Plum Village

So I was just going to write about my day to day life here in plum village, but that didn’t seem to go the way I wanted it to. I think just writing about my details leaves out much of what I wanted to accomplish and what I got out of being here. We had lots of down time or time where we had “mindful cleaning” because the sisters needed to be somewhere else getting ready for the winter retreat. Plum Village is divided into three hamlets, lower, upper, and new. I lived in Lower hamlet for my two weeks, else then couples living together, I had only nuns and lay-women staying here with me. Upper Hamlet was a small drive to get to, and New Hamlet (I believe is women as well, but maybe smaller?) takes a nice walk to get to. On Mindful days (Sundays and Thursdays) all the Hamlet’s meet up together to have a Dharma talk, formal or informal lunch, and discussion. It was a great way to meet all of our brother’s and sisters, but at times I felt crowded as if there were too many people. Lower Hamlet alone (at least my 2nd week here) had 77 people.
Our daily schedule changed day to day. But for the most part, we woke up at 5am, were in the meditation hall by 5:30 (I always took my shower the night before, and for the first time in my life, laid out my clothes then too). Around 7am we got to exercise, but it was normally dark and cold (and with no indoor space available), I would skip and go back to bed to rest til Breakfast at 8am. Household delights were typically next, meaning we got to mindfully clean up our living spaces. Because of all the ceremonies, we had mindful cleaning next, personal time, lunch, personal time, walking meditation, DVD (on Thay’s Dharma talk recorded within the past few years), dinner, and free time til nobel silence at 9pm, and lights out at 10pm. Nobel silence lasted through breakfast the next morning. Notice the lack of sitting meditation, I would often work on this during my personal time.
This is my first retreat and my first real contact with Buddhism. I have gone to two other Sangha’s before, but never really got to experience them, or really learn how they did things. Here they really focused on being mindful. Being mindful meant that you were focused on your breathing, that you were always present and aware. Every time we heard a bell or the telephone rang, we would stop and focus on our breathing. Only after the chimes finished did we go back to what we were doing. So during walking, sitting, and eating we practiced being mindful. That also means, silence. We were also asked to obsever it during our work, but I’m not sure that happened as much as the Sangha would have liked.
I stayed in a dorm type room with 9 beds, but there was always one empty so 8 girls (including myself). The only bathroom was upstairs, as well as the only shower (thankfully they were in two different rooms). An extra shower and two bathrooms were outside by the barn, but it was often chilly and dark, so it was nice to stay inside.
The girls I stayed with were all great. One girl I got to know pretty well, and I liked talking with her because we shared a lot of the same views (or at least she understood me and could relate when I talked - maybe because we were both from America?) about Plum Village. I often didn’t express my overall feelings with anyone, if they asked what I thought about the Dharma talk or something else I would answer, but that was typically it. Me and her, Susan was her name, got to hang out during the afternoon on lazy day the first week, she was very helpful in many ways for my growth here at Plum Village!
Another girl I liked, Hyo-Jin, was from Korea. Her English was good, but not great in the since that sometimes she had a hard time understanding talks and what was going on, but she never complained. She was very helpful, and when I was sick (just a cold) she brought me breakfast and hot tea. It wasn’t just with me, but with everyone. One of the sweetest and most sincere people I have ever meet. I really enjoyed talking with her! As I am sitting here reading over this, Hyo-Jin is sitting on her bed next to me, and said that during yesterday’s Dharma talk she heard Thay (how we address Thich Naht Hanh here) say the word ‘gravy’. She asked me what that meant. I was so confused, I couldn’t think of time when I heard him speak of gravy, so she said “Wrongful gravy”, uhh.. I’m still lost. Then the other girl in the room, from Spain, said “Craving, I think she’s saying craving!” AHHH!! Yes, yes, wrongful craving! Hyo-jin asked me to type the word in her English dictionary and it all became clear to her. She finally said “Ohh, not the food! Craving!! Yes I see!”. Very funny .
The other girls were great too, I got to know many girls from across the globe including New Zealand, Finland, Norway, Australia, and Holland.
The night before last, Aletia (tia somehow makes the ‘sh’ sound, so her name is pronounced Alisha) threw a big party. I had some chocolates left from America and she had bought some when she was at a gas station, so we invited some people into our dorm and ate little bits of chocolate and shared our favorite moments at Plum Village. A nun came and joined us, and at the end we sang songs. I’ve never really been into the song singing thing at ‘religious’ gatherings. Granted, I’ve never been against em, I just kind of went with the flow. But this time, it was special, and I wanted to cry. I truly felt the words and kind hearts of the women in the room with me and was completely moved. I enjoyed every second of it, Thanks Aletia for organizing it!, and it became one of my highlights of the trip.
Hyo-Jin, as noted above, as been awesome! Me and Susan left together, but we left early Friday morning. She needed to make a certain train to Paris so she could catch her flight to Berlin later that day. We left around 6:45am, and Hyo-Jin, bless her heart, got up with us, waited for us to get in the car, helped us put our bags in, all of this in the freezing cold, and waved us off! She has racked up an insane amount of good Karma! I will truly miss her, and a part of me wishes to make a trip to Korea now so I can visit her (tee hee!).
Susan became a great friend too. I truly believe I’ll think about her from time to time through out my life. Very few people in this world do I really feel that I can talk to and connect with, and really have them just get it and understand me, and she was one of those few people. I’m so we left together, too bad we didn’t have the same train to Paris, but we did have from 6:45am til 10:30am to talk and be with one another. I wish her the best in life and really hope that we can and do stay in touch.
Paula was also another amazing person. I think I’ll miss talking to her the most, half because of her insight and kindness, and half because of her Finnish accent!! She’s a very sweet person and I’m really glad I got to meet her!

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