“I think therefore I am not really there…I am lost in my thinking…if I breathe in, I am alive” https://pagodasangha.org/2014/11/29/translation-of-thays-talk-francophone-educators-retreat/ see also https://plumvillage.app/introduction-to-practice-9-short-teachings-by-thich-nhat-hanh/ #PlumVillage #ThichNhatHanh
#plumvillage — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #plumvillage, aggregated by home.social.
-
This is a blog post about generosity and cynicism. It can also be read on my blog: https://teunvanson.eu/plum-village-cynicism/. Below is the full text.
=====================
Plum Village & cynicism
=====================This summer I spent a week at Plum Village, a Buddhist monastery in the southwest of France. And this place held up a mirror in a way that I didn't expect.
There are lots of ways in which this retreat changed me as a person, but here I want to discuss one specific thing that happened there. Plum Village made me realize that I have grown cynical.
Paradise
========It went roughly like this. I arrive at a beautiful place – an open area amid the farmland with a few buildings sprinkled around, and beside that mostly grass and trees. Everybody there walks calmly, slowly. People smile at each other. I learn where to pitch my tent, and I do, amid the trees to shelter it from the evening sun.
A bell rings. People stop walking. They stop talking. They stop everything and close their eyes. I do the same, although I'm not sure why. I later learn that this is to remind ourselves to watch our breathing and ground ourselves in the moment. Every bell – and there are many in Plum Village – is an opportunity to get back to the here and now.
We queue silently for dinner. The food is wonderful – wholesome, simple, vegan. I learn that the monastics practice 'eating meditation': eating mindfully, with full attention to the food, and with gratefulness to everyone and everything who provided the food. Eating slowly is difficult for me, but I'm was trying.
The next morning I get up and decide to do some farm work as my morning exercise. We get to pick tomatoes, and the smell of the tomato plant almost makes me cry. (That evening, these tomatoes would be served during dinner.)
We do everything slowly. The schedule is forgiving: 5:45 exercise, 6:30 sitting meditation, 7:45 breakfast, 9:30 walking meditation, 10:45 Dharma talk, 12:30 lunch, 14:15 deep relaxation, 16:00 Dharma sharing, 17:45 dinner, noble silence from 21:30. There's lots of time between each activity. In any case, most activities involve resting in some way – and all of them are done with ease and serenity.
The Catch
=========At a certain point I catch myself wondering: all the sisters in here are so peaceful. There is so much generosity. Life is so simple here. What's the catch?
I go through the options: Is there some kind of hyper-strict ideology behind this? Is this a way to lure people into their cult? Is it a way to make money? Perhaps they harbor a deep hatred for a specific group of people? Are these people secretly miserable?
My friends, the closest I came to finding a 'catch' is that they seem to have a dislike for spicy food.
In other words: **there is no catch**.
---
This realization made me dizzy. I realized how used I am to being skeptical of things that seem too good to be true. I was buried so deep into my cynicism that I couldn't recognize and accept generosity, kindness and happiness when it was right there in front of my eyes.
Why does genuine happiness have to come with a catch? I don't rationally believe that humans are incapable of true, sustained happiness. I have a generally positive view of human nature. Yet for days I couldn't see this place for what it was.
Cynicism
========Reflecting back on this, it's not surprising that I was so cynical. In my context – Western Europe in 2026 – cynicism is a survival strategy.
Bullshit is absolutely everywhere. Just outside my door there is a billboard cycling through ads telling me to buy Dior perfume, the latest Samsung phone (with AI!), groceries at *this* particular supermarket. Late capitalism, and advertising specifically, are waging psychological warfare on all of us to keep us ever wanting more, buying more, wanting more, buying more.
My municipality is advertising diversity and inclusion while gutting civil society organizations (particularly those with inconvenient opinions) and universities, and their police is happily using surveillance technology made in Israel. Activists are being raided, detained and processed like criminals while multinational corporations can keep polluting the air we breathe, the water we drink and the land we live on.
No wonder I'm cynical.
Interbeing
=========But one of the many things I've taken from my time at Plum Village is that you cannot be a force for change if your inner state is not peaceful. If you are unmindful, out of balance, at war with yourself, then whatever you try to do in the world is not going to have the effect that you want it to have.
The deep insight of Buddhism is that all things are interconnected. You are not just you, for you are connected to and co-constituted by your surroundings.¹
You may think that you can put away your stormy weather and work for a good cause instead, but interbeing teaches us that the stormy weather *will* manifest in the outside world. There is no separation.
This is why I think it is important for people who call themselves activists to pay attention to themselves and their own inner state.² **Not** as a liberal, individualist form of 'self-care'. **Not** as a way to focus on individual people's footprints, as BP would like us to do. But simply because inner and outer world are not separated.
That's why I want to fight the cynicism in myself *despite the fact that it is an understandable and reasonable response to my current situation*. It is a self-defense attitude, but one that hardens me and keeps me from seeing deep beauty when it presents itself to me.
Through softness, Plum Village held up a mirror and showed me my own hardened self.
----------
Footnotes1. Some even say that you *are* everything else, and there is no separation at all. In *Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet*, Thich Nhat Hanh (the founder of the Plum Village tradition) writes: "We are a human being, yes, but at the same time we are everything. Seeing this, we know that to preserve other species is to preserve ourselves. This is interbeing, the deepest teaching of deep ecology." The 'deep ecology' he refers to is an environmental movement spearheaded by Norwegian philosopher Arne Næss. While I think deep ecology is admirable and full of valuable insight, I agree with ecofeminist philosopher Val Plumwood when she criticized (in the paper Nature, Self, and Gender) precisely this 'all is one' aspect, arguing that it erases difference rather than engaging with it. It's not that everything is the same, but everything is *connected*, she argues. For instance, I am connected to the tree outside my window, and to my cat, and (to a lesser extent) to the plum trees in Plum Village, and so on. These connections are not just incidental: they make me who I am. But for these connections to exist, there need to be 'things' to connect to. Relationally constituted things, to be sure, not bounded and autonomous things – but things nonetheless.
2. According to Sister True Dedication (in *Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet*, p. vii–viii), Thich Nhat Hanh would sometimes say to his students: "Don't just *do* something, *sit there*!"
#PlumVillage #cynicism #bullshit #interbeing #buddhism #mindfulness #monastery #essay #blogpost #bearblog
-
Short and sweet blog post: elderberry-rhubarb jam, a day of mindfulness, and Seven Steps to Peaceful Living https://astoneintheriver.net/2026/08/23/a-quickie-2/
#mindfulness #buddhism #plumvillage -
A Quickie
Popping in to say hi. Hi!
What I’ve been doing:
So many elderberriesWhat James has been doing:
Elderberry-rhubarb jam, or elderbarb as we call it, our own invention.And yesterday James and I had a Day of Mindfulness at a local Vietnamese Buddhist Temple that practices in the Plum Village tradition as taught by Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh. There were several monastics visiting from Magnolia Grove Monastery in Mississippi.
It was a beautiful day filled with walking meditation, sitting meditation, eating meditation, tea meditation, deep relaxation, a dharma talk and sharing, and lots and lots of singing. So much peace and joy!
I thought I would share with you a little bit from the Dharma talk (dharma means teachings of the Buddha). Buddhists love lists–The Four Nobel Truths, The Five Mindfulness Trainings, The Noble Eightfold Path are only a few. I love lists too, so maybe that is one reason I enjoy practicing Buddhism so much. Heh. So here is a list!
Seven Steps to Peaceful Living
- Talk less, listen more
- Complain less, appreciate more
- Frown less, smile more
- Judge less, accept more,
- Think less, feel more
- Fear less, love more
- Watch (in the broadest sense of the word) less, do more
As Thich Nhat Hanh says, “There is no way to peace, peace is the way.”
May you all find and walk the path of peace.
#Buddhism #dayOfMindfulness #elderbarbJam #elderberries #peace #PlumVillage #sevenStepsToPeacefulLiving #ThichNhatHanh -
The Ten Gates Audiobook | Brother Phap Hai
https://www.hoopladigital.com/title/11712534
> online for free with your library card on Hoopla.
#Dharma #Interbeing #Mindfulness #Meditation #PlumVillage #BuddhaGang #EngagedBuddhism #RecoveryDharma #SanghaInTheStreets
-
A relatively recent talk at Plum Village on trauma informed care and mindfulness: "Trauma Sensitive Mindfulness & Plum Village practice (40 Years Retreat #4)" from the Plum Village app.
#Dharma #TraumaSensitive #TraumaInformed #Trauma #Interbeing #Mindfulness #Meditation #PlumVillage #BuddhaGang #EngagedBuddhism #RecoveryDharma #SanghaInTheStreets
-
“How the Great Zen Master and Peace Activist Thich Nhat Hanh Found Himself and Lost His Self in a Library Epiphany”
https://www.themarginalian.org/2026/06/28/thich-nhat-hanh-fragrant-palm-leaves/
-
“Many people suffer deeply and they do not know they suffer. They try to cover up the suffering by being busy. Many people get sick today because they get alienated from Mother Earth.
The practice of mindfulness helps us to touch Mother Earth inside of the body and this practice can help heal people. So the healing of the people should go together with the healing of the Earth and this is the insight and it is possible for anyone to practice." - Thich Nhat Hanh
https://plumvillage.org/about/thich-nhat-hanh/interviews-with-thich-nhat-hanh/the-guardian-uk-20-february-2012/
#Dharma #Interbeing #PlumVillage #BuddhaGang #EngagedBuddhism #RecoveryDharma #BelovedCommunity -
"We have constructed a system we can't control. It imposes itself on us, and we become its slaves and victims. We have created a society in which the rich become richer and the poor become poorer, and in which we are so caught up in our own immediate problems that we cannot afford to be aware of what is going on with the rest of the human family or our planet Earth. In my mind I see a group of chickens in a cage disputing over a few seeds of grain, unaware that in a few hours they will all be killed." - Thich Nhat Hanh
https://plumvillage.org/about/thich-nhat-hanh/interviews-with-thich-nhat-hanh/the-guardian-uk-20-february-2012/#Dharma #Interbeing #PlumVillage #BuddhaGang #EngagedBuddhism #RecoveryDharma #BelovedCommunity
-
“May we find ways to live more simply in order to have more time and energy to change the system of injustice that exists in the world.” - Thich Nhat Hanh
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/23/thich-nhat-hanh-how-to-eat_n_7115222.html
#Dharma #Interbeing #PlumVillage #BuddhaGang #EngagedBuddhism #RecoveryDharma #BelovedCommunity
#Metta -
The world’s largest collection of Thích Nhất Hạnh's teachings. All in one place and easily searchable.
-
Wow, I just learned about Living Gems, launched today:
It's an archive of nearly 3,000 teachings from Thay (Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh). This includes Dharma talks, Q&A sessions, guided meditations, and interviews. Many have never been digitized or published before, and have English, French and Vietnamese transcripts available or in progress.
-
"If there is Right Mindfulness, there must be Wrong Mindfulness. Wrong Mindfulness is where mindfulness is separate from the rest of the Eight-Fold Path. Where mindfulness is separate from Right Action or Right Livelihood." https://plumvillage.app/what-is-mcmindfulness/ #Dharma #Interbeing #Mindfulness #Meditation #PlumVillage #BuddhaGang #EngagedBuddhism #RecoveryDharma #SanghaInTheStreets @dharma @engagedbuddhism @bodhisattvaway @buddhagang @recoverydharma @plumvillage
@sanghainthestreets -
#KairaJewelLingo cites #PlumVillage wisdom: #Compassion is the best protection. When we...return to our bodies & allow ourselves to feel what has been unfelt, something shifts. We become more present. More human. Less reactive. Compassion becomes less an idea, more a lived protection. https://bit.ly/406mofC
-
Friends interested in mindfulness - due to the weather, "An Afternoon of Dharma Music & Stories with Plum Village Monastics" is now hybrid!
"[...]we will gather to nourish our collective energy of mindfulness through music, poetry, and storytelling. This session will feature songs and chants inspired by Thich Nhat Hanh’s teachings, interwoven with moments of quiet contemplation."
Sun Jan 25, 2-5pm EST
Zoom link 1 hour before start
https://PVJan2026.eventbrite.ca