Thich Nhat Hanh and the Order of Interbeing
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True Transmission by Thich Nhat Hanh Awareness of Suffering Dwelling Happily in the Present Moment True Love Guest edited by Mitchell Ratner A Publication of Plum Village Summer 2019 / Issue 81 $12USD/ €11/ £13/ $16AUD A Journal of the Art of Mindful Living in the Tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh Published by Plum Village Issue 81 Summer 2019 Advisor and Editor Sister Annabel, True Virtue Managing Editor Hong-An Tran-Tien Design LuminArts Proofreaders Leslie Rawls Diane Ronayne Dear Thay, dear community, Subscriptions & Marketing Heather Weightman When I first met Thay (Ven. Thich Nhat Hanh) in 1990, I was im- Coordinator mediately captivated by the presence, ease, and joy that seemed to Webmaster Brandy Sacks radiate from him, whether he was giving a Dharma talk or walking Caretaking Council Verena Böttcher in a park. I was then a relatively new practitioner of meditation Natascha Bruckner and mindfulness. Although by conventional standards I was doing Thay Phap Dung well, inwardly I had felt cut off from life, and I had often suffered Marisela Gomez from dissatisfaction, self-doubt, and anxiety. I felt that I could Thu Nguyen learn a lot from Thay. Looking back now at that moment in time, Alipasha Razzaghipour I believe I greatly underestimated the transformations that Thay David Viafora and the Plum Village practices would bring into my life. Volunteers Margaret Alexander Like the Buddha and the early Mahayana teachers, Thay Sarah Caplan had a clear diagnosis and treatment for the prevailing spiritual Barbara Casey illnesses of his time. He often calls what he teaches engaged Miriam Goldberg practice, or engaged Buddhism. In a 2008 talk in Hanoi, he Birgitte Moyer-Vinding explained: Kenley Neufeld When we speak about engaged Buddhism, we speak first Kristina Pleiss of a kind of Buddhism that is present in our daily life Cathy Ponte at every moment. When [people] hear about engaged Leslie Rawls Buddhism, they think of fighting for social justice, fight- Greg Sever ing for human rights, organizing demonstrations, and so Jessica Skyleson on. But that is not true. That is part of the practice, but Writing Submissions: Please send us the fruits of your not the basic part. The basic part is to have the practice practice. We welcome feature articles (no more than 1,500 words), alive in every moment of your daily life. You should essays, and stories, as well as poetry. We especially welcome submissions from young people. Guidelines are available at be there in order to attend to what is happening in the mindfulnessbell.org. here and now, in the realm of the body, the realm of the Art and Photo Submissions: We welcome photos, artwork, mind, the realm of environment. and cartoons from your local Sangha, family, and community. Please send digital images as TIF or JPEG files 1 MB or larger. Thay began writing about engaged Buddhism in 1954, We can return originals sent by mail. following the postcolonial division of Vietnam. Traditional rela- Send submissions via email to [email protected], tionships and ways of life had been shattered, and many people or by mail to The Mindfulness Bell, PO Box 5131, San Diego, CA 92165, USA. were pressured by communist and anti-communist ideologues. Thay’s teachings on engaged practice offered many people a Subscriptions and Advertising: The Mindfulness Bell Subscriptions, PO Box 5131, San Diego, CA 92165, USA or much-appreciated spiritual grounding and direction. [email protected], [email protected]. A decade later, in 1964, amidst the horrific suffering caused Website: Visit the online archive, subscribe, and view the by the destruction and ideological fervor of the Vietnam War, worldwide Sangha directory at mindfulnessbell.org. Thay created the Order of Interbeing (Tiep Hien) and formulated The Mindfulness Bell is published three times a year by Plum Village Community of Engaged Buddhism, Deer Park Monastery, 2499 the Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings. Engaged Buddhism took a Melru Lane, Escondido, CA 92026, USA. new form. In the Charter of the Order of Interbeing, Thay wrote, “The aim of the Order is to actualize Buddhism by studying, Donors to the Thich Nhat Hanh Foundation who have questions regarding their subscription may contact experimenting with, and applying Buddhism in modern life with [email protected]. a special emphasis on the bodhisattva ideal.” 2 Summer 2019 Thay ordained the first Order members, three women and Also included in this issue is a wonderfully rich Dharma three men, in February 1966. The growth of the Order, however, talk, “True Transmission,” which Thay offered on August 22, was interrupted by Thay’s advocacy in the United States for an 2001, at Deer Park Monastery. For me, an underlying energy end to the war and his subsequent exile from Vietnam. The next permeates the talk: Thay’s gentle encouragement to practice ordination occurred fifteen years later, in 1981, in the United wholeheartedly so that we will embody the living Dharma. Along States. In the following years, the number of ordinations grew the way, Thay explains that to be an Order member or a Dharma steadily, coinciding with the development of Plum Village mo- teacher is not about official ceremonies or brown jackets; rather, nastic centers, an expanding readership for Thay’s books, and a it is about Sangha building, mentoring, and finding freedom and worldwide proliferation of lay practice groups and centers sup- happiness in each present moment. porting the practice of engaged Buddhism. When I was ordained Reading through the articles that Dharma teachers, Order in 1993, there were about one hundred members of the Order members, and aspirants sent to us, I was impressed with the of Interbeing. Today, worldwide, there are about one thousand depth and sincerity of the writing. For them, mindfulness is not monastic members and three thousand lay members. a part-time practice; it is at the center of their lives. My hope is The Order of Interbeing and the Fourteen Mindfulness Train- that you, too, will be touched by Thay’s talk and each article, ings have continued through the years to be very dear to Thay. and that the engaged practice of the Plum Village tradition will The initial seed of this issue of The Mindfulness Bell came from enter more deeply into your everyday life. a request made by Thay in 2012 to solicit and publish accounts Many blessings, of his students’ practice of the Fourteen Trainings. Our call for submissions brought a robust response. This issue looks deeply into the practice of the Fourth Training (Awareness of Suffering), the Seventh Training (Dwelling Happily in the Present Moment), and the Fourteenth Training (True Love). Future issues will explore Mitchell Ratner the other trainings. True Mirror of Wisdom The Mindfulness Bell 3.