Hello listening community. We have been relatively quiet here on the archive the past weeks and I want to provide an update. Following the Winter Retreat, our Teacher held a Monastic Retreat and a French Retreat. The monastic retreat is for the monastics only and the French retreat teachings were given in French and I have been unable to secure an English translation for the archive. If one becomes available, it will be posted.
At this point, our Teacher and monastics of Plum Village have traveled to Thailand to begin the two month Asia Tour where they will teach in Thailand, South Korea and Hong Kong. In all likelihood, these teachings will be given in English with consecutive translation into Thai, Korean, and Mandarin (respectively). I will be making every effort to provide these teachings as they become available. The first event begins on April 4 in Bangkok.
A lotus for you.
– Chan Niem Hy (Kenley)
Thank you for this information and for uploading Thay’s talks when you can. It is always a good experience to listen to him and to “breathe”.
Hello there, Many thanks for your update, much appreciated, have been trying to practice patience, but as you usually do give us the French Rt, found myself wondering today if maybe Thay was in fact poorly. Anyway I’ve been listening again to last year’s Spring Rts instead, also a set of Thay’s talks from the IP Rt in 2003, not heard before, wonderful. Have been meaning to ask you sometime, if it would be possible for you to add ‘Q+A’ sessions to your archives by category? Trish
That’s a great suggestion Trish. As I work to create the category, two alternative search result might work to capture most of them.
question answer
questions answers
Some duplication likely exists as well as some probably aren’t truly a Q&A session.
Dearest Chan Niem Hy, again I thank you so much for
your diligence in keeping us informed. I see that others feel this way, too!
I am very interested in Thay’s Asian tour, and anything you could send would be
appreciated. I’m interested in how engaged Buddhism is working in the world
today, particularly in China, North and South Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Burma and
Thailand. I’ve done some study on the history and current situations of these
countries. My study is concurrent with my relatively recent discovery of
Buddhism and my awakening to deeper understanding through Thay’s teachings. But
my study sparks some questions. Though I am aware of the western influence in
these nations, my questions may still be due to my own naivete, and this I want
to find out. Yet the questions remain: How have cultures that were basically
Buddhist for centuries come to the state of human rights abuse that they are in
today? – and – Are the few remaining Buddhists within these cultures working to
curb the current human rights abuses or to help the oppressed who are fleeing
their oppressors? By means of web search I can find Christian relief efforts,
but it is hard to find much public information on Buddhist efforts. I know of
Thay’s diligent relief efforts in Vietnam during and after the war. Are similar
things happening today? is there some place on the Plum village web site that I
haven’t found yet, that describes today’s efforts? Could you direct me to other
web sites that might help me with more understanding?
Because Thay’s retreats are attended by the privileged and educated few, I
wonder if his strategy is to reach those at the top – to help the privileged to
understanding because they hold the power for change in society. I do
understand the truth of “You are peace. The world is peace.” and in
the context of reaching those who hold power, to work with them makes sense. I
do see that there is a day for educators in Hong Kong, and for this I am glad.
Still, it is so hard to see the suffering of the masses, many of whom probably
have never even heard of Thich Nhat Hanh, much less to have the combined
opportunity and resources to attend a retreat. To my knowledge, many of them
don’t have a computer or even the electrical power to run it, and others are
denied access to you.. How can we reach/help these people? So please, please,
if any of you there at Plum Village could help to clarify how Thay’s Asian tour
inter -is with the plight of the poor and the politically oppressed of these
nations, spread the word of it!
For those of us privileged enough to have a computer and the power to run it,
and to live in a free country that allows us access, hearing what Thay says in
his talks within these nations, or transcripts of what he says would be
wonderful. Thank you so much!
Once again, to dear Chan Niem Hy and to readers,
After I wrote the previous message I found, for the first time, the ThichNhatHanhFoundation.org web site. I researched almost everything on it, and I found that our Foundation is indeed doing much in the way of humanitarian relief for some of the oppressed people I mentioned. It brings me joy to know this, and to become a part of the Foundation. If you haven’t been to the web site yet, I urge you to go there and see for yourself all of the outreach programs we support and the monetary aid we offer for the poor to attend retreats. I see much, much loving outreach.
(From this web site’s resource offerings I was also able to install the Mindfulness Bell clock on my computer, which is wonderful!)
I thank all of you.
Yay!