“The subsequent Buddha could also be a sangha,” Thich Nhat Hanh famously mentioned, and the apply of neighborhood was all the time central to his life and teachings. Dharma instructor Mitchell Ratner skilled the wonders, classes, and challenges of residing the conscious life at Plum Village.
“You shouldn’t have to apply intensively,” mentioned Thich Nhat Hanh. “Simply being in a sangha the place individuals are completely satisfied, residing deeply the moments of their days, is sufficient.” Photograph by Don Farber
In December 1990, I used to be amongst 2 hundred individuals who sat with Thich Nhat Hanh on the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. We listened to him learn poems from the Vietnam Battle years and replicate on his efforts to share with People the struggling induced in each international locations by the conflict. Then we walked silently, reverently, previous the Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial.
I used to be deeply impressed by the standard of his presence, the flowing calmness of his phrases and actions, and the exceptional impact he had on others. At a convention the day earlier than, I had heard him converse softly about love, anger, compassion, and discovering peace and pleasure in every step, in every motion. Discovering peace and pleasure in every second was a beautiful concept, however how may I weave that means of being into the material of my city American life?
When you’re alienated out of your roots, you search buddhas. When you’re in contact with who you actually are, you’re a buddha” —Thich Nhat Hanh
I didn’t have a solution to my query, however I knew at a intestine degree that I may study so much from Thich Nhat Hanh. Six months later I had the chance to ask him, “What subsequent?” He inspired me to return apply with him at Plum Village, his retreat middle in France, and in November 1991, I set off for a three-month winter retreat there.
Plum Village was then two farm complexes, or “hamlets,” about two miles aside within the Dordogne valley, an hour’s drive from Bordeaux. The area presents vistas of small farms and vineyards, gently rolling hills, historic châteaus, and picture-perfect clouds and sunsets. Every day life at Plum Village was pretty relaxed. Earlier than breakfast and earlier than retiring, the neighborhood gathered in meditation halls for an hour of sitting and strolling meditation and the studying of a brief sutra. Earlier than lunch residents did outdoors strolling meditation collectively for about thirty minutes, adopted by the ten conscious actions, a sequence of tai chi–like stretching workouts. Other than the silent meals, on most days the one different scheduled exercise was a piece interval of two to 3 hours. Twice every week, the hamlets gathered for dharma talks by Thich Nhat Hanh.
I used to be very completely satisfied to be in Plum Village. There have been so many fantastic issues for me to study! The best way I had been skilled to study was by means of learning, so I threw myself into studying Thich Nhat Hanh ‘s books late into the night time. I took notes and developed charts, glossaries, and Sanskrit phrase lists. I initiated discussions with superior college students in regards to the which means of key phrases like “vacancy” and “samsara.”
Three weeks after my arrival, Sister Annabel, then the director of apply, requested me after the night meditation if I needed to achieve one thing from my keep at Plum Village, one thing I may carry house with me. I assumed to myself, excitedly, “Right here it’s, my examine has paid off: Sister Annabel goes to go on to me the central organizing precept that can make sense out of all of it.” However her recommendation was not what I anticipated. With a slight tone of reproach she mentioned, “Mitchell, in all places you go ought to be strolling meditation.”
“After I take a look at a toddler,” mentioned Thich Nhat Hanh, “I all the time see her or him as a flower: recent, stunning, and open to the second.” Photograph courtesy of LANGMAI.ORG
I already knew about strolling meditation, within the sense that I understood the outer type. I had finished strolling meditation many, many occasions, however the import of strolling meditation at Plum Village had not but entered my coronary heart. What I hadn’t discovered was that the essence of Plum Village was not a philosophy or idea, however a means of being, a apply: to concentrate to the current second.
The behavioral ethic of the Plum Village neighborhood is to hold out every exercise mindfully, working calmly and giving it our full consideration—whether or not it’s reducing carrots, tying your shoe, strolling to the lavatory, or writing a letter. By appearing on this means, the whole lot we do turns into extra actual, extra genuine. At Plum Village I may see the transformative energy of this apply. The presence I had discovered so exceptional in Thich Nhat Hanh after I first met him was embodied, in various levels, by every of the monks, nuns, and long-term residents.
Plum Village was a spot of wonderment. Nevertheless it was additionally a human neighborhood—of monastics, residents, and guests of very completely different backgrounds, with completely different capacities and methods of embodying and expressing the non secular classes of Thich Nhat Hanh. Misunderstandings and tensions had been inevitable. It was simple to get caught up within the ongoing drama of who was doing what and why. It was particularly simple for me to get caught up within the drama when my emotions had been being harm, when others weren’t appearing or responding in methods I desired. After I was puzzled, harm, or confused, I generally questioned all that I had discovered at Plum Village. With out actually realizing it, part of me implicitly tied attunement to the current second, the teachings of the Buddha, Thich Nhat Hanh as an individual, and Plum Village as a neighborhood, right into a single conceptual package deal. I couldn’t separate the message from the messenger.
That modified one brisk winter morning throughout a keep in 1996. As Thich Nhat Hanh typically did, after his dharma speak he led the neighborhood in strolling meditation to an open area within the plum orchard. As a substitute of returning to the eating corridor for lunch, Thay took a number of steps ahead and repeatedly motioned for everybody to return nearer. The thirty of us within the circle moved in, little by little, till we had been carefully crowded round him.
He spoke softly, in English, trying instantly at us. “With every step you need to say: I’ve arrived. l have arrived. Whether or not your own home is in Washington or New Delhi, you need to come house to this second. You need to be right here with every blade of grass. That is nirvana. That is the dominion of God.
“You need to be your individual hero. Nobody else can do it for you. You want willpower. You want focus. That is the essence, the guts. The current second is a instructor that can all the time be with you, a instructor that can by no means fail you.”
“When taking a look at an exquisite sundown, in case you are conscious, you possibly can contact the sundown deeply.” Photograph by Don Farber
It was a rare second. Standing there within the orchard, I may really feel his willpower, his sincerity, his nice need to show this straightforward reality, as a bodily presence. When that vitality entered me, it melted the bonds that had held collectively the conceptual package deal of message and messenger. Out of the blue I spotted that I used to be free to belief the current second, wholeheartedly, unreservedly. I may belief wholeheartedly and nonetheless honor and embrace the hesitations I generally felt.
Though the belief gave me permission to have hesitations, in apply I had fewer. I discovered that I could possibly be extra tolerant of a perceived shortcoming as a result of I had much less driving on it. Conflicts arising out of cultural misperceptions, or thoughtlessness arising out of human frailties, could possibly be seen as simply that, not as threats. My peace and happiness didn’t rely on anybody in the neighborhood being excellent, a lot much less everybody. It got here as an incredible reduction to let go.
Many people who search for non secular consolation accomplish that due to the injuries we have now acquired. We would like a proof that we expect will make the unhappiness go away. One of many nice items of Thich Nhat Hanh and of Plum Village is to show us again on ourselves—again to our personal experiences, our personal lives.
Pondering alone can take us solely to this point. The disembodied mind can examine, distinction, and carry out logical operations, however with out an intimate consciousness of our lived expertise, we’re consistently batted about, vaguely or acutely dissatisfied, hoping to unravel with our heads that which might solely be solved by our hearts, heads, and consciousness working collectively. The start and finish factors of this non secular journey are splendidly captured in two traces from a chat Thich Nhat Hanh gave a number of days earlier than the directions within the orchard:
“When you’re alienated out of your roots, you search buddhas. When you’re in contact with who you actually are, you’re a buddha.”
Over time, I’ve regarded for and located methods to deliver the spirit of Plum Village house with me, to my on a regular basis life in an American metropolis. What helps me most are bells of mindfulness. Actual bells, reminiscent of from our grandfather clock, and metaphorical bells, such because the pink of a stoplight, gently remind me to return to the current second. Progressively there appears to be extra calm and steadiness in my life, a rising internal stillness.
Each on occasion, after I catch myself naturally falling right into a extra conscious means of doing one thing, reminiscent of being conscious of my ft and breath as I climb stairs, I smile inwardly to Thich Nhat Hanh. I acknowledge that his spirit has entered my stair-walking and that, as he taught, the boundaries between us are extra illusory than we consider them to be and the interconnections rather more actual.