"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes."
-Marcel Proust
"Awareness is a mirror
Reflecting the four elements
Beauty is a heart that generates love
And a mind that is open"
-Thich Nhat Hanh
(taped next to the mirror in the bathroom at Plum Village)
I am only 25 and there´s a lot of the world I haven´t seen. That being said, I have never been to a physical place on any continent that is more in harmony with (what I believe to be) the natural state of human existence: goodness, mutual support, clarity, mindfulness, inclusiveness, joy and peace. To be clear, the monastery is not devoid of stress, disagreements and a touch of gossip, but it is filled with people, monastics and lay, who have become fed up with repression, revenge, and exclusivity and are dedicated to eradicating unskillfull reactions and mental states from themselves by the power of smrti (pali: sati, eng: mindfulness). Every individual´s primary concern is the cultivation of their own happiness and the happiness of every other individual. The fact that I was in the region and almost let the opportunity pass me by seems like a bad joke now. I remember thinking before I arrived in Plum Village but after I made plans to go, "Thay (pronounced Thai, means "teacher" in Vietnamese and is how Thich Nhat Hanh is referred to by members of the sangha) won´t be there, but it will still be wonderful to see the place he´s always writing about in his books and to spend some time with the monks." When I arrived it and then spent a couple of days there became, "The only thing that could make this place better is if Thay were here and if the lotus ponds were filled in." By the last couple days I began to see Thay in every smile of every member of the sangha, in every slow footstep of the walking meditation and realized that he had never left. The lotus ponds too were filled in, in the moments I looked with timeless eyes and saw that when conditions were sufficient the water and lotuses would manifest. Thay´s presence was especially tangible on his 84th "continuation day" (Thich Nhat Hanh´s replacement of "birthday" with "continuation day" is to emphasize that from the perspective of the ultimate, of nirvana, nothing is born and nothing dies, there is no coming and no going, there is no same and no different, there is no being and there is no non-being), the 11th of October, when many monks and nuns shared, in speech and song, their stories of Thay and their feelings of gratitude for his teachings and presence. Before giving an anouncement or talking in a "sharing" or in a dharma talk, every individual speaker began with "Dear Thay, Dear Brothers (and Sisters if the female monastics and lay people were present)", and addressing Thay in his physical absence went from being a formality to a reality in my mind.
Much of the sangha was away from Plum Village with Thay on his South East Asian tour, doing retreats in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, so there were fewer monks and lay people there than normal. At the start the lay crew of Linden Tree (the dorm where I slept) consisted of Michael (a very funny mid thirties German-Croat tea afficionado, who is considering becoming a monk and is happy he doesn´t have to give up his faith in Jesus to do it...he picked me up from the train station and was my tea master on mornings he was able to get out of bed on time, he had been at Plum Village for 9 months), Ansh (a quiet and mindful late twenties native of New Delhi who arrived the same day I did and has a competitive streak when it comes to ping pong and no trouble sitting in half lotus for hours at a time, and was also spending time at PV to see about becoming a monk...he was very willing to help me with India plans and to give me some advice), Philippe (a moody but sweet once-you-got-to-know-him early forties Frenchman with kind eyes and a good smile who helped me with my train ticket refund and is also considering becoming a monk), Sun (a mid thirties super nice and goofy Vietnamese Texan, no seriously, who works for an energy company in Houston, taught me a little vietnamese and came fig picking with me early one morning while it was still dark to get breakfast together for the sangha....he and I sat together in the meditation hall on the night of our arrival, he was staying for 2 weeks) and Martin (oh Martin haha, a generous, story telling, tea obsessed, good-hearted mid forties father of two from the Netherlands who informed us that the Dutch are so tall and fit because of mashed potatos and lots of greens...he was originally a little put off by the new arrivals but quickly warmed up to us, he gave me a ride to Paris last Friday and we shared some good words on the way...I feel like will see each other again some how some way). We were joined by a few others along the way, all of whom were fantastic additions save one, who arrived two days before we left and refused to speak to anyone or participate in any activities. Some people have strange misconceptions of what mindful living is and cling to those misconceptions even when reality smacks em in the face. But, I think we´re all guilty of that from time to time.
Other awesome characters include aspirants (those in the roughly year long trial period before becoming a novice and then a monk) Soogee (early thirties full of smiles and sillyness, but very genuine Indonesian who does finger dances to Dharma songs and who, like me, got his first serious sitting experience from the Vipassana Centers in the U Ba Kinh/S.N. Goenka lineage, and no like me can memorize a row of over 50 random numbers and recite them forward, backward, and sideways), Javier (the early thirties techno loving, beat making, totally ridiculous Belgian who I got to know well only on the last day but who made me laugh consistantly) and Stanislaus (the stoic yet loving middle aged and, I sense, deeply wounded Pollack, appropriately called a "big bear" at one of the sharings, who presented "Zeitgeist Addendum" for movie night...an odd choice considering where we were but everyone should see it at least once I suppose), and long term lay workers Stuart (a mid-thirties genuine, honest, humble and friendly green-thumb native of Edinburgh, Scotland with a troubled past...I don´t think anyone there was devoid of a troubled past haha...he and I worked in the greenhouse together--you can take the boy off the farm but apparently I wasn´t ready to give up the dirt...he had been there for 3 years save a month or so in Scotland each year and a short stint at a Cistertian monastery off the coast of Nice, which, ironically, I visited about five years ago) and other Stuart (late 20´s deep listening, pro smiler native of northern England who worked in the kitchen primarily and came to hang out with me while I played guitar on "lazy day"...he had been there for 16 months or so). David (a mid thirties Parisian pharmacist with a classic over-the-top French accent when he spoke English, who plays a mean game of ping-pong and with whom I took a couple walks by the vineyard at sunset), other David (an early thirties native of Brussels with a huge goofy smile he wore almost all the time and who accompanied me while weeding in front of the meditation hall during working meditation) and Patrick (early 60´s lighthearted Frenchman who originally was bothered by our tea time conversations as he wanted to sleep, ended up joining in full force after a day or so and told me that if I wanted to save my stomach in India, I had to eat French cheese, namely Camambert...spoken like a true Frenchman...but I humbly obeyed haha). I hadn´t planned on spending so many words on the people, but what´s a flower garden without the flowers?...some dirt thats what haha. Its amazing how close knit a group can become in only a few days.
The Basic Practice and a Day in the Life of the Upper Hamlet of Villages des Pruniers/ Lang Mai/ Plum Village:
Every time a bell rings in Plum Village, whether a clock chime or a singing bowl or the nearby church bells, everyone stops whatever they are doing, and in silence, takes three breaths and returns to the present moment. (As one of my many asides: If you have ever had trouble understanding, as I have, the paradox of the wave/particle duality of an electron or photon, listen deeply to a singing bowl rung by a Zen master haha...seriously though.) No two days at Plum Village are exactly alike and every Monday is Lazy Day (for which there is no schedule except for meal times, and on which you are encouraged to do as little as possible...but I liked doing some "lazy working" with Stuart in the greenhouse) and Thursdays and Sundays are "Mindfulness Days" where we are joined in the monastery by the nearby lay community for lunch and a dharma talk (these are the same days marked for public visitation at Deer Park monastery in California for anyone interested, I highly recommend it). What follows is the schedule for the other days of the week.
The wake up bell sounds at 5 am accompanied by chanting. On mornings when we got up fast enough we have a little tea ceremony in silence (since Noble Silence goes from 10 pm until after breakfast ~8am). I walk out of the Linden Tree and down the stairs to the walking path and a cold and still black morning illuminated only by the constellations in order to make it to the Meditation Hall by 5:45. I open the first set of doors all bundled up, slip off my shoes, enter the silent and spacious wooden hall through the second set of doors, over which there is stained glass (the same as at Deer Park Monastery in Escondido) of a lamp above three sanskrit words: smrti, samadhi, prajna (mindfulness, concentration, insight), bow toward the seated Buddha statue seen through the window at the other end of the hall, walk to my cushion, bow and sit. Our cushions face out from the center and there are windows at sitting level so we see the trees and the grass. At 5:45 the bell is rung three times and very beautiful chanting begins either in English, French or Vietnamese. We sit for between half an hour and 45 minutes, usually in silence, sometimes with some guidance "Breathing in, I know I am breathing in. Breathing out, I know I am breathing out." The bell is rung once, we open our eyes and bow and stretch our legs. The bell is rung twice, we stand, turn around, bow to the monks and lay people on the other side of the room. The third time toward the statue seated on the grass outside. We practice slow walking meditation for 15 minutes or so...in breath with the left foot, out breath with the right foot. We stop when we reach our cushions again. Next we "Touch the Earth" (a practice, which as far as I am aware, is particular to Thich Nhat Hanh´s form of Zen in which we prostrate three times in order to draw strength and stability from the earth and to humble ourselves as we walk the path of the Noble Ones, and as a side note: it is derived from the earth touching gesture the Buddha made at the moment directly preceding his awakening). We do this after being read a section of the five mindfulness trainings (Thay´s reworking of the five lay precepts, namely the avoidance of the unskillful behaviors: killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, unmindful consumption/intoxication and harmful speech) or some other related teaching of Thay´s to keep in mind during the ceremony and throughout the day. (Once it revolved around not supporting or investing in companies which pollute the environment, are involved in the killing of people or animals, or which benefit only the few while harming the many. Once it was about the mindful use of sexual energy. And another time about being grateful for the gifts of the earth and about mindfulness food preparation in order not to contaminate what would be consumed by others with negative energy.) We sweep off our cushions and silently exit the hall, bowing again before we walk out the doors. Next is about half an hour of stretching and a form of Qi Gong using bamboo staffs in the courtyard in front of the meditation hall. We are led by a monk who usually speaks so quietly the morning breeze makes it impossible to hear the instructions but it doesn´t matter cause we follow the movements and know that the first half of the motion is with the in breath and the second with the out breath. Some of the motions very clearly have martial application and I think this is a result of Thay having watched and lived through the Vietnam War, banishment from his own country because of his advocacy of peace and non-violence, the Civil Rights movement beside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., various brutal actions against South East Asian Buddhist monks by their respective governments, not to mention the near extermination of Tibetan Buddhism by the Chinese, and I think Thay has developed an appreciation for self defense and physical fitness, not in spite of but in addition to, inner peace and infinite compassion. (Aside: While Dao based Taiji and other arts already existed at Wudan mountain, many, if not most, forms of Chinese based martial arts are attributed to Bodhidharma, founder of the legendary Shaolin Temple and father of the Ch´an (skrt "dhyana", jap "zen") school of Chinese Buddhism in the 6th century C.E. It is thought that he taught the meditative motions as a way to maintain mindfulness while counteracting the physical stagnation of the long sitting hours of the monks.) We eat a silent breakfast in the dining hall after the bell is sounded, after which we have some time to straighten up our living quarters, talk to one another and take a nap if needed. At ten we have a get together of some kind in the Transformation Hall, either a "Happiness Meeting" or a study of one of the Five Mindfulness Trainings or a "Beginning Anew," all of which are very special. At 11:30 we gather beneath the great Linden Tree (an actual tree this time) in to sing songs in preparation for walking meditation. They are songs about dwelling in the present moment, being home in the here and the now, being a tree with deep roots, being happy with what we have, about being free...we sing in English "I have arrived, I am home, in there and in the now", French "Je suis chez moi, Je suis arrive, bien ici et maintenant," and even Vietnamese sometimes "?". My favorite of the English songs, partly because of the lyrics, but also because it had the prettiest melody of any of the English songs, I have decided to include:
Here is the Pure Land
The Pure Land is here
I smile and walk in mindfulness
I dwell in the present moment
The Buddha I see in an autumn leaf
The Dharma in a floating could
The Sangha body is everywhere
And I enjoy every moment
Breathing in, flowers are blooming
Breathing out, I am aware that
Bamboo is swaying, my mind is clear
And I enjoy every moment
One we have sung our fill, we walk at a slow but pleasant pace behind the leader for the day as he guides us through the forest path or around the lotus pond, pausing once or twice to look out at a pleasant view. After about thirty minutes, we stop and are led in the 10 mindful movements (see video included in previous post) before finishing the mindful walking and ending back in the vicinity of the dining hall. Lunchtime is sounded by the bell and eating begins only when every person has their food and is seated. The bell is rung three times to signal that everyone is present. We are told that "This food is the gift of the whole universe" and ask that we might use the energy it provides to help us overcome our afflicted mental states, especially greed, which is in the form of immoderate eating in this context. We bow to our food and to each other and practice mindful eating together for in silence for 20 minutes. We chew our food completely so that it is easier for our stomach to digest and attempt to experience our food with all six senses. We try not to take more than we need and we try not to waste. The bell is sounded, we breathe, and either finish our food if we have not already done so or stand and clean our dishes and take tea if we wish. We have two hours before "working meditation" at 3, in which we can rest or play ping pong :). Before working meditation we sing songs again and then jobs are chosen. Though I did not always enjoy working meditation as much as I could have if I had looked more deeply, I did learn some things. I learned from the weeds in front of the meditation hall that you must come at your deep rooted mental afflictions from multiple angles, because the take-no-prisoners-all-or-nothing-tough-guy-american-macho approach will only rip at the surface, leaving the roots intact so you have the same problem multiplied next Spring. The eight meter tall bamboo stalks spoke the words, "Make yourself able to grow in any condition," as I raked up the leaves they had shed on the path. I don´t know exactly what I learned from the bathrooms...shit happens?...not everything has a clear lesson. After working meditation we do seated meditation again in the big meditation hall. Dinner follows closely and we can either eat inside in silence or outside and chat if the weather is nice, and if we are satisfied with partially mindful eating haha. The rest of the evening is generally ours to do with as we please and is divided between discussions, stories, walks along the property and tea parties. Lights out is at 10.
I would love to share about the fog covered hills we passed as we walked down the road to the Lower Hamlet for Thursday´s mindfulness day, about the Venerable´s dharma talk (the focus of which was tea and the history of), about the realization I had during "Total Relaxation" in the Transformation Hall that the ego is not the enemy (but is rather a well-meaning friend who does not know that the majority of his services are no longer required and are in fact a nuisance, and for whom we must generate compassion and forgiveness), about the days of frustration and mental opaqueness that followed that realization (it is not uncommon in my experience to come up against a solid wall in the practice soon after an experience of breaking up and release), about what it felt like to play my guitar and sing "The only dream I have is to dream no more, to be satisfied, every moment is an open door...I abide in the light, I´m gonna keep on swimming with all my might, against the stream" in Plum Village, or the first time I rested my mind with no object (albeit for moments at a time), or the dull ache that arises in my stomach when I think about passing up the opportunity to participate in the new teacher training program, or about the two hour conversation I had with an American born monk sitting in the dark on the floor of the "Room of the Ancestors" in the back of a meditation hall on my last night, and many other experiences, but it has occurred to me that I cannot write about everything.
I hope you are all well. I am in Dresden, Germany now and will be heading to Berlin in a couple days. Will write again soon.
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