Hello everyone, this is brother Phap Huu coming to you from Upper Hamlet Plum Village, France
Today is a beautiful day. It is spring I can see flowers blooming
Birds are singing I would like to take this opportunity to
update everyone on how the monastic community is doing over here in Plum Village as you
may know at the beginning of March we had to make a decision to close down the monastery for
the time being and not to receive guests.
We over here is a very large community. We have a household of
seventy members just in Upper Hamlet alone, and we need a time to meet
to put things into place to take care of our vulnerable elder brothers and sisters in our community
We have many members
We have young members as well as elder members and these elder members are our older brothers and our older sisters
which we value so much and we want to make sure that they are protected during this time
As well as all of us here. We are still humans and throughout this outbreak of the virus
We have been reaching out to our families. We know some of our family members are going through a tough time
And
There has been a lot of emotions a lot of feelings and as monastic we want to also be present for our family
so we have taken this time to call them, to listen as well as to a
Good, let them know that we are here for them
we have
been able to keep our practice schedule alive. We have been sitting as a
residential community
We have been listening to teachings from our dear Dharma teachers
We have been learning to take care of our feelings, our emotions
And as well as to be in touch with the beauty of life that is still present
here right now for each and every one of us.
We know that throughout the spring we have,
we were planning to have many wonderful retreats in Plum Village
as well as we were planning to go to many countries in Asia, Europe,
South America and North America to offer retreats to
All of you who have been organizing for our presence to share about the practice of mindfulness
Unfortunately, we had to also cancel all those trips
But we are doing this for the well-being of all and
throughout this time is also an opportunity for us to just reconnect with ourselves
during this crisis
We know that
Mindful breathing is a practice that helps us to come back to our
Stability to bring our mind home to this body
to recognize
How we are doing? What are our feelings we are having?
What emotion is rising and invite the energy of mindfulness to embrace and to
take care. This is something that is very basic
but it is something that all of us can be doing to contribute to the stability and the peace that
is very needed at this very moment
it is also a time to
stay still and to reflect and to connect to our loved ones
we in Plum Village
in their coming weeks we will
reflect as Dharma teachers and as monastic community in ways to continue to offer the teachings to all of you around
The world we know that
you are all there and we are so happy and as a member of
the spiritual Plum Village community
we would like to find ways to connect via online as
well as to continue to be offering content so that you could be encouraged in
practicing mindfulness, practicing compassion,
practicing stopping, practicing resting, and you can do that in your household. So please
look forward to this
please connect to our website at Plum Village . org as well as our YouTube channel and follow our
Pages on Twitter Instagram and Facebook
To get notification as well as we have a Plum Village app
that you can install on your smartphone devices and
use the tools that are there for you to establish a practice
for you and your family during this time
Once again, we in Plum Village we are here for you. We are continuing to keep our
meditation alive each day, and we will also be sending our energy of peace of stillness and of calm
To everyone around the world through this hard time
We know that you are there. So we are happy. So we shall also practice to be there for all of you
Thank you so much
Wishing you all
peace,
stability,
happiness and calm in this moment. Thank you very much