0:05

Day 3, Sunday. Sondays

0:08

and Thursdays are days of mindfulness

0:11

and plum village. The whole

0:13

of the monastery gets together. Upper

0:15

Hamlet, where I was staying, lower

0:17

Hamlet and New Hamlet. The

0:20

day was happening at New Hamlet, so I'd

0:22

get to see Andrea, my savior

0:24

from the travel nightmare. And Letzia,

0:27

a friend from my home center in the UK.

0:31

I'd been joining the Sanger on Zoom since

0:33

I'd moved home so I hadn't actually met her

0:35

in person before. I always

0:37

find it a bit strange meeting someone

0:39

in person that you've seen so many times

0:41

online. An experience that I

0:43

was getting used to post pandemic as

0:46

we started to spend more time together in

0:48

the office. It

0:50

was a day full of practice, Beginning

0:52

with a dharma talk. A

0:55

dharma talk is a bit like a long sermon.

0:57

If like me you're from a Christian background,

1:01

The sermons I grew up with in a little

1:03

Catholic church in my village in Ireland

1:05

were not massively inspiring, I have to

1:07

say, It tended to be fifteen minutes

1:10

on whatever had annoyed the parish priest

1:12

that week. Dermatox were

1:14

different. They were funny. They were inspiring.

1:17

And they used stories to challenge

1:19

your assumptions about the world and

1:21

help to guide you through applying the principles

1:24

of the Buddha's teachings to your life.

1:27

It was energizing and uplifting exactly

1:30

what I wished the sermons I grew up with

1:32

could be. I remember

1:34

there was one priest, father, Carolyn, would

1:37

occasionally give mass in her village. He

1:39

always told stories from his childhood

1:41

that resonated, that made you think about

1:44

your life, Unfortunately,

1:46

this was the exception in my part

1:48

of Catholic Ireland rather than the rule.

1:52

The dharma talk led by one of the Manassas

1:54

six told a story about a Vietnamese king

1:57

called Transpacong, apologies

1:59

to Vietnamese listeners for the pronunciation.

2:03

He was a scholar king that wrote books

2:05

about Buddhism and his grandson

2:07

actually gave up the throne after

2:09

four hundred years of peace to become

2:12

a monk and focus on a spiritual practice.

2:15

Talk about letting go of your attachments. One

2:19

of his practices was to focus on

2:21

one of his senses every day. I

2:24

could imagine getting looks from people at work

2:26

if I was going around smelling everything, but

2:28

this was genuinely something that I was excited

2:31

to give a try. The

2:33

brother then discussed dharma doors,

2:36

ways that you can awaken your awareness

2:38

and gain insight into your life. These

2:41

are different for everyone that might be

2:43

contemplating a particular subject like

2:45

emptiness. It could be

2:47

something physical like yoga, or

2:49

focusing on one of your senses as

2:51

King Tranded. I

2:54

could cover a lot here, but

2:56

one other topic the brother discussed

2:58

was enjoying our normal life

3:00

just as it is and letting go

3:02

of strafing. We often

3:04

feel that we need to achieve more and

3:06

more in order to be content

3:09

that our happiness is somewhere in the future

3:11

once certain conditions are met.

3:14

But we find once we reach the

3:16

destination that it's not what we

3:18

expected, and the treasure map that

3:20

we've been following ultimately leads to your

3:23

chest full of disappointment. So

3:25

we get back in the horse and we keep on going

3:27

and going and going until

3:30

we reach not the end of the

3:32

road, but the end of our lives. And

3:34

we realized that we spent at doing things

3:36

that were supposed to make us happy in the future

3:39

instead of enjoying the present. It

3:43

was an interesting and entertaining talk.

3:46

The brothers are surprisingly relaxed

3:48

casual and approachable. I

3:51

was struggling to focus towards a end though

3:53

and slept well but felt sluggish

3:55

from the adjustment to communal life.

3:57

In my mind, I was thrown back to a Friday

4:00

afternoon geography back at the Catholic

4:02

school I'd attended. This

4:04

was a lot more interesting, but the human

4:06

mind can only focus for so long,

4:08

at least my human mind can only focus

4:10

for so long. After

4:14

the talk, we went for a walking meditation

4:16

with the monastic and other retreatments.

4:19

If you hadn't done walking meditation with

4:21

a sanger before, it can initially

4:24

feel a little strange. The

4:26

first time I came to a Plum Village Sangamo

4:28

meeting, I watched people walking

4:30

slowly in a circle and find it

4:32

slightly comical. It reminded

4:34

me of the monks in Monte Python and

4:36

Holy Grail. Dormies,

4:43

red, we whack.

4:46

If you don't know what I'm talking about, then look

4:48

it up. You can see it in YouTube. But

4:51

I quickly find that walking slowly

4:53

together as a sanger in harmony is

4:56

a wonderful experience, especially outside

4:58

in nature, focusing

5:00

your awareness on the souls of your fate

5:03

and printing peace on the earth, noticing

5:06

the changes in your body, was a

5:08

way to not just prune yourself in

5:10

the present moment, but to actually

5:13

achieve union with reality I'd

5:16

heard a story a long time ago about TikNat

5:19

Han, leading one of these

5:21

walking meditations in Plumb village, and

5:24

breaking into his sprint. The

5:26

image of an elderly monk sprinting

5:28

through the woods with a massive crow trying

5:30

to keep up with him was hilarious. But

5:32

as with everything he did, it had

5:34

a purpose and meaning, it's easy

5:37

for your mind to wander when you've been

5:39

walking for a while, not

5:41

on Tye's watch, Walking

5:44

through the Orchard shoulder to shoulder with

5:46

man and woman who had devoted their lives

5:48

to practicing mindfulness. And

5:50

spent a great deal of time with Ty.

5:52

I wished not for the first time that

5:55

I could have met on myself. I

5:58

ran into Natuzzi on the way back and

6:01

we lined up for lunch, a delicious

6:03

smelling lentil curry with rice We

6:06

walked over to the mean meditation hall where

6:08

the monastics and many of their retreatments

6:10

were eating, except they weren't

6:12

eating, and I suddenly remembered

6:15

that most of the time in retreat he waited

6:17

until everyone had their food before

6:19

he started. It just hadn't

6:21

happened yesterday as it was Saturday. As

6:24

we sat in silence in the hall, my

6:26

stomach growed loudly. I

6:28

had forgotten how difficult practicing patience

6:31

was with food, It had been a couple of

6:33

years since I was on retreat. Eat

6:36

me, he said the food. Eat me and

6:38

I am delicious. This

6:40

was Buddhism's only form of torture

6:43

or at least it felt that way to me.

6:46

Patience is not one of my stronger qualities.

6:49

And after what felt like an absolute age,

6:52

everyone had failed and and the

6:54

bell was invited. First,

6:56

we will read the five contemplation. The

7:00

bowl of food laughed. Literally

7:03

as we ate, the monastic shared stories

7:05

and thoughts in the practice. It felt

7:07

intimate, even in such a large

7:09

hole. The microphone was

7:12

eventually passed to the eldest sister,

7:14

a little old lady and a wheelchair entertia

7:17

in the manga with her experiences, but

7:19

most of all with her voice. She

7:22

sang songs with a surprisingly strong

7:24

Shirley Bossier style vibrato, while

7:27

gymnastics shared more food around the

7:29

grip, a tradition started by Tyme

7:31

and continued after his passing. We

7:35

had some time to relax before

7:37

the final activity of our day of mindfulness,

7:39

dharma sharing. This

7:41

in a nutshell is talking about

7:43

our experience of practicing mindfulness,

7:46

what you're enjoying, what you're struggling

7:49

with, and what you're feeling more widely.

7:52

If you haven't tried this, then I would highly

7:54

recommend finding out more. It's part

7:56

of a weekly sanger meeting and it is

7:58

credibly liberating. What

8:01

shared with the group is only for the group,

8:03

but before we started, we went around

8:06

and each of us gave one word about how

8:08

we were feeling, about settling into Plum Village.

8:11

Many people said that they were feeling anxious.

8:14

It really wasn't just me, Then

8:18

it was time to go. I said goodbye

8:20

to Letzia and Andrea and

8:22

gotten a boss to Oberhamlet. An

8:25

American I hadn't met before called

8:27

Seth, sat down next to me

8:30

and we introduced ourselves. Seth

8:32

was very interesting guy, an ex data

8:35

scientist. He was now a seminary student

8:37

living in California. We

8:39

talked about the experience of the reins retreat

8:42

and what had drawn us to mindfulness

8:44

in the first place. Both of

8:46

us had the experience of not being attracted

8:48

to organized religion, but also

8:51

feeling a need to nurture our spiritual side

8:53

to kind of secular spirituality.

8:58

Sales is a YouTube channel.

9:00

The link is in the description. And

9:02

we talked about the experience of writing

9:04

and putting content out there into

9:06

an unforgiving social media

9:08

environment. I'm talking to you,

9:10

Reddit, damn you guys can be harsh.

9:13

As the boss was pulling into Opera Hamlet,

9:15

the conversation had moved into the crisis

9:17

in young man and their radicalization

9:20

by so called alfa meals. We

9:22

prayed on their loneliness. We

9:25

picked up our stuff still talking

9:27

and stepped off. I had

9:29

the oddest feeling of having had

9:32

one conversation with someone someone

9:34

from a radically different background to me,

9:37

but knowing that we had somehow lived

9:39

parallel lives, if that makes

9:41

any sense, As we said

9:43

our goodbyes, I had the strange feeling

9:46

he was thinking the same thing. We

9:48

agreed to meet up with the tea house the next

9:50

day. I

9:53

had dinner with Ian, his partner, Heather,

9:56

and a few of the other retreatants that evening.

9:59

Ian was someone I had who facilitated the

10:01

become unhappy course with. We

10:04

both had a passion for trying to get more man,

10:06

practicing mindfulness, and

10:08

the idea of mindfulness triggering social

10:11

change. His partner, Heather

10:13

and I were meeting in person for the first time

10:15

at Plum Village, and she was easy

10:17

to talk with him very funny. She

10:19

was one of a small number of women in Oppenheimer's,

10:22

as it was only bookable by man and

10:24

couples. Having people

10:27

I already knew here was comforting and

10:29

took the age of my social anxiety enough

10:32

to get to know more of the folks at our dining

10:34

table that I hadn't chatted to including

10:37

Bausch, a Spanish farmer,

10:39

he was bunking in the upper part of my dorm.

10:42

Later, as I lay in bed with

10:44

ties back, heart of the buddhist teaching,

10:47

or hot pot, as I call it, I

10:49

thought Maybe I can do the

10:51

socializing thing. Nine

10:54

thirty arrived. Time for light sight.

10:57

And as I lay my hair down in the pillow,

10:59

I took an immediate express trendy sleepy

11:01

land. I fell asleep quickly

11:03

is is basically what I'm saying. Thank

11:06

you for listening, my friend. If

11:08

you're enjoying the Plum Village Dairy, then why

11:10

not become a patron? The link

11:13

is in the description and you can listen

11:15

to the next section of the diary. May

11:17

be happy, may be peaceful.