the nuns 01:09:33.600 --> 01:09:41.310 but so i could be there from the beginning 01:09:41.310 --> 01:09:49.980 so the the dawn of having of some plum village expansion um because i think there was um 01:09:49.980 --> 01:09:55.429 plum village was a little bit illegal at the beginning i think the paperwork in france 01:09:55.429 --> 01:10:02.860 was quite complicated and i think in the summer retreat of 2005-6 suddenly um i think lower 01:10:02.860 --> 01:10:13.700 hamlet was shut down and that is the origin to why new hamlet was bought because they 01:10:13.700 --> 01:10:20.920 had hundreds of people we heard those numbers from sister dinium hundreds of people coming 01:10:20.920 --> 01:10:30.600 for the summer retreat and it was illegal to have it here and there was an old i think 01:10:30.600 --> 01:10:39.571 it was some kind of children's home that was up for sale and they managed to find a donor 01:10:39.571 --> 01:10:45.760 to buy new hamlet so they could still have a summer retreat so it was a last minute purchase 01:10:45.760 --> 01:10:48.929 and that's the origin and then they took that opportunity of having different environments 01:10:48.929 --> 01:10:55.580 to then create a monastic environment there in the new hamlet and sistibenium as a aspirant 01:10:55.580 --> 01:11:02.940 to be was able to join that atmosphere and then here in the lower hamlet it became a 01:11:02.940 --> 01:11:10.390 lay community for a couple of years and so bettina i wonder if you would like to share 01:11:10.390 --> 01:11:14.890 a little bit about the effect of that here in the lower hamlet um so when the new hamlet 01:11:14.890 --> 01:11:21.290 was bought and all the sisters of laura hamlet has been invited to move to new hamlet the 01:11:21.290 --> 01:11:25.600 lower hamlet was a place where we could live together as a lay community for up to i think 01:11:25.600 --> 01:11:31.409 nearly two years 98 and there have been a german dharma teacher couple karl enter garidel 01:11:31.409 --> 01:11:36.550 who now was the indesign sangha in germany in design center and the vietnamese dharma 01:11:36.550 --> 01:11:45.080 teacher couple an huang tintri now fabloo and sister queen yem and also juan and and 01:11:45.080 --> 01:11:50.480 duke have been there and we yes the daughter and some other friends and so we've we were 01:11:50.480 --> 01:11:55.710 suddenly yeah in this situation to run the hamlet and it was a wonderful time because 01:11:55.710 --> 01:12:00.960 we felt a lot of trust from the community from thai to really make that possible and 01:12:00.960 --> 01:12:08.410 it was really wonderful to do and yeah on all levels worked together as a sangha and 01:12:08.410 --> 01:12:14.280 we had guests it was a normal life like in all the other hamlets with the two days of 01:12:14.280 --> 01:12:21.080 mindfulness and in the beginning very exciting the first mindfulness day the first christmas 01:12:21.080 --> 01:12:27.580 festival and all that and it was a day of a lot of a time of lot of learning and coming 01:12:27.580 --> 01:12:33.570 together and yeah giving a lot of empowerment and also beautifully in this time being together 01:12:33.570 --> 01:12:39.190 with a monastic community on these days and chai was often coming on lazy days around 01:12:39.190 --> 01:12:46.320 resting a little bit in his room and walking around and asking us when he met us are you 01:12:46.320 --> 01:12:47.320 lazy enough 01:12:47.320 --> 01:12:56.680 and we felt really good taken care by him by this question and showing up and yeah also 01:12:56.680 --> 01:13:05.560 like you said the community was so small in this time and we had not access to thai as 01:13:05.560 --> 01:13:12.770 not monastics but he was somehow he was very present and available and walking around and 01:13:12.770 --> 01:13:19.810 a little here there and a little how it's going there and 01:13:19.810 --> 01:13:30.740 yeah he even visited us on the chat visiting room thing it was climbing up persimmon up 01:13:30.740 --> 01:13:34.870 there and so it was a wonderful wonderful time this period and what would you feel with 01:13:34.870 --> 01:13:39.870 the kind of em the place the teaching that tai was highlighting most at this time what 01:13:39.870 --> 01:13:47.620 was he speaking about in the talks what was he guiding you all on i guess it's very very 01:13:47.620 --> 01:13:53.480 very personal of course what i choose to say now i think in this year there have been a 01:13:53.480 --> 01:14:02.100 lot of this basic practices like the sutra anapanasati and a lot of living in harmony 01:14:02.100 --> 01:14:05.940 together and we were not asked to have a test but we got sometimes homeworks i remember 01:14:05.940 --> 01:14:12.890 in this years like writing about what did you do when you had a crisis did you really 01:14:12.890 --> 01:14:20.800 take refuge into the buddha in you and the sangha or did you start to judge and do all 01:14:20.800 --> 01:14:35.590 these things so this kind and um for me it's it's the most i think through all these years 01:14:35.590 --> 01:14:49.280 of this big treasure of ty's teachings to embody always inviting us to embody what he 01:14:49.280 --> 01:14:56.520 was talking about like to really then practice beginning you or to really breathe when you 01:14:56.520 --> 01:15:00.750 are excited and so um yeah i feel very basic living in the moment living the teachings 01:15:00.750 --> 01:15:02.940 and also i've had a lot of 01:15:02.940 --> 01:15:13.530 relaxation you know this are you lazy enough it's for me also a sentence of this time of 01:15:13.530 --> 01:15:24.800 uh really we had a lot to do of course with the hamlet but the main thing was how is the 01:15:24.800 --> 01:15:32.590 energy you are doing things always coming back to what is your energy and how is your 01:15:32.590 --> 01:15:39.300 being and then to move out and do your activities i thought somehow it was very fundamental 01:15:39.300 --> 01:15:40.510 very basic very grounding 01:15:40.510 --> 01:15:49.620 a good a good memory to have the art of being peace and also while in action and sister 01:15:49.620 --> 01:15:54.940 binyum do you have similar memories of this time what struck you most about this special 01:15:54.940 --> 01:15:56.410 period in the 1990s 01:15:56.410 --> 01:16:08.360 well after one year i came to the lower hamlet sister gina had been come the abbas and 01:16:08.360 --> 01:16:17.100 it was no longer hamlet then was it two years from all i know it was 98 probably and then 01:16:17.100 --> 01:16:23.880 they were only 12 there i think they started with eight and then four of us came down came 01:16:23.880 --> 01:16:31.280 from new hamlet here and we were 12 and summer retreat people came it was full here and 12 01:16:31.280 --> 01:16:38.290 of us had to do several things not just pot washing but this and then that but i loved 01:16:38.290 --> 01:16:49.800 it very much it was very beautiful for me when you asked bettina what was the teaching 01:16:49.800 --> 01:17:07.190 there all of a sudden it popped up to me i mean thai i can't say i remember that when 01:17:07.190 --> 01:17:15.320 i came as a aspirant the first two winters tai was teaching the sutras that i know he 01:17:15.320 --> 01:17:23.989 just took the chanting book and and taught sutra after sutra and i remember that sometimes 01:17:23.989 --> 01:17:31.310 some in the middle of the suit were teaching he's talked about sister so-and-so doing this 01:17:31.310 --> 01:17:41.830 and that he always his teaching was very personal he never just taught a sutra but he explained 01:17:41.830 --> 01:17:53.110 then with the problem of a system it was very very applied sutra that unknown ties uh never 01:17:53.110 --> 01:18:02.690 we should never just study the sutras uh any texts if they don't apply to our life if we 01:18:02.690 --> 01:18:07.940 don't practice it there's no sense in knowing them and when you asked patina came up in 01:18:07.940 --> 01:18:09.139 me that at that time tai was sort of for a while 01:18:09.139 --> 01:18:13.969 advancing the idea that every not just every country but every big city should have a mindfulness 01:18:13.969 --> 01:18:16.920 practice center without monastics just lay people and that's when 01:18:16.920 --> 01:18:22.040 karl schmidt brought asked karen helga to leave plum village to come and he bought intersign 01:18:22.040 --> 01:18:27.310 center in germany and they are to this day the the dharma teachers of intersign that 01:18:27.310 --> 01:18:32.360 was they left here i think two thousand i'm not totally sure 90 i ordained in february 01:18:32.360 --> 01:18:47.290 98 i think they might have left 99 and i think worldwide it's the only one that at least 01:18:47.290 --> 01:18:58.830 that stayed longer but that was a big thing for thai at that time so tai is sort of developing 01:18:58.830 --> 01:19:03.870 the practices here in the community context and setting of plan village and then really 01:19:03.870 --> 01:19:10.350 inviting everyone to experiment back in their home towns and cities and i think the 1990s 01:19:10.350 --> 01:19:17.050 was also a period when a lot of sanghas started all over europe and all over the u.s so it 01:19:17.050 --> 01:19:21.750 was around this time that tai was teaching the heart of the buddha's teachings so from 01:19:21.750 --> 01:19:26.480 his research the elements that he felt were the most important for all his students to 01:19:26.480 --> 01:19:32.440 understand and this remains on amazon one of the best-selling buddhist books in in the 01:19:32.440 --> 01:19:35.710 english language 01:19:35.710 --> 01:19:38.920 and it was around this time we have the book uh touching peace the art of mindful living 01:19:38.920 --> 01:19:45.460 in community the book of the poems the gatters that you see posted around in the bathrooms 01:19:45.460 --> 01:19:51.690 and the bedrooms these are translated from the tradition and then really applied here 01:19:51.690 --> 01:20:02.190 in plum village this book is called present moment wonderful moment and there's a new 01:20:02.190 --> 01:20:10.719 edition of that out now and thai's kind of number one uh book next to the miracle of 01:20:10.719 --> 01:20:15.440 mindfulness peace is every step also came out at this time so there was really with 01:20:15.440 --> 01:20:19.170 the presence of the community around tai he's really exploring what would a community of 01:20:19.170 --> 01:20:21.960 peace look like and what would practices of peace look like 01:20:21.960 --> 01:20:27.910 so i think we're halfway through the books we wish we would have more time i have two 01:20:27.910 --> 01:20:36.420 more sofas of people i would love just to to bring up here and i hope we can get through 01:20:36.420 --> 01:20:43.450 everyone by dinner so thank you so much to our sisters lay and monastic from the 1990s 01:20:43.450 --> 01:20:48.719 thank you so much and i would like thank you yes flowers and gratitude for you all being 01:20:48.719 --> 01:20:59.630 here thank you so i would like to invite lisa renika and jesse to come up so we will fast 01:20:59.630 --> 01:21:06.520 forward a little bit uh through the 2000s [Music] and we will look at some of the ways 01:21:06.520 --> 01:21:13.659 that thai's engagement and socially engaged buddhism applied buddhism has expressed itself 01:21:13.659 --> 01:21:20.930 we will be cozy on the sofa this is an intimate sisterhood sofa 01:21:20.930 --> 01:21:32.321 maybe we can listen to a sound of the bell to refresh our hearts and our breathing and 01:21:32.321 --> 01:21:34.739 arrive into this precious moment 01:21:34.739 --> 01:21:35.739 [Music] 01:21:35.739 --> 01:21:41.860 so before this panel started i said it will be a challenge with the time you'll have at 01:21:41.860 --> 01:21:47.620 least three minutes maybe four or five but i think we're down to three so 01:21:47.620 --> 01:21:54.540 um lisa you are from jerusalem and you first encountered tai i'd i'm not sure whether it 01:21:54.540 --> 01:22:01.190 was when he came to israel um but if you would like to share a bit about his um powerful 01:22:01.190 --> 01:22:04.580 trip to israel in i believe 1997 and the impact that had 01:22:04.580 --> 01:22:12.080 thank you dear tai dear sangha it was remarkable 1997 he must have touched thousands of people 01:22:12.080 --> 01:22:17.610 in throughout israel we had a five-day retreat silent retreat that was really incredible 01:22:17.610 --> 01:22:21.330 to have a thousand silent jews for five days 01:22:21.330 --> 01:22:30.580 and as a result of his visit oh my goodness dozens of sanghas sprang out sprung up all 01:22:30.580 --> 01:22:36.350 over all over israel and practice very dedicated practices started all over the country that 01:22:36.350 --> 01:22:44.500 was 1997 and at the time i was a war correspondent for the boston globe working in jerusalem 01:22:44.500 --> 01:22:50.150 and i had covered many suicide bombings and months before they arrived one of the suicide 01:22:50.150 --> 01:22:55.429 bombings ended up with me feeling incredible love for this suicide bomber and i didn't 01:22:55.429 --> 01:23:02.890 understand why and when i met tai and sister chen kong sister chen kang explained to me 01:23:02.890 --> 01:23:09.851 that my heart had discovered its buddha nature so that was a revolution in my life and from 01:23:09.851 --> 01:23:16.740 then on i [Music] i left journalism and i became a peace activist and i helped to found 01:23:16.740 --> 01:23:22.010 a peace academy in a palestinian school in in east jerusalem which was a really remarkable 01:23:22.010 --> 01:23:29.020 experience and and time [Music] and then sister luke neem and brother fab lai and a few other 01:23:29.020 --> 01:23:37.830 monastics came to do a day of mindfulness with us in the school and then i saw what 01:23:37.830 --> 01:23:41.100 teaching really was and i saw how the kids who normally turned the classroom upside down 01:23:41.100 --> 01:23:46.870 or turned upside down themselves in a really good way and i realized that's what i want 01:23:46.870 --> 01:23:52.830 to do i want to i want to work with mindfulness with with they worked with all ages it was 01:23:52.830 --> 01:24:00.989 it was a drastic change from the way the school normally was and so i brought a team of palestinian 01:24:00.989 --> 01:24:07.850 of my students here to a wake up retreat a couple of years ago before before the pandemic 01:24:07.850 --> 01:24:17.990 hit and that was that was it that was so remarkable the first thing is palestinians are very much 01:24:17.990 --> 01:24:22.551 i think like the vietnamese they only want their own cooking so they took over the kitchen 01:24:22.551 --> 01:24:27.600 and they cooked for 500 young people from around the globe and they were received with 01:24:27.600 --> 01:24:32.040 such warmth um the monastics were so lovely they they set up our dinner underneath the 01:24:32.040 --> 01:24:36.340 trees the thai planted on upper hamlet and they had the musicians playing classical music 01:24:36.340 --> 01:24:40.170 and we ate maklouba it's called upside down we ate it in silence listening to this music 01:24:40.170 --> 01:24:45.750 and it was it was this massive prayer for palestine and for everybody and then at the 01:24:45.750 --> 01:24:50.420 end of the wake up retreat our palestinian youngsters uh were gonna dance their their 01:24:50.420 --> 01:24:56.190 debka their their national dance but none of them could dance you know so they stood 01:24:56.190 --> 01:24:59.560 there and they heard the music and they had the rhythm in them but they couldn't they 01:24:59.560 --> 01:25:03.830 couldn't quite get the steps out and so 500 young people from around the globe rushed 01:25:03.830 --> 01:25:11.560 the stage and jumped up and down shouting free free palestine free we you know we we 01:25:11.560 --> 01:25:20.760 can't change the world but we can change the world but we can dance for you thank you lisa 01:25:20.760 --> 01:25:29.080 for this beautiful testimony and tai um as some of you may know in 2003 hosted an incredible 01:25:29.080 --> 01:25:30.800 encounter with people from both palestine and from israel practicing deeply together 01:25:30.800 --> 01:25:36.360 for two weeks first separately and then after about a week or ten days of practice creating 01:25:36.360 --> 01:25:45.480 moments for the groups um to be able to speak to one another of their own suffering and 01:25:45.480 --> 01:25:53.540 i think a lot of the sort of interventions that tai has made at the international level 01:25:53.540 --> 01:25:58.090 around how dialogue is possible between warring parties comes from tai's work of compassion 01:25:58.090 --> 01:26:00.900 with the israelis and palestinians and lisa's continuing to work to bring more palestinians 01:26:00.900 --> 01:26:04.580 here every year and also coming this summer so this is one way in which thai's peace work 01:26:04.580 --> 01:26:11.700 uh is continuing and we're very happy to support you in that lisa thank you so much thank you 01:26:11.700 --> 01:26:18.880 so dear renika you would like to start about your share your journey um which i guess both 01:26:18.880 --> 01:26:22.570 your personal journey and then how your own practice has expressed itself in engaged uh 01:26:22.570 --> 01:26:26.730 action within the sangha and beyond thank you um the thai de beloved community um [Music] 01:26:26.730 --> 01:26:32.960 so this is a journey really that um started with both of us so it's really a journey of 01:26:32.960 --> 01:26:37.330 um both of our beginning of what i'm going to say and it started at plum village 2004 01:26:37.330 --> 01:26:42.500 and actually i remember the conflict resolution that happened and 2004 was like an exploration 01:26:42.500 --> 01:26:49.130 to oh meditation yes i've heard of meditation it's it's part of my culture but i'm not quite 01:26:49.130 --> 01:26:55.650 sure what that means because it was kind of lost because i was i grew up in england and 01:26:55.650 --> 01:27:02.600 there was not a lot of meditation going on there and the things that i did understand 01:27:02.600 --> 01:27:07.080 was um was kind of a bit mystic so i didn't really understand any of it so then i went 01:27:07.080 --> 01:27:14.130 in search for what meditation was and it's what brought me to plum village and um on 01:27:14.130 --> 01:27:18.860 that year i also um recognized that there wasn't many teachers that were not like from 01:27:18.860 --> 01:27:28.219 the east in the west and so that was kind of my personal journey really to kind of explore 01:27:28.219 --> 01:27:33.989 that side of practice and take that home really did speak to me in many ways um and so did 01:27:33.989 --> 01:27:38.440 a lot of the monastics and one of the monastics i'd like to mention is sister jewell kyra 01:27:38.440 --> 01:27:41.989 jewel she's now deroged and she's doing a lot of the practice and teachings out in the 01:27:41.989 --> 01:27:47.780 uh us and she was kind of like a mentor to me in a way that she really uh 01:27:47.780 --> 01:27:53.330 she kind of she had an eye on on on people like me let's put it this way and she asked 01:27:53.330 --> 01:27:58.300 she invited me to kind of speak about my practice and my trainings one of the five mindfulness 01:27:58.300 --> 01:28:03.230 trainings in the uk and it's not something i do it's this is really not me i do not do 01:28:03.230 --> 01:28:10.080 big presentations i'm pretty shy but it was it was an opportunity to recognize that this 01:28:10.080 --> 01:28:16.140 wasn't just me speaking it was for my ancestors and for the future generations like me who 01:28:16.140 --> 01:28:17.320 don't have access to this practice 01:28:17.320 --> 01:28:22.330 so that was my vision back in 2004 three and four and um there was many barriers really 01:28:22.330 --> 01:28:29.590 i mean i'm going to go and talk about the heart of london sanger is that okay okay well 01:28:29.590 --> 01:28:35.239 i'll just quickly say that um natasha was part of asanga at in london heart of london 01:28:35.239 --> 01:28:40.290 at heart of london sanger known as natasha then and we're very excited that she was going 01:28:40.290 --> 01:28:47.369 to become a monastic and we've we bid her farewell and here she is and um part of that 01:28:47.369 --> 01:28:54.150 entering the sangha in london was not diverse believe it or not even though london is a 01:28:54.150 --> 01:28:58.739 very diverse city it wasn't very diverse at all and it didn't feel like um a home it wasn't 01:28:58.739 --> 01:29:07.390 a home for me and one of the dharma seals as we've heard is i am home i have arrived 01:29:07.390 --> 01:29:17.040 and so i really wanted to create that in the sangha so it took um quite a lot of efforts 01:29:17.040 --> 01:29:23.510 and a lot of stops and starts and i i found a friend that was able to do that with me 01:29:23.510 --> 01:29:28.500 so i'm going to pass it on to jesse if we've run it out of time 01:29:28.500 --> 01:29:37.520 thank you yeah um we met at that retreat in 2004 here and actually at that retreat was 01:29:37.520 --> 01:29:47.310 one of the retreats where palestinians and israelis are invited to come and practice 01:29:47.310 --> 01:29:56.790 together and i remember i knew nothing about plum village and i saw that happening and 01:29:56.790 --> 01:30:03.730 i thought ah okay this is what i want i want something that's engaged with the world that 01:30:03.730 --> 01:30:12.770 can give me a path and yes we met here and um i think that um something that happened 01:30:12.770 --> 01:30:18.239 for me is that i had enough for various causes and conditions i had just enough awareness 01:30:18.239 --> 01:30:23.850 to realize what it what a challenge it would be um to be in the sangha um as such a minority 01:30:23.850 --> 01:30:31.590 in that environment and um and me and renika just clicked and we became very good friends 01:30:31.590 --> 01:30:37.960 and um she has built the colours of compassion sanger in in the uk and in the in the heart 01:30:37.960 --> 01:30:42.330 of london to really make a home and it's been a long journey where we we had many times 01:30:42.330 --> 01:30:46.460 of coming together not just us but us and others slowly slowly slowing in organically 01:30:46.460 --> 01:30:52.239 to build friendships and and to um build both awareness um with the with the white people 01:30:52.239 --> 01:31:01.530 in the sangha and just to slowly build that and i know we haven't got time to tell the 01:31:01.530 --> 01:31:12.060 whole story so i'm not going to go into detail but i think that um i really want to honor 01:31:12.060 --> 01:31:21.180 you because you've done something that i haven't seen anywhere else i don't know if it's happening 01:31:21.180 --> 01:31:28.750 anywhere else but so far i haven't seen in this tradition in europe which is to build 01:31:28.750 --> 01:31:35.370 that home where people can um just come and find their solidity to be part of this sangha 01:31:35.370 --> 01:31:36.720 in europe yeah 01:31:36.720 --> 01:31:41.860 veronica would you like to share a little bit about the joy of creating the colours 01:31:41.860 --> 01:31:42.860 of compassion sangha 01:31:42.860 --> 01:31:46.960 joy and colours of compassion are synonymous because um we practice in the um spirit of 01:31:46.960 --> 01:31:53.400 honoring our ancestors and if you have together we are one you'll book you'll see that um 01:31:53.400 --> 01:31:58.489 in that book there's many stories of people um who are not white sharing their stories 01:31:58.489 --> 01:32:08.000 of um healing from the hurts of of the oppression of the racial oppressions and um you know 01:32:08.000 --> 01:32:11.560 this is 52 of the population we're talking about so it's it's it was really honorable 01:32:11.560 --> 01:32:18.030 to know that things that we could have voices we could have that voice and also practice 01:32:18.030 --> 01:32:22.810 in the spirit of honoring and respecting our own root tradition alongside this tradition 01:32:22.810 --> 01:32:28.340 and it had many meanings and it's very eclectic it's not just one homogenous group so we have 01:32:28.340 --> 01:32:33.310 very many cultures and richness and times of celebrating our own practices alongside 01:32:33.310 --> 01:32:38.900 thai's practices so it's been very joyful to have the retreats that we did have in the 01:32:38.900 --> 01:32:47.070 uk led by um kyra jewell and we had three of those it was filled out and i do believe 01:32:47.070 --> 01:32:56.580 that when the first um bipod poc retreat happened um there was that was filled out to about 01:32:56.580 --> 01:33:05.440 500 people um in the u.s and it was all um approved i guess by tai he he really supported 01:33:05.440 --> 01:33:11.210 this practice he supported these um retreats he saw the um the amount of um healing that 01:33:11.210 --> 01:33:21.199 was taking place yeah thank you so much renika jesse and lisa so we hope that uh this very 01:33:21.199 --> 01:33:29.670 brief testimony um can also inspire many of us in our local sanghas to really see how 01:33:29.670 --> 01:33:35.530 we can support and empower the non-white members in our sangers to have safe spaces uh to really 01:33:35.530 --> 01:33:44.280 ask how we can be of support how we can trust and interest so that those spaces can take 01:33:44.280 --> 01:33:52.040 place and we hope here in plum village to be able to create more such spaces for people 01:33:52.040 --> 01:33:58.750 of color so that we really have the representation the diversity that is reflective of the world 01:33:58.750 --> 01:34:05.660 and so all of us can also and especially those of us who have been socialized as white or 01:34:05.660 --> 01:34:10.409 present as white that we have a chance also to look deeply and to really practice non-discrimination 01:34:10.409 --> 01:34:15.060 compassion and generosity from a real place of deep understanding [Music] of racial inequity 01:34:15.060 --> 01:34:19.650 in the world and that's part of our path as thai students and for me when we speak about 01:34:19.650 --> 01:34:22.239 this as a community i feel we're really honoring the legacy of thai's friendship with dr martin 01:34:22.239 --> 01:34:27.280 luther king so if we see ourselves as thai student this is also part of our work to do 01:34:27.280 --> 01:34:31.360 and to support so thank you so much to our wonderful sofa here present and uh we heard 01:34:31.360 --> 01:34:40.410 the we heard the dinner bell but if uh if you would like to return to your seats i would 01:34:40.410 --> 01:34:46.920 just like to introduce to you uli annika and dorote if you're still here dojote 01:34:46.920 --> 01:34:52.469 yes please just come up briefly and i would just like to to introduce you we wanted to 01:34:52.469 --> 01:34:59.060 show also the future of plum village and many of the directions where thai's work is going 01:34:59.060 --> 01:35:03.619 so we have anika representing the international wake up community dojote representing our 01:35:03.619 --> 01:35:11.139 happy farms which are organic vegetable farms that thai insisted we should start developing 01:35:11.139 --> 01:35:17.670 here in plum village and uli from germany representing our earth holder community uh 01:35:17.670 --> 01:35:23.980 and tai's teachings to bring uh love and peace and healing to the earth so i wonder if i 01:35:23.980 --> 01:35:28.830 can give you each one minute with the microphone and then we promise we'll go and serve our 01:35:28.830 --> 01:35:30.410 dinner so annika a few lines 01:35:30.410 --> 01:35:39.680 um dear tadia sanger one minute well maybe what i can say is that 01:35:39.680 --> 01:35:44.280 i'm probably not representing wake up i can only i'm happy to coordinate for wake up and 01:35:44.280 --> 01:35:49.260 to see that it's growing and flourishing that the pandemic has given rise to even more 01:35:49.260 --> 01:36:02.230 the river growing or becoming even stronger and wake up sanghas all over the world opening 01:36:02.230 --> 01:36:08.170 their doors to just everyone instead of just functioning locally 01:36:08.170 --> 01:36:15.611 i've seen lian in many online meetings who is now he's sitting here as an aspirant and 01:36:15.611 --> 01:36:22.690 is so engaged also with extinction rebellion and i think showing very beautifully the the 01:36:22.690 --> 01:36:27.600 spirit of wake up of young people who are happy to find belonging in a uh and empowerment 01:36:27.600 --> 01:36:32.989 through mindfulness through the practice um yeah who find a home in the practice as well 01:36:32.989 --> 01:36:39.960 as like-minded people who want to work and engage for a better world and i'm deeply grateful 01:36:39.960 --> 01:36:47.520 to tai and the sangha for having given rise to that and it's an honor to support this 01:36:47.520 --> 01:36:57.150 movement and i'm sad to grow out of it soon [Laughter] [Music] yes thank you thank you 01:36:57.150 --> 01:37:06.210 annika so ty started the wake up movement in 2008 in a summer retreat i wonder was anyone 01:37:06.210 --> 01:37:13.340 here in that summer retreat in that moment so you may remember this funny moment when 01:37:13.340 --> 01:37:19.710 tai insisted that some of us stand up and announce the creation of young buddhists and 01:37:19.710 --> 01:37:28.080 non-buddhists for a healthy and compassionate society and i had to say this so many times 01:37:28.080 --> 01:37:32.179 and then i had to read out this announcement and say the ybhcs which doesn't have the same 01:37:32.179 --> 01:37:38.750 ring to it as the ymca so so then we came up with the phrase the wake up movement and 01:37:38.750 --> 01:37:48.119 tai was inspired to do this as we heard from sister dinimum yesterday because tai had been 01:37:48.119 --> 01:37:54.630 working with young people since the beginning of his career as a monk and he knew that young 01:37:54.630 --> 01:38:00.780 people can practice meditation young people can practice mindfulness and that the aspiration 01:38:00.780 --> 01:38:07.230 of young people to be of service in the world when supported by a mindfulness practice can 01:38:07.230 --> 01:38:13.121 really help young people serve as a community as a collective and he did that in vietnam 01:38:13.121 --> 01:38:16.120 with the school of youth for social service and was experimenting with the wake up movement 01:38:16.120 --> 01:38:20.770 here in the west to see how young people can practice together to be seeds of change in 01:38:20.770 --> 01:38:24.100 the world so thank you anikaf and we have also jazz in the upper hamlet who on a volunteer 01:38:24.100 --> 01:38:28.580 basis have been supporting this incredible network of young people and we're so grateful 01:38:28.580 --> 01:38:33.910 to you annika for that and for doherty so a couple of years after starting the wake 01:38:33.910 --> 01:38:39.460 up movement tai wanted to see how we can have more young people in plum village and with 01:38:39.460 --> 01:38:45.880 the brothers he had the idea to create vegetable farms so that we can really come and have 01:38:45.880 --> 01:38:55.180 time healing with the earth our hands in the soil nurturing the seeds in the land so dojote 01:38:55.180 --> 01:39:01.260 one minute about the happy farms thank you sister um dear hall um i don't know really 01:39:01.260 --> 01:39:13.330 how to start um of course plum village doesn't wait the happy farm to manifest to grow food 01:39:13.330 --> 01:39:26.310 and to garden but i think we are also helping with the happy farm the monastic community 01:39:26.310 --> 01:39:36.350 who doesn't have the time as a gardener to spend so much time in the garden so that's 01:39:36.350 --> 01:39:43.600 also one of the aspects of the happy farm who started in her parliament in 2012 and 01:39:43.600 --> 01:39:51.219 i did my first retreat in 2013 and i fall in love with the practice and with the project 01:39:51.219 --> 01:39:57.849 of the happy farm i think at that time i see my first eggplant plant aubergine plant and 01:39:57.849 --> 01:40:06.360 i was so amazed and so amazed about yeah what what they share about this project is not 01:40:06.360 --> 01:40:15.099 obviously only about growing food but it's also um yeah the linked with all the the metaphor 01:40:15.099 --> 01:40:22.760 that we can find in thai stitching uh with the seeds you know is um yeah growing um nourishing 01:40:22.760 --> 01:40:31.300 ourselves and all yeah all the metaphors about nature that we can find uh on his teaching 01:40:31.300 --> 01:40:40.560 we try to um to be with those teaching in the garden i often uh tell myself that the 01:40:40.560 --> 01:40:45.360 the happy happy farm is my meditation hall because sometimes i miss uh some of the other 01:40:45.360 --> 01:40:51.989 activity with the sangha because yeah may and june are really um busy at the garden 01:40:51.989 --> 01:41:00.179 and i i really enjoy just knowing that the song i also is practicing and i'm i'm practicing 01:41:00.179 --> 01:41:05.460 um in the happy farm yeah it's also a place for transmitting and to inspired of um yeah 01:41:05.460 --> 01:41:12.340 from where come the food and maybe we can all start growing our own food in any scale 01:41:12.340 --> 01:41:19.659 and yeah that's for me so uh important and inspiring thank you thank you and what i i 01:41:19.659 --> 01:41:24.500 find fascinating is how tai was still experimenting with what a healthy community looks like and 01:41:24.500 --> 01:41:29.410 a healthy community grows its own vegetables in mindfulness and a healthy community is 01:41:29.410 --> 01:41:38.230 a place where young people can come and touch peace and touch meaning and i feel also that 01:41:38.230 --> 01:41:49.180 with the wake up movement and the happy farm thai was also seeing what he can offer the 01:41:49.180 --> 01:41:56.160 young generation who will face so many challenges ahead in the coming decades what are the skills 01:41:56.160 --> 01:42:04.710 the the physical skills but also the inner resilience and learnings that the young generations 01:42:04.710 --> 01:42:11.980 will need to survive the challenges ahead so i feel it's a great gift that we're experimenting 01:42:11.980 --> 01:42:21.830 with in the wake up movement and with our happy farms so thank you both and uli this 01:42:21.830 --> 01:42:30.380 is connected also to thai's teachings on the earth and thai gave so many teachings on the 01:42:30.380 --> 01:42:41.900 earth i have we'll just show some of the books that we may recognize the first one was called 01:42:41.900 --> 01:42:51.960 the world we have where tai really started raising the alarm bell he described the climate 01:42:51.960 --> 01:43:00.310 crisis as a bell of mindfulness in this book and then tai went further and said we need 01:43:00.310 --> 01:43:11.000 to fall in love with the earth and some of us may remember these teachings in 2011 2012 01:43:11.000 --> 01:43:20.220 and they became the book love letters to the earth and then more recently and the teachings 01:43:20.220 --> 01:43:29.490 that i gave to young people have become this book zen and the art of saving the planet 01:43:29.490 --> 01:43:39.010 where we also have all of thai's teachings on engaged action and ecology and thai's vision 01:43:39.010 --> 01:43:45.280 for how the young generation can protect our world so ali what would you like to share 01:43:45.280 --> 01:43:46.980 about the earth holder community 01:43:46.980 --> 01:43:51.989 first i want to share that i'm reading this book you mentioned the last and it's not only 01:43:51.989 --> 01:43:58.100 from tai it's also from sister to dedication she writes many interesting parts in this 01:43:58.100 --> 01:43:59.400 book it's very inspiring 01:43:59.400 --> 01:44:07.170 one motivation to leave my beloved teacher in the japanese center edition was that i 01:44:07.170 --> 01:44:13.720 could not uh combine this experience so like this like this like this i could not combine 01:44:13.720 --> 01:44:19.489 this meditation practice with my political activism i could not share it with my family 01:44:19.489 --> 01:44:25.500 and i could not share it with my students in the university and i was a political activist 01:44:25.500 --> 01:44:31.080 since i started with my studies but i was motivated by hate by fear and [Music] 01:44:31.080 --> 01:44:32.080 also filled with despair 01:44:32.080 --> 01:44:40.300 and to encounter ties teachings about activism in a different kind it inspired me a lot being 01:44:40.300 --> 01:45:08.440 active out of love being active and at the same time caring for yourself being active 01:45:08.440 --> 01:45:11.650 and not opposing someone not uh 01:45:11.650 --> 01:45:23.350 say you are guilty and i'm right no we are in the same boat and the ones who make the 01:45:23.350 --> 01:45:36.270 coal mines in australia i'm fighting they are in me and this is uh the poem 01:45:36.270 --> 01:45:52.330 of thai call me by my true names is the poem for every activist you have no opponent the 01:45:52.330 --> 01:46:41.540 opponent is in your heart and this is a very very deep teaching and i'm so grateful to 01:46:41.540 --> 01:46:49.520 have this teacher and to have a community that shares this concern for mother earth 01:46:49.520 --> 01:47:06.000 thank you thank you uli so if you haven't yet heard about 01:47:06.000 --> 01:47:31.580 the earth holder sangha or the gardian de la terre here in france they have 01:47:31.580 --> 01:47:56.119 a wonderful website full of resources and we're just starting in the last couple of 01:47:56.119 --> 01:48:07.650 years to develop earth holder groups here on in europe and there are many already in 01:48:07.650 --> 01:48:35.840 america and they do a lot of online activities which are wonderful to join discussions presentations 01:48:35.840 --> 01:48:57.909 and study study groups and it's a wonderful way to express our love for the earth as tai 01:48:57.909 --> 01:49:03.100 has encouraged us to do 01:49:03.100 --> 01:49:18.369 so voila we arrive somewhere through some kind of arc we've had a beautiful uh journey 01:49:18.369 --> 01:49:23.320 and we arrive to activism engagement and love for the earth thank you for being up here 01:49:23.320 --> 01:49:29.710 our final cushion sofa group you can return to your seats thank you so much and thank 01:49:29.710 --> 01:50:20.590 you everyone for your patience and generous listening we've had a journey along the river 01:50:20.590 --> 01:50:33.460 of 01:50:33.460 --> 01:51:33.980 the sangha and i hope you have felt the spirit of community 01:51:33.980 --> 01:52:23.889 that shines through the people that really make the sangha and of course there are so 01:52:23.889 --> 01:53:12.270 many ways to still tell the story of plum village maybe as many people as have experienced 01:53:12.270 --> 01:53:31.040 plum village that's how many stories there are so we're just presenting a brief glimpse 01:53:31.040 --> 01:53:54.750 of flavor of the arc of growth and especially as told by those who've practiced here in 01:53:54.750 --> 01:54:21.650 the lower hamlet so we will enjoy listening to three sounds of 01:54:21.650 --> 01:54:49.420 the bell to close our session thank you so much we can enjoy feeling feeling connected 01:54:49.420 --> 01:56:34.179 to one another and feeling enriched by everything we've heard 01:56:34.179 --> 01:56:56.360 as we enjoy these sounds of the bell 01:56:56.360 --> 01:56:56.860 you