5.2 Plum Village –   www.plumvillage.org

Plum Village – the home of Thich Nhat Hanh – is located in south-west France, near Bergerac in the Dordogne valley. It is a residential retreat centre and home to many monks, nuns, and lay practitioners. It is made up of three hamlets: Upper and Lower Hamlets, which are about two miles apart, and New Hamlet, which is some eighteen miles away.  Other, smaller buildings belong to the Community, including the Middle Hamlet – between Lower and Upper Hamlets – and a separate building known as West Hamlet, near Upper Hamlet.

During the year, retreats are held at Plum Village and these are attended by practitioners from all over the world, contributing an international atmosphere to the centre. In particular there is a Summer Opening of four weeks held each year from around mid-July to mid-August. The three-month Winter Retreat (The Rains Retreat) is also a regular feature of the programme, taking place from around mid-November to mid-February. In addition it may be possible to visit at other times of the year in order to practise with the residential community and support the work of the Plum Village community.

Plum Village was founded in 1982. The previous practice centre, called Sweet Potato, was at Fontvannes, 95 miles south-east of Paris but this had become too small to accommodate all those who wished to visit. Thây had heard there was cheap farmland in the South of France so he and Sister Phuong headed southwards towards Aix-en-Provence. En route however, they suffered colds from the mistral (the strong local wind) and decided to move westward toward Bordeaux where it is less windy. Eventually they located a small farm of three small stone buildings at Thenac which Thây liked very much. This became the Upper Hamlet. They were joined by a Vietnamese friend who bought another farmstead near Loubes Bernac with arable land to support his family. This later became the Lower Hamlet.

Collectively the two hamlets were given the name Làng Hông which literally means Persimmon Village but, because the surrounding land was so good for growing plums, it was decided to transform this into Village de Pruniers – Plum Village. One thousand plum trees were planted in the Lower Hamlet fields and these have slowly matured over the years. In 1992 over six tons of plums were harvested, the proceeds from their sale going towards hungry children in the Third World.

Since its inception Plum Village has grown. Some forty monks and nuns are being ordained each year and more and more retreatants come to enjoy mindfulness practice in the peaceful surroundings. For instance, about one hundred retreatants attended the 1982 Summer Opening, but now more than a thousand visitors visit every Summer. This growth has necessitated the building of new accommodation and meditation halls in the grounds of all three main hamlets of Plum Village, to house monastics and retreatants, and to provide halls large enough for meditation and dharma talks. In recent years centres have also been established in the United States: Green Mount Dharma Center (for women) and Maple Forest Monastery (for men and couples) in Vermont; and Deer Park Monastery in California. Like Plum Village, these centres are home to monks or nuns ordained by Thây, as well as offering residential retreats (see details below).

Accommodation at Plum Village is simple and basic, with good vegetarian food. Retreatants sleep in dormitories of varying sizes in the original stone buildings or more modern additions. The West Hamlet, which is a short distance from the Upper Hamlet, provides more comfortable rooms especially suited to older retreatants. During the Summer many retreatants, in particular families with children, bring tents and camp in the extensive grounds. The daily programme varies during the week. On retreats, Thây will generally offer dharma talks on most days. He teaches in Vietnamese, English, or French, with simultaneous translation into these and several other languages as appropriate for those attending. Some retreats are conducted predominantly in English. Besides the teachings by Thây, each week will include a variety of meditations, discussions and celebrations. Retreatants are expected to contribute fully to the work of the Community which is a vital part of our mindfulness practice. Every week also incorporates a Lazy Day which is a day when everyone can relax and do as they like.

A Joyful Path – Community, Transformation and Peace by Thich Nhat Hanh and friends. Parallax (1994). A celebration of Plum Village compiled from the contributions of many members of the community. Fully illustrated.

Plum Village was created by Thich Nhat Hanh and some of his first monks, nuns and students, most notably Sister Chân Không. Below we offer a short biography of Thây and, on the next page, of Sister Chân Không.

Thich Nhat Hanh

Thây was born in 1926, in Nguyen Xuan Bao in central Vietnam, and he felt drawn to monkhood even as a child. Aged 16, he entered Tu Hieu monastery and received the name Thich Nhat Hanh – Thich is pronounced “tik” and is a family name that monks and nuns assume upon ordination. It does not, as commonly supposed, mean venerable or reverend. The name Thây – pronounced “tie” ­– means teacher and is commonly used by his students.

In the monastery, he underwent a thorough training in Zen and the Mahayana school of Buddhism. His teacher was a 41st generation Lin-chi (Rinzai) Master of the Lieu Quan School of Vietnamese Buddhism. Thây received full ordination in 1949 and a year later he co-founded the An Quang Temple in Saigon. In 1956 he was appointed editor-in-chief of Vietnamese Buddhism – the periodical of the All Vietnam Buddhist Association.

In 1959 Thây left Vietnam to study Buddhism at Columbia University in New York. But he was summoned to return home after two years to assist in the Buddhist peace effort. During the next few years he founded La Boi Press, and established Van Hanh Buddhist University in Saigon as well as the School of Youth for Social Service. This movement trained groups of Buddhist peaceworkers in rural areas. Increasingly it was oppressed by both sides as fighting in the Vietnam war escalated.  In 1964 Thây founded the Tiep Hien Order (The Order of Interbeing) based on the principles of Engaged Buddhism which emphasises social responsibility and peacework.

After a lecture tour of the US and Europe in 1965 Thây found himself exiled from Vietnam. He has not yet been able to return to his homeland, even to visit. He settled in Paris and established the Buddhist Peace Delegation. He was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Martin Luther King Jr in 1967. In the early 70s the Sweet Potato Community was founded at a small farmhouse near Fontvannes outside Paris. Later, in 1982, needing larger premises, the community moved to Plum Village in south-west France and it has continued to grow steadily. Since 1983 Thây has travelled widely, offering lectures and mindfulness retreats in many parts of the world, especially in the US and Europe. He has published many articles, poems and books on Buddhism, peace and related themes. He speaks fluent English and French as well as Vietnamese.

 

Sister Chân Không

Sister Chân Không (meaning True Emptiness) was born in a small Vietnamese village on the Mekong River Delta in 1938. Her family name is Cao Ngoc Phuong and many still affectionately know her as Sister Phuong – pronounced “Fong”. As a teenager she was driven by her compassion and Buddhist practice to help the poor and campaign for social change. In 1958 she enrolled in the University of Saigon to study biology but she spent much of her time helping the poor and sick in the slums of the city. She was also involved in political action, becoming the student leader at the University.

She first met Thich Nhat Hanh in 1959 and in subsequent years trained in the Dharma under his supervision. In 1963 she left for Paris to finish her degree in biology which was awarded in 1964. But her heart was in Vietnam, and that year she returned home and joined Thây in founding the School for Youth and Social Service (SYSS). She was central in many of the activities of the SYSS which organised medical, educational and agricultural facilities in rural Vietnam during the war. At one stage the SYSS involved over 10,000 young peaceworkers who rebuilt many villages ravaged by the fighting.

In 1966 Sister Chân Không was ordained as one of the first six members of the Order of Interbeing, embracing the Fourteen Tiep Hien Precepts newly formulated by Thây. She joined him in Hong Kong in 1968 and accepted his invitation to become his assistant in his international peacework.

From 1969 to 1982 she worked with Thây in Paris organising the Buddhist Peace Delegation which campaigned for peace in Vietnam. Since then she has worked with Thây establishing first the Sweet Potato community near Paris and then Plum Village in 1982. She accompanies and assists Thây when he travels. In addition, she has continued to organise relief work for those in need in Vietnam, coordinating relief food parcels for poor children and medicine for the sick.

Sister Chân Không ordained as a nun by Thây in 1988 on Vultures Peak, in India, receiving the name Chân Không. She is central to the organisation of the activities of Plum Village and continues to be an inspiration to many in the Sangha.

 Learning True Love – How I Learned & Practiced Social Change in Vietnam by Sister Chân Không. Parallax (1993). A remarkable autobiographical account of Sr Chân Không's life and work.