Plum Village France

Continuing my mindfulness journey, I decided to go to the south of France near Boudreaux to the Plum Village Summer Retreat.

Somehow magically my flight from Bangkok to France, bus, train and taxi connections all worked out perfectly except for the final leg where we had to get of the train because it didn’t run and wait for another one, extending an already very long journey. I finally figured out why everyone was standing around the train station… they wait for the track posting shortly before the train departs. Love the high speed trains!!

The Plum Village Monastery was founded by Thích Nhất Hạnh, a Vietnamese Zen Buddhist monk, teacher, author, poet and peace activist. Thich Nhat Hanh would be giving the Dharma talks in both English and French. His teachings are amazing and he has written over 100 books. Born October 11, 1926 he went to Princeton University and was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. At 87, soon to be 88, he did mindful walking with us every day.

Breathing in and out, concentrating on every step, kissing the Earth with your feet has a grounding and calming effect, I now happily walk to school every day "mindfully."
After each mindful walk we would sit in quiet meditation surrounded by the awesome beauty of nature.

Plum Village has several hamlets, or housing areas for monastics. Upper Hamlet and Lower Hamlet as the monks and nuns live separately.

I stayed at New Hamlet in a quaint hillside house, totally French chateau like. Amazingly I shared a small room and tiny bathroom with four other incredible women and yes, at the end of the week we were still smiling!

 It was a fantastic week and the vegan food was wonderful, even rising at 4:30 am for yoga and meditation was exhilarating.

As we looked at the beautiful lotus flowers we were reminded of the lesson that it cannot grow, bud and bloom into its full radiance without the mud... so similar to our life. Many Blessings and a candle-light Lotus for You!